The thread we did a couple years ago on steel guitar was a lot of fun, so I thought I’d try one on mandolin. I’m not any kind of expert on real old time country music, but (1) I do find it interesting how much of a country signifier, if you will, the mandolin (and steel guitar) are in contemporary country and (2) think that it sounds really beautiful sometimes.
What are your favorite uses of mandolin in a song? I’ll show my ignorance by going with the Nitty Gritty Dirt band cover of Mr. Bojangles and the Stones’ cover of Love in Vain (Ry Cooder!).
Keith P.
Can’t even think of many that I even know. There’s “Ty Cobb” by Soundgarden….
oldster
Couple of popular ones:
1) mandolin is the best thing about several of Rod Stewart’s early hits—I’m either thinking of “Maggie Mae” or “You Wear it Well,” but I can’t be bothered to figure out which is which.
2) Led Zeppelin used mandolin several times to good effect, e.g. “Going to California.”
Thoughtcrime
“Mandolin Wind” by Rod Stewart, of course.
Lyrics also include a reference to steel guitar:
“Don’t have much but what I’ve got is yours
except of course my steel guitar.”
Story on the mandolin player:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/mandolins_00938.shtml
Kerry
Dave Grisman
The Goat Rodeo Sessioms (album)
Mike J
Peter Buck from REM is fond of them. The Byrds, as you would expect from Roger McGuinn, used them.
And don’t forget Stonehenge by Spinal Tap.
OzarkHillbilly
Charlie Pfieffer, long time buddy of mine. It has long been my contention that the best mandolin players have fat fingers. No kidding.
DougJ
@oldster:
You’re right, it’s all over Maggie Mae
Andy
David Grisman’s version (i.e. the original) of Dawggy Mountain Breakdown (i.e. the “Car Talk Theme”) includes an amazing mandolin solo. +1
eldorado
like all things country music, just start with the carter family.
shell
Old Crow Medicine Show
gbear
@Mike J: I was going to say that one of the most joyously sloppy mandolins is Peter Buck on The Replacement’s ‘I Will Dare’.
If I go look I can come up with some seriously beautiful mandolin parts but it’s too hot right now and my brain is mush after this work week.
Chris Hillman’s original instrument was mandolin before The Byrd’s producer talked him into switching to bass guitar.
Andy
Also too, Bill Monroe, duh.
Davebo
@oldster: Don’t forget Gasoline Alley.
Andy
@eldorado: Proper.
Davebo
And Jethro Tull, Fat Man. One of my all time favorites.
Mike J
@gbear: That’s probably my favorite song by the ‘Mats.
Andy
Comment got eaten. The first thing I try to pick out whenever I mess with a mandolin is the main theme from “The Godfather.”
gogol's wife
@efgoldman:
He’s what I think about when I think “mandolin.”
Booger
@oldster: Yeah, have to agree that John Paul Jones used the mandolin to great effect all over Led Zeppelin IV.
Davis X. Machina
How about pedal steel and mandolin. Also guitar and jazz violin.
Jethro Burns. Curley Chalker, Joe Venuti, Eddy Shamblin
p.a.
@efgoldman: Nickle Creek.
Omnes Omnibus
“Losing My Religion”
ETA: The mandolin makes “Friend of the Devil” one of the few tolerable songs by the Dead.
scav
My father got into the whole mando-family of instruements. Mando-cellos, Mandobass, (we rather got to the point where we went on about buying him mandokazoos). I forget what period. 30s? 20s?
Emma
@efgoldman: Holy Moses. You’re not kidding. That was amazing!
Another Lurker
The Rod Stewart cover of Keep Me Hanging On has lovely mandolin.
neech
Mandolin Orange:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG_NL_5ZkPA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAPGvg8qOAU
Tree With Water
I used to pass a comic book in my old neighborhood in San Francisco where the owner was friends with Jerry Garcia, and when Garcia would drop by they would sit and talk while strumming mandolins. Wish now I interrupted them to thank Jerry for all his great work. David Grisham(?), a famous mandolin player in his own right, would sometimes join them.
gbear
Here’s another song I’ve always liked: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers “It’ll All Work Out”. I’ve always thought that the album this song came from Let Me Up I’ve Had Enough was always pretty underrated. It’s one of my favorite Petty albums.
