I confess... I've got a secret that I try to keep well hidden. It's not as bad as being a banjo picker, or an accordion player, but I try (badly) to play the mandolin.
Nearly everyone has some kind of instrument they fantasize about playing. My youngest son is a pretty darn good guitar player (alt/rock style). I know a lot of really talented musicians, both amateur and professional, and none would *ever* suggest I give up my day job (or even play in public).
I've always had a strong country/Americana/roots music taste, but the song that really set me off on this path to 8 strings and a very narrow fretboard was "Whiskey in the Jar" - the Jerry Garcia/David Grisman version. Grisman's opening bars set the hook. And so I bought my first mando - and realized pretty soon that it buzzed on some frets, had a few odd voicings and so on. It was fine for the playing I was doing, but I eventually wanted a nicer axe and eventually got a Weber Absoroka. Awesome sound, stays in tune, no buzz.
Over the years, I've tried to emulate some of my favorites, but I have also realized that the things that keep me from writing complex software programs are the same things that make music theory rational, and why I found differential equations simple, but basic calculus impossible to comprehend. I tend to think in a linear fashion, can visualize/express big concepts, but struggle with simple chords and abstract patterns. I can hear a melody line and follow that - but the chords that make it rich, give it rhythm? ...two left feet and a tin ear.
In any case, I've found that I can pick out the mando in lots of songs, whether it's a driving lead, rhythm chop, or background harmony/fill. And often, it's the simplest lines that resonate. The little 8 note folded chord in the bridge on Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues" (Dublin Blues, 1995) is just about perfect.
Another one that I love is the pretty simple mando lead (even I can fumble thru it) on Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road". Not to mention that Steve Earle is one helluva songwriter.
I'm also fascinated by technique and signature sounds from the 'real' players. Listening to the stylistic differences from Sam Bush, Robbie McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, Chris Thiele, and where they've taken music is simply amazing. Sam Bush is my favorite - he puts 'color' into his playing, be it on mando or fiddle. When I listen to him, there are all sorts of 'dirty' sounds - notes that aren't quite pure, bars with lots of hammers, pulls, grace notes, slides, open strings, split strings, odd chops and volumes. Sam plays loud. Listen to the lead on North Country Girl (the very best rendition of this great Dylan tune). A great, hard driving mando lead that *doesn't* sound like Bill Monroe - for that matter none of these guys do. Robbie McCoury seems to play a sharper, cleaner style. More bluegrassy, more one note at a time melody lines in breaks. An excellent player in his own right. And Chris Thiele seems to be a jazz man with a strong hillbilly twist. He can lay down classic folk lines, and then the very next song pull a totally different sound (that I can't quite put my finger on) from that old Loar.
In any case, it's always fun to listen to the masters and dream while you pick a melody line that sounds suspiciously like 'chopsticks'...
Play on, y'all.
~marsh
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