MetaFilter posts tagged with mandolin

Punch Brothers, Mandolin Brothers and Lloyd Loar

Bartonius — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:21:46 -0800

On Monday September 24th, Mandolin Brothers were visited by 3/5ths of The Punch Brothers: Chris Thile, along with Chris Eldridge and Noam Pickelny. Chris played their Lloyd Loar 1924 F-5 mandolin and their 1925 Fern. Among the numbers they played was a lovely rendition of Tennessee Waltz. Previously From the Mandolin Brothers website: Of our March 31, 1924 signed Loar, #75846, bearing Virzi Number (one of the lowest numbers seen although they seem to have been applied in no particular order) #10002, Chris said that it was one of the finest sounding "Virzi-equipped" Lloyd Loar F-5s he had ever heard. He said "this has an explosive low end that's awesome!" He added "You just don't hear F-5s with a Virzi that sound anything like this." He was also extremely impressed with our newest acquisition: the non-Virzi signed Loar dated February 18, 1924, bearing serial number #75318. Chris said: "This is one hell of a mandolin; it's a 'hoss.'" And he added "This February 18th Loar produces a sound that's right in between David Grisman's July 9, 1923 (the Bill Monroe date) and John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin)'s February 18th Loar. (scroll down) It is, he told us, "truly spectacular!" Chris owns the Lloyd Loar made two serial numbers before this one and added that he's come to the conclusion that for the finest possible sound of which a Lloyd Loar is capable you "can't depend on any other time period but February 1924 for the production of the signed Loar to be this transcendent in its response." They ended up doing several clips: Lloyd Loar F5 #75318 Bluegrass Duet: Chrises Thile and Eldridge ..And banjo makes three.

Pluck those strings

Wolfster — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:26:30 -0800

This winners for the MacArthur Awards have been announced , and among the fellows is Chris Thile. • A recent performance by Yo-Yo Ma, EdgarMeyer, Chris Thile, and Stuart Duncan in the NPR studio (Tiny Desk Concert) • Playing with his band, Punch Brothers,currently on tour • His previous band, Nickel Creek

RIP Everett Lilly

OmieWise — Thu, 10 May 2012 03:47:10 -0800

Everett Lilly, founding member and mandolin player for the Lilly Brothers, has died. The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover (on banjo) had a longtime residence in Boston in the 1960s at the Hillbilly Ranch. Although the band disbanded and moved back to West Virginia following the death of Everett's son in an accident, their influence on the folk revival was substantial. Here is their classic rendition of "Sinner You Better Get Ready" from their 1961 Folkways album Bluegrass at the Roots. Everett's mandolin is upfront and sweet. RIP

Birdcloud is Two Tennessee Girls with Stringed Instruments and Potty Mouths

cmoj — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:10:05 -0800

"Birdcloud met in Murfreesboro and immediately didn’t like eachother. At a party in 2009 they had some whiskeys and became friends and started dicking around on guitar, writing their first song, a song about going down on your best friend, now lost to the sands of time. Despite a lukewarm reception at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, they have been sitting on eachother’s faces ever since, showing eachother their bruises and generally doing whatever they want when it works out that way." Songs on the inside NSFW if you can't tell. Warshin' My Big Ol' Pussy Do What I Want Bandit Damn Dumb Saving Myself For Jesus Indianer Springwater

Mandolin and Unicycle

unliteral — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:33:46 -0800

The Mandolin & Unicycle Project is a thesis project from Matt Manos. "I have always wanted to learn how to ride a unicycle, and I have always wanted to learn how to play the mandolin, so the most logical conclusion I came to was to learn how to play the mandolin while riding the unicycle. In one month." The project blog starts here.

Someone who once had a lot of free time # 12 & 34: Brian's huge chordlist collection