charles pierce
Levon Helm played himself some fine mandolin, especially on “Rag, Mama, Rag.”
jacel
Rudy Cippola was a mandolin player in San Francisco. I grew up buying comics and science fiction magazines at his little Inner Sunset shop, The Book Nook. He’d often be playing his mandolin behind the counter. Later in Rudy’s life, Dave Grisman championed his playing and compositions, including the one heard here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VAhossGrc4
dp
I like old-timey music, and mandolin is a very bluegrass thing, but when I think of mandolin, it’s always early Rod Stewart, especially “Maggie May.” As someone above mentioned, R.E.M. did good things with it too.
dp
@charles pierce: That’s right! How dare I forget Levon.
Omnes Omnibus
@dp: Isn’t “Maggie May” old-timey music?
Ninedragonspot
I like Schoenberg’s use of mandolin in his Serenade, op. 24. The whole instrumentation of the work is a sort of deconstructed version of the old Viennese Schrammel formations. The Viennese guitar is bifurcated into guitar and mandolin; the G clarinet is replaced with regular Bb clarinet and bass clarinet, to the violin is added a viola, plus a cello. The first movement is one of Schoenberg’s jauntiest creations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCVLznDTvpc
Rich (In Name Only) in reno
First thing pops to mind Is “Reuben’s Train” by the Dillards (1960s lineup.) I had this folk song album when I was a kid and that song was one track on it. Played it to death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-MTmErL1Og
Tree With Water
@jacel: Yes, Yes! Rudy’s Comics! Between 9th & 10th on Judah Street. I lived in the NW corner apartment building at 10th & Judah. He was nice old gent; and the monthly rent on that apartment is currently 6-7 times higher than what I was paying when I left.
Breezeblock
ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING, by Nash the Slash. He passed away last year, but left a great legacy. Also an amazing live performer.
Davis X. Machina
@efgoldman: Like ‘Swingin’ with Bruckner’
Amir Khalid
@oldster:
Of Led Zeppelin’s mandolin usage, my favourite is on Boogie With Stu — Jones’ mandolin and Ian Stewart’s piano boogieing together makes some of the most delightful music I’ve heard.
Aleta
Just mandolin, no external sound
Thrill is Gone by BB King with Eric Kilburn playing mandolin through a looper and other pedals.
Short, but nice mandolin with claranet (from :47)
Swing Cafe: All of Me
Tommy
Here you go …..
A lot of people don’t know Jerry Garcia did a lot of other stuff. My favorite is what he did with David Grisman. He did this with a fiddle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayk_qQw0XZg
If the above URL doesn’t make you want to stand up and dance, well you have a dark heart.
As to bluegrass, yes, yes, and more yes. When I lived in DC and stuck in traffic the local NPR station used to go away for 2+ hours to bluegrass. As a former deadhead it was a wonderful thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Didn’t he score some of Strindberg’s musical comedies?
Ninedragonspot
@efgoldman: ok, agree to disagree. But would you accept “piquant”?
gbear
@Rich (In Name Only) in reno: I was going to post ‘Hey Boys‘ by the Dillards until I went to listen to it and everything I thought was mandolin was banjos. Sounds like there’s mandolin down in the mix.
Aleta
Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger, & Malvina Reynolds – Woody’s Rag
Irony Abounds
Mandolin Rain by Bruce Hornsby and the Range (even if the piano is the focal point of the song)
SatanicPanic
Cody, Cody by the Flying Burrito Brothers, but based on your previous posts I’m sure you know that.
Bobby B.
Once you get used to the sound of Freddie Roulette playing “Norwegian Wood” on a lap steel, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!
PST
Ripple. Jeez, I can’t believe we have 50 responses with no Ripple. I’m pretty sure that’s David Grisman playing. As for Led Zep, the Battle of Evermore is high on my list.
Aleta
@Aleta:
Mandolin and clarinet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpbF4rK66ls
Swing Cafe: All of Me, w/Eric Kilburn on mandolin
Omnes Omnibus
@PST: Ripple? I prefer Thunderbird.
A
Zeppelin already alluded to, but Goin to California, definitely.
