New Mandolin

[Domhnall]

I just bought a mandolin off ebay, one of the cheapest ones I could find (couldn't afford anything else). I've wanted to take up mandolin for a while the straw that broke the camel's back and somewhat forced my hand in buying one is my trip to England in may, during which time I won't be able to take my trusted guitar with me, (too big for carry-on luggage, and I'm not trusting it to the baggage handlers.) So during my travels I'll be attempting to learn mandolin. Problem is, I don't really know of many good mandolin players to listen too. Any suggestions as to who will inspire me?

[Loren]

What type of music do you like?

Loren

[SteveK]

You could try some of the MP3s at the Mandolin Cafe. Some of the people are professional players. Paul Kelly, John McGann and Simon Mayor are three that I beleive have mandolin CDs. (I'm not sure about McGann). These are Irish or general Celtic players.

http://www.mandolincafe.com/mp3/

[Domhnall]

Celtic and Bluegrass mandolin, I'm big into Jazz and Blues as well.

[Unseen122]

What kind of mandolin is it?

[Domhnall]

An Johnson A-modal, I'm dieing of anticipation waiting for it to arrive. I hope it arrives in time for my jazz studies exam so I can take a solo on it.

[s1m0n]

There is some excellent jazz mandolin mandolin material at the mandolin cafe.

[Unseen122]

I had a Johnson once. For the price it is pretty good, it will need a good setup and the action will probably be really high. If you know the mechanics of the instrument and have the tools you could make it pretty nice.

[dapolishunicyclist]

Sam Bush, David Grisman and Dan Tyminski are all awesome and you should have no trouble getting there CD's from the library.

David Grisman played alot of solo stuff. Dan Tyminski plays with union station. Sam Bush (the best of the three IMHO) plays with loads of bluegrass artists including New Grass Revival. He also has done some fabulous work with Bela Fleck.

P.S. this list is not supposed to represent a list of the best Mandolinists of all time, just ones who are popular enough at this point in time to have CD's in almost any public libraries.

[Ro3b]

Declan Corey is one of my favorite players -- formerly (still?) of Lia Luachra, also the Josephine Marsh Band. He and John McGann have both developed styles of playing Irish music that are "mandolinistic," rather than adapting tenor banjo technique to the instrument.

[benbrad]

Give the the group Nickel Creek a listen to. The mandolin player is a real young guy and simply awsome. I have seen him play the most unbelievable stuff and all whith his eyes closed.

[Domhnall]

Wonderful, thank you all. Mandolin cafe is a excellent website, and I found another good one. http://www.jazzmando.com for jazz mondolin. I'm looking foreward to playing a bit of mandolin in my Jazz band, for solos, as bass tends to get boring and repetative over the solo section (which can drag on for ever in my group).

[dapolishunicyclist]

Give the the group Nickel Creek a listen to. The mandolin player is a real young guy and simply awsome. I have seen him play the most unbelievable stuff and all whith his eyes closed.

That is Chris Thile. He's very good but the rest of the band IMHO is kinda , Oh I don't know how to put this, ... ... awful.

But I do agree that he's a great mandolin player, so I'd suggest one of his solo albums, especially "Not All Who Wander Are Lost."

Or better yet check out Bela Fleck's "Little Worlds." (My all-time favorite jazz album) Chris Thile plays on a couple of tracks and the Uillean Pipes solos by Paddy Maloney on a couple of other tracks are just fabulous.

P.S. there is no reason to listen to the Rap version of the ballad of Jed Clampett present on disc 1. That's a definetley a low spot.

[Unseen122]

I prefer the styles of Luke Plumb, the new mandolin player with Shooglenifty a very Jazzy Scottish Acid Traditional band. That is the best way to describe them.