y2karl — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:50:36 -0800

I had this concept--after a strange dream, while scoping out the I Dreamed I Saw st. Augustine tab in my just-in-case-it-disappears downloaded dylanchords, of ...St. Augustine as a slow moody slide in Open D ala Blind Texas Marlin. But then I got to wondering whether someone might have a chord dictionary online where a few variations on a first position B Minor in Open D might be found. Voila! Achtung, Baby! Behold Brian's huge chordlist collection. Oh, man, he's got your standard and open tunings on guitar plus mandolin, uke, banjos, bouzouki, pipa and lute. A living room guitarist's must have, no doubt, although a few more open tunings for pipa would have been nice... I keed, I keed on that last there, of course... But last night, I actually did dream that I was riding the bus and hanging with the Bobster himself (my first celebrity dream in near a decade, too! Whoo hoo!) and feeling a great deal of diffidence in his presence. Especially when we were in that faded millionare's row there, with a few half size tyrannosaurs stalking the grounds of the mansion next door. All the while talking to various cats who flopped over on the sidewalk when we passed. This is what I get for not leaving the radio on with the BBC Overnight on. Instead the usual round the clock Siberian methane release global warming nightmare, I get downsized purple striped tyrannosaurs and B. Dylan. Well, it was a step up of sorts but, man, was he cranky... Anyhow and all the same, I'll let you be in my dream if you blah blah woof woof in your dream. And whatever, all the same etc. --Brian's huge chordlist collection is no doubt quite possibly an asset for the 82nd Couchborne living room geetar players virtual legion and, hence, therefore best of the web. And who knows who, what, when, where else rates such an encomium ? Christmas in the Heart already tabbed, perhaps ? Man, talk about OCD completist detailing, though...

Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachell - Mailman Blues & African African

y2karl — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:06:06 -0800

Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachel - Mailman Blues
More about Sleepy John Estes
From Stephan Wirz - American Music: Illustrated Sleepy John Estes discography
See also The Tennesseean Encyclopedia - Sleepy John Estes And here are 23 mp3s of Sleepy John Estes 1929-1940 from African African, an online encyclopedia of all things African-American, that for its Rare Recordings and Video page alone--featuring videos and mp3s of civil rights pioneers like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis; vintage films about Negro life from the 1930s through the 1960s and leading to copyright free streaming mp3 pages of select vintage jazz and blues singers like John Adam Estes, which is but a tiny slice of all the African African site offers--is best of the web worthy in its own self. See also Meeting Yank Rachel by Ron Hacker In a similar vein, my friend Jack Cook took a trip down south when he was 19 and met everyone still alive who recorded a pre-war country blues 78. Jack's encounters with Furry Lewis and Sleepy John Estes on that trip are American Splendor style worthy of illustration by someone like R. Crumb. When Jack meet Sleepy John, John was living in a shack, thought the boards of the walls of which could been seen daylight, with his wife and children, furnished with a bed, a color TV and a pile of clothes. No one in Brownsville at the time seemed to know who he was. He later was moved to a low income apartment with solid walls and indoor plumbing, which is now preserved as a historical monument. Jack also stayed with Yank Rachel in Chicago on that trip and remembers Yank as one of the kindest and most generous people he ever met. He remembers bedding down on a sofa in the TV room and noodling on his National over Rollin' and Tumblin' on slide in open G. Yank stopped in to check on Jack and his friend and allowed as to how he hadn't heard that one for awhile--Yank, who'd played with Hambone Willie Newbern, the song's originator, in his very younger days--and took the guitar with a 'please' and then meditatively ran through about five choruses, each a unique variation as different from the last as the one before, and all this done without a hint of showing off. Jack recalls it as a marvelous moment. Jack also recalls Sleepy John as being exactly that--sleepy. He was narcoleptic, not there, dozing most of the time he wasn't playing. It would take him aawhile to respond to a question. But when he pick up a guitar and began to sing--one never heard the blues sung so deeply. That was when he came alive and more than that, a force of nature. Son House was like this when he sang as well. It was like he became possessed.

Ustad Srinivas, solid-body electric mandolin guru.

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 07:18:28 -0800

Ustad Srinivas plays some mean electric mandolin, y'all. There's some biographical info here and here.

1954–2007

OverlappingElvis — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:14:45 -0800

Building a mandolin from start to finish. A beautiful documentary in three parts on the work of the late great Portland luthier John Sullivan.

Lots of free acoustic music lessons!

kosem — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 09:51:59 -0800

MusicMoose wants "to provide the world with free, useful music lessons, and a community based site to help back it all up." The site contains hundreds of free video music lessons (often containing notation and/or tablature) with a distinct focus on acoustic and bluegrass music, all taught by some pretty badass pickers (including the astonishingly good mandolin shredder Anthony Hannigan). There are also obligatory but very useful forums. Takeaway: the whole thing is free and you don't have to register to watch the lessons.

transient — Wed, 27 Mar 2002 13:51:57 -0800

Let’s visit with the father of bluegrass, shall we? (inside)