Chris Thile is infuckinbelievable. Actually saw him along with the rest of Nickel Creek, John Paul Jones (yes that one), the lead singer for Toad the wet sprocket, and the drummer for Elvis costellos attractions in an ensemble called Mutual Admiration Society. Great evening at the Birch.
danielx
Springsteen…..Land of Hope and Dreams, with mandolin played by Steve Van Zandt.
I imagine there will be some mandolin playing during the coming visit to my fair city of the Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt tour.
srv
Whatever Marty Stuart and +1 on The Godfather.
Tommy
Fuck you ” DougJ.” I need to do stuff around the house but you got me to run down the rabbit hole of The Dead with this post. Oh that summer. 1988. Followed The Dead throughout the midwest. Not even sure why I did it. Just seemed like a good idea at the time.
Everybody was tripping balls to the wall. I’d ever done it before. I often joke when the first time you eat mushrooms (I never liked acid) was at a Dead show you were kind of all in!
Mike J
@OzarkHillbilly:
When I was a kid I’d go out to the Lucy Opry regularly. I remember there was an old man there who would look at your hands and tell you what instrument you ought to play. Perhaps the reason I’m such a lousy guitarist is that I ignored his advice on the mandolin.
raven
These are the hands of Pat Shields, a local mandolin and guitar player here in Athens.
hoodie
@A: Thile is hands down the greatest living mandolin player. Saw him in Savannah one afternoon with Mike Marshall, they played everything from Bach to some sort of Roma thing in 23/27 time. Unbelievable. Saw him with Punch Brothers later that night. He can sing, too.
Origuy
Some people think Dave Swarbuck is one of the best folk/Celtic mandolin players. Here he is with fellow Fairport Convention members Richard Thompson and Dave Pegg, also on mandolin.
Seonachan
The mandolin is nice and all, but the mandocello is where it’s at:
pb
Gotta say – I love this thread. One of the reasons BJ is a daily stop.
Tommy
Oh how I wish David Lindley had more music online. He is so anal about it, not being online. Sees it as something almost evil. I recall a co-worker asking me to come with him to see David Lindley and Hani Naser play at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA.
It was close to a religious experience. A top five concert of all time and if you knew how much live music I’ve seen you would flip out me saying that.
I’ve heard he is the best guitar player that has been born that isn’t named Jimi Hendrix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLq9HgGP8G8
I like the last comment to this video:
Pogonip
@Ninedragonspot: Seeing this reminded me of someone who wrote to Dear Abby or Miss Manners, I forget which, about unpleasant neighbors; she said she had tried playing loud horrible music to get them to move but it turned out they could stand more Schoenberg than she could!
Does Schoenberg chase away cat ladies? I have learned by sad experience that one cat lady can easily trash a whole street and we now have TWO. The landlord has tried to help but as fast as he traps them (the cats) they (the cat ladies) bring in more. Another neighbor said the situation is causing him to hate cats, which he never did before.
Maybe the solution is bigger traps? We were going to get a house next time we moved but the plan has been revised to a rental in a complex with a no-pet policy. We’re not likely to move just because of the cat ladies but the cat-lady factor will definitely come into consideration.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Schoenberg.
satby
@oldster: Mandolin Wind by Rod Stewart too.
Pogonip
@Aleta: I am STILL upset about King’s death. He was one of the giants.
oldster
@Omnes Omnibus:
Agreed–“Friend of the Devil” is still my favorite Dead song.
(Which is probably a short way of saying “I am not a Deadhead”).
Seonachan
Or the mandola.
Or the octave mandolin.
LanceThruster
Cat Stevens – Ruby Love.
Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson – I Wish I Was Your Mother
JerryN
Barry Mitterhoff (Tony Trishka and Skyline back in the day, more recently with Hot Tuna) has some chops. Here he is with Jorma on a classic ditty.
Pogonip
@Omnes Omnibus: Stop that, you young whippersnapper. And get off my lawn.
I used to be in a carpool with an oldies-station nut. If I never hear “Maggie May” again it’ll be too soon. People I know who went to see Stewart a few years ago said he didn’t perform it, so maybe he feels the same way.
Matt
I was excited to recommend the Modern Mandolin Quartet here, but I just found out one of its members died late last year. Grrr cancer.
Charles Pierce
Guy Clark — Picasso’s Mandolin
Omnes Omnibus
@Pogonip:
I am just noting a truth.
