3 Favorite Mandolin CDs (not by Bill, David, Ricky, Sam & Chris)

[Marcus CA]

I'll second the votes for Natasha's Waltz, East Flatbush Blues, Gator Strut, and Appalachian Mandolin & Dulcimer, and add to the master list:

Butch Baldassari & John Carlini, Reflections
John Reischman, Up in the Woods
Sierra Hull, Secrets

[adizz]

Not being specific here but you can't go wrong with anything by Herschel Sizemore, anything by The Johnson Mountain Boys, and Mike Compton David Long-stomp

[craig.collas]

Andrew Collins -Little Widgets
Creaking Tree String Quartet-
Matt Flinner -Latitude
and a second vote for the Duo (Marshall & Anger) it changed my world view!!

[Amandalyn]

Mike Compton & David Grier- Climbing the walls
Nashville Mandolin Ensemble- Beatles, Bach, Bluegrass
Jimmy Gaudreau

[TMitchell]

1. Norman Blake, Directions.

2. The Bills, Let 'em Run

3. The Bill Hilly Band, All Day Every Day.

#2 and #3 are the same band, different incarnations. Canadian acoustic band with a cool mix of country, gypsy, cajun, and jazz.

[Michael Wolf]

The Helsinki Mandoliners



The Melonious Quartet



Hamilton de Holanda & Marco Pereira - Luz das Cordas

[cmateer]

All of the Lps listed up on here are great. It's just so hard to choose. Ronnie McCoury, Jethro Burns, Bill Monroe, it's impossible to just choose three LPs that define the best. So I've decided to just list some that I've been enjoying lately without setting any kind of "essentials" bar.

Lately for me, as a beginner entering advanced beginner/ intermediate status, these are the 3 I've been listening to lately:

1. Roland White: I Wasn't Born to Rock N Roll (I've also really been digging Jelly On My Tofu equally). Mr. White has quickly become my hero in the last couple of months. Tasteful, varied, and enjoyable without any pretense. A graceful master.

2. Punch Brothers at Newport Folk Festival 2010 (NPR Music download. Chris Thile busted his top G string on the opening notes and just kept going for the next hour +. Definitely worth checking out- and it's a free download!).

3. Doc Watson & David Grisman- Doc & Dawg. I had to put this on here just because it was one of the first cds I ever purchased that drew me really into appreciating the mandolin- even before I had any inkling to ever even think of picking one up to play myself. I also really love Live Doc and Bill Monroe too LP too. It's awesome!

[EdHanrahan]

Jimmy Gaudreau

YESSS!! "2:10 Train", with Moondi Klein on guitar, is an amazing interweave of two instruments & two voices. No bass, no nothing else; just continuously jaw-dropping!

[Fiddler3]

A 2nd on that "2:10 Train"! I'm waiting now on his new instrumental CD that was previewed here on the CAfe, "Pieces & Bits". I'm a thinking it will be on this list.

[John Duncan]

1. Darren Nicholson's solo release
2. Steep Canyon Ranger's Deep in the Shade (I love mike g's picking)
3. Mike Hunter's solo release (out of print) I have a copy that is a record to cd. Pops and crackles.

[Jason Kindall]

Gotta have Reischman, Flinner, and Marshall...

[Fiddler3]

I wondered about Darren Nicholson's solo when I saw Balsam Range at Starvey Creek this fall. There's 2 NC bands that are really good...Balsam Range and Steep Canyon Rangers, with some really good mandolin work on both. Good choices.

[Jim MacDaniel]

In no particular order, three of my most favorite mandolin CD's include:

ITM: Michael Kerry's The Rocky Road features Irish tunes and Irish-inspired original pieces in solo and mandolin/guitar duet settings

Classical: This CD of duets from Raphael Rabello (guitar) & Deo Rian (mandolin) is full of great music, including three Chopin pieces that translated very well to mandolin

alt.country/Americana: Jimmy Ryan's Lost Diamond Angel features a lot of nice work on acoustic mandolin and 5-string emando

[D C Blood]

One that has become a "cult classic" over the years..."Down Yonder" The Country Fiddlers featuring Wade Ray...What the title or the cover doesn't say is that it is Jethro Burns on mando, Homer Haynes on rhythm guitar, Sonny Osborne, banjo...bass? drums -who cares...The whole album is old familiar fiddle tunes. The fiddling is sorta "country slickee", but the mando, as might be expected, is absolutely some of the best ever heard, on tunes you didn't hear very often out of Jethro. Sonny's banjo is straight and smooth. Highly recommended...