Quinerly
Loved seeing local St. Louis boy and friend, Charlie Pfieffer mentioned in comment 6. Here’s some more great St. Louis talent….Sean Canan http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pqgu2rh1u94
Larry
Dispatch did a lot of songs with a band called Good ol War, great stuff.
Tree With Water
This is very cool. Imagine if we got serious about educating America’s youth, and learning tools such as is seen in the video were made commonplace. Compliments of Deadspin.com:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=PL15KbAxfKZE2GLuGleeSpswg_UjJ_Imel&v=5CqeOXqtNxk
celticdragonchick
@dp: Mandolin and cittern get used a lot in Celtic music.
FarmerG
Post link. Drop mic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTE4lzeBUNI
raven
The Dawg
Garcia / Grisman / Rice – The Pizza Tapes – Shady Grove
Tommy
@Tree With Water: Yes.
As a youth we moved a lot. Government shit. We always lived off base. We always had to have a large garage for my father’s “shop.” I recall one year he took apart an MG and put it back together in like 1976. Asked him why and he didn’t know. Just wanted to do it.
Later he’d have a house where the two car garage couldn’t hold all his tools, mostly wood working. I never learned from him. One of about 1-2 things I kick myself about.
Jay Noble
“Ain’t Even Done with the NIght” John Cougar Mellencamp – hadn’t been able to ditch the “Cougar” yet. Saw it on American Bandstand when it first came out. :-)
scottinnj
Chris Thile is incredible but he also seems to have some good humor. Here are clips of his covers of ”
“Just What I Needed by the Cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxgr-Ebpidw
And, with Nickel Creek, Toxic by Brittany Spears (BTW Sara Watkins, the violin player from Nickel Creek, is also amazing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWQo0bktuAI
And of course the Mario Brothers theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un_9Uueh2nQ
raven
Johnny Staats & The Delivery Boys at Bob Evans Farm Festival in Ohio
Tommy
@raven: I posted that above. About as good as it gets with a mandolin I’d say. But what do I know :).
raven
@Tommy: No one is better than the Dawg.
Tommy
@scottinnj: Going to have to halfway call you out. Sara Watkins does her own music. This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJY4asP8lT4
Anna Granfors
The Louvin Brothers. Tight harmonies, and one of ’em (don’t know which, offhand) was an incredible mandolin player. You NEED a good Louvins greatest hits CD in your collection. (Gram and Emmylou were big Louvin fans, too…”Cash On The Barrelhead” was a Louvins song, and Emmylou’s recorded plenty of their stuff.)
Origuy
Following the last link I posted, this came up:
Fairport Convention Live at Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury 2003
The whole concert, runs 2:08. Lots of great mandolin in that.
john fremont
Besides Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart’s use of the mandolin some country artists still use it well. Dwight Yoakum’s Travelers Lantern has some lovely mandolin. So does the Band Perry with If I Die Young.
raven
Almost a hundred comments and no one mentioned Ricky Scaggs?? Ya’ll motherfuckers is lost.
Swellsman
Something so feminine, about a mandolin.
–Jimmy Buffett
Chefmarty
Some great mandolin on this tune from Clive Gregson & Christine Collister – “Lost at Sea”
raven
And Ronnie McCoury Get a clue.
Pogonip
@Omnes Omnibus: Kids these days!
raven
Bobby Osborne of the Osborne Brothers.
Booger
@Amir Khalid: JPJ was inspired by seeing the Dillards on one the early LZ tours.
Aleta
I think these are Italian mandolins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-57JsYZlABg
NotoriousJRT
@LanceThruster:
Cat Stevens – Ruby Love.
Thank you. I knew there was an old song not yet mentioned – just could not think of it.
burnspbesq
Grisman and Thile have already been mentioned. The third member of the troika of great mandolin players is Sam Bush. Some of his best recorded work is on the Strength in Numbers album, “The Telluride Session.”
Chris Hillman is also a decent mandolin player. There is an excellent, mandolin-driven version of “Eight Miles High” on one of his more recemt solo albums.
This clip, from a Mark O’Connor workshop performance at Berklee in 2009, showcases three great young players, Sierra Hull, Jacob Joliff, and Eric Robertson.
http://youtu.be/4F9j39xcQWo
raven
Lara’s Theme from Dr. Zhivago – balalaika
raven
@burnspbesq: All very very good.
Aleta
Trad. Scottish dance (strathspey):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZzP-UjShb4
This is a nice Scottish one, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK7d0uj6YDw
Ninedragonspot
@Pogonip: I discovered in college that Berg’s “Lulu” could indeed clear out the hallway outside my dorm room. Nowadays, I might use something like the stratospheric Wan clapper opera of Neixiang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5aIGc659zk
burnspbesq
@raven:
The guitarists in that clip are Courtney Hartman (Della Mae) and Julian Lage.
raven
@burnspbesq: One summer I was at a conference around the corner from Berklee and it was fun seeing all the kids hanging out.
Origuy
@Aleta: A nice contrast between traditional and modern strathspey tunes. I can tell you that the traditional ones are a lot easier to dance to.
worn
From the Dawn of recorded music, there’s Dave Apollon’s virtuoso take on a Rachmaninov melody: http://youtu.be/ZsLpqP8WwQ4
worn
One of the great unheralded albums of the 70s was a record made by Tiny Moore, Jethro Burns, Eldon Shamblin, Ray Brown & Shelley Manne, Back to Back (produced by David Grisman). If you like the mandolin it is not to be missed. A fine sample: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ScJ9huBOJpI
worn
Another from the same record, a cover of the Hot Club’s Swing ’39:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uzxrZFTaMYo
worn
Finally, there’s Tiny, from his solo record, doing a version of the Bob Wills classic Maiden’s Prayer: http://youtu.be/o4rhiwL7Alw
OK, going into the woods now for a pig roast. Ya’ll take care now, hear?
Pogonip
@Ninedragonspot: Save it, in case you ever end up with horrible neighbors!
DougJ
Great thread and great suggestions!
bmoak
The Fairport Convention version of Dylan’s Million Dollar Bash.
Gin & Tonic
Another fine, fine mandolin player nobody has mentioned yet is Peter Ostroushko. As someone said while introducing him at a performance: “put tuning gears on a lawn chair, and he’ll play that, too.” Here’s a bit.
Steve from Antioch
@Tree With Water:
Can we all raise a glass to the memory of what the Inner Sunset/Cole Valley was like before the stroller set arrived?
Steeplejack
This thread has sent me to listen to The David Grisman Quintet (1977). A good album from end to end.
“Swing 51.”
mai naem mobile
Rod Stewart – Sailing – it was a huge hit for him in the UK. Real pretty mandolin playing which kind of makes the song.
Surprised I.haven’t seen Here Comes the Sun.
Split Enz – Six Months in a Leaky Boat.
Also,I.can’t be bothered to look it up but I believe one of the songs on.Bridge Over Troubled Water uses a mandolin – El Condor Pasa?
J R in WV
Starting tomorrow, and running until next Saturday night, is the Clifftop String Band Festival. It was once a 4-H camp, and is near by Babcock State Park, on the rim of New River Gorge. People line up the day before the gate opens to get in early and snag their favorite annual camping spot.
A friend of a friend has a daughter studying violin at the Berklee School in Bahston, and she is going to the String Band Festival, to play with people who don’t read music. She wants to learn to improvise, and I think a week of this camp might do it.
There’s a background sound of banjo/mandolin twanging almost 24 hours a day. You have to like old time music to stand it. Some years we have gone but I’m really too old to enjoy drinking shine and sleeping on the ground any more.
But all the neighbors reserve this week, most of our old friends around here are either already there of going soon.
Bragging now on other’s accomplishments, next door neighbor, old friend who helped us move into the old house back in the 70s, won the blue ribbon for old time banjo picking at the state heritage festival. He has it hanging from a bass fiddle in the dining room. So proud he could bust, but too cool to carry it around with him…
Ricky Scaggs, David Grismond, Jerry Garcia… what a loss. He did so much more than just the Greatful Dead!
Aleta
@Origuy:Iin what way are the modern ones harder to dance to? (More notes?)
Aleta
@J R in WV: Used to have a camp in a place where, one week a year, I would hear banjo drifting through the woods in the mornings. Loved it of course.
Jamey
Velvet Underground: “Waitin’ for My Mandolin.”