[Tbone]

One that has become a "cult classic" over the years..."Down Yonder" The Country Fiddlers featuring Wade Ray...What the title or the cover doesn't say is that it is Jethro Burns on mando, Homer Haynes on rhythm guitar, Sonny Osborne, banjo...bass? drums -who cares...The whole album is old familiar fiddle tunes. The fiddling is sorta "country slickee", but the mando, as might be expected, is absolutely some of the best ever heard, on tunes you didn't hear very often out of Jethro. Sonny's banjo is straight and smooth. Highly recommended...

I've been looking for this one for years. Is it still available anywhere?

[Rob Fowler]

Some others that haven't been mentioned:

1) Tone Poets (Acoustic disc) numerous artists playing Grisman's "Crusher" + Grisman on 2 tracks (1 playing guitar while Steve Gilchrist plays Crusher)

2) Mike Marshall and Big Trio

3)Butch Baldassari--Old Town

[John Rosett]

I've been looking for this one for years. Is it still available anywhere?

This is a record that I wish someone would reissue on CD. Jethro's solo on "Back Up and Push" is a classic, and was tabbed in an early Mandolin World News. I found TWO copies of the LP at a yard sale many years ago. I gave one to a mandolin playing friend (I can't remember who) and I still have the other.

[Gerry Hastie]

Jody Stecher on
Jody Stecher on
1. Perfect Strangers self titled CD
2. Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band

Tim O'Brien on
3. Hot Rize - 1979 debut

[Mike Bunting]

This is a record that I wish someone would reissue on CD. Jethro's solo on "Back Up and Push" is a classic, and was tabbed in an early Mandolin World News. I found TWO copies of the LP at a yard sale many years ago. I gave one to a mandolin playing friend (I can't remember who) and I still have the other.

Some early H & J music was re-released by BMG Japan back in '97. Playing It Straight and It Ain't Necessarily Square were released on one CD. It's also great stuff on the swing side of things.

[mandroid]

The Mando Boys get my vote, Ill think up 2 more later..

[mandocrucian]

Sorry, I've just got to inject 10cc's or so of antidote/antivenom into this orgy of NG/BG/NA overdosing.


To be honest, I don't usually listen to mando
music much anymore, but when I do, I prefer.......

Jethro Tull - Mandolin Tracks Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 - two 75 minute discs compiled from 20+ Tull albums. Mandolins played by Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Dave Pegg. Probably the best use of mandolin (as a mandolin) in rock music over the years.

Ry Cooder - Mandolin Tracks Compilation almost 80 minutes of Cooder playing mandolin, including "Going To Brownsville", "Billy The Kid", "Boomer's Story", "Bourgeois Blues", "Hey Porter", "Down In Mississippi", "Ax Sweet Mama" and others

Dave Swarbrick - Swarb's Mandolin Tracks Vol. 1 & 2 - Swarb playing mando with Martin Carthy, Fairport Convention, Whippersnapper and tracks from his solo albums. Also the companion compilations: Richard Thompson Plays Mando and the (too short) Martin Carthy Plays Mandolin Like He Plays His Guitar

Of course, these discs don't/won't exist unless you mak 'em yersef by extracting the tracks from your record libray. (But as the blues song goes..."But I've Got Mine")
- - - - - - - -
But, if the rules restrict things to three "official" albums, here are a few that will do:

Planxty (first album) and/or The Well below The Valley - Planxty (Andy Irvine at his finest on mandolin and mandola.)

The Helsinki Mandoliners - The Helsinki Mandoliners

On Fire & Ready! - Niles Hokkanen (I don't listen to this very often either, but when I do, I have to say, "That really was pretty damn good, if I say so myself!")

And, as the most interesting man in the world says.....
"Stay thirsty, my friends!"

[Rob Fowler]

Mandocrucian,
Ohhh yeah....how 'bout Luke Plumb's solo mandolin album--A Splendid Notion--to add to the non-bluegrass genres here. While we're at it add anything from Shooglenifty (the band Luke Plumb plays with).

[Randy Smith]

Norman and Nancy Blake, *Original Underground Music from the Mysterious South* (1982). Released as *Natasha's Waltz* with Blakes'
tunes from other albums, but *Original* holds together better as a mandolin album without the cuts added
later.
Bill Monroe, *Master of Bluegrass*
Peter Ostroushko, *Sluz Duz Music*

[Rick Cadger]

Need something by Jesse McReynolds in there. 'Jim & Jesse: Best of the Early Years' is a good start.

(Is it cheating to pick compilations and 'Best of...' albums?)

[Bill James]

I'll add Simon Mayor. I like "Second Mandolin Album" but anything by him, he's incredible.