LanceThruster
This has Sam Bush but I can’t remember which tracks featured his mandolin.
A
Dawg, Sam Bush, Thile, Del McCoury’s boy…they’re all sick.
Don’t get me started on the Fat Man. It’s getting near his birthday again…check out one of the If I Had The World To Gives from 78 when you’re raising a pint to him…
LanceThruster
Jon Graboff on mandolin with Iris DeMent in “Our Town.”
LanceThruster
Steve Earle – Copperhead Road LIVE.
Kais
The Band’s cover of the Boss’ Atlantic City.
Aleta
Mandolin Orchestra
Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8nZp-LWJss
Origuy
Aleta, the beat is stronger in the trad tunes. Strathspeys have a hop on beats 2 and 4, and the trad tunes have a dotted quarter note there, and usually are louder. Pa DUM pa SUM.
Origuy
On phone, can’t edit. Should have been DUM not SUM. Want to add, strathspeys were developed from marches. Today they’re often danced to airs. Not a strong beat.
LABiker
Elvis Costello, American Without Tears
Bill Murray
Johnny Marr played mandolin on Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/09/please-please-please-let-me-get-what-i.html
Aleta
@Origuy: Thanks, for explaining.
Marc
Chris Thile is hands-down the greatest living mandolin player (and maybe just the greatest), and if you consider Bach partitas “songs”, those might be my favorites. But his original compositions are amazing, too, and his bluegrass covers are also amazing. His duet with Mike Marshall on Fisher’s Hornpipe is my favorite treatment of a traditional fiddle tune. And, then, of course, there’s Sierra Hull – impeccable mandolin chops, and the queen of the instrument.
graham
I’ve never actually purchased any Chris Thile records, But I watch him on You Tube pretty regularly, and holy shit. Truly one of the world’s great musicians…I’ve been listening to D Grisman for years (decades) and he is my favorite. Ry Cooder and David Lindley are also among my fav mando players…Mark O’Conner and Mike Marshall can get on down as well as Sam Bush…you guys are pretty much all over this thread and have mentioned most of these cats. Music thread so I thought I had to put in my .02. It’s hot down here in GA and I am ready for King Harvest to come and bring the carnival to town. Fuck summer in GA. This is all for now….
HeartlandLiberal
Just get the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band classic multi platter album “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” from 1972. Listen to the entire album, both disks. At least half the items feature a mandolin among the instrumentation. And you will have listened to a seminal album in the history of American popular music. Just about anyone who was a famous country music artist or musician was there for one or more sessions / songs on the album. Well, except Bill Monroe, for some reason he refused. In 1989, the band released Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two. It featured even more country artists, e.g. Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Michael Martin Murphey and Ricky Skaggs.
Hmmm. Having written this, I must go pull that original vinyl off the shelf of nearly 1,400 albums we refused to get rid of, and play it this weekend on the new Stanton turntable I bought when I retired, so I could listen to vinyl. Not to belabor a point, but my ears are still good enough I can hear the difference between analog recorded music, and digital. The latter is a sampling. Analog is the entire thing.
brendancalling
Two words: Bill. Monroe.
Bruce Baugh
Eric Bazilian of the Hooters comes immediately to mind. And We Danced, Satellite (which doesn’t have a lot of great mandolin action but does remain one of the great portrayals of televangelists).
Stuart Katz
I like the mandolin on “I Wish I Was Your Mother” by Mott the Hoople.
moderateindy
Must concur with Thile and Bush. Seen Thile multiple times including Symphony Hall in Chicago. The genre “Americana” that those two inhabit is lousy with mandolins. Trampled by Turtles, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Yonder Mountain String Band are all worth giving a listen
Here’s a young girl that’s actually been around awhile, AJ Lee, doing the Dead’s Ripple. Lovely voice. I think she’s 16 or 17 now
https://youtu.be/qAk34-AeHFc
Ann Marie
Mick Moloney playing Loftus Jones, from his “Strings Attached” album. The whole album is terrific.
JoeC
@Mike J: That would have been Chris Hillman, he’s quite a good mandolin player…
JoeC
@bmoak: On a Sandy Denny solo album Richard Thompson made an orchestra out of mandolins, ‘Listen, Listen’ I think was the tune…
Ellen R
Bela Fleck! Anything by this guy will please music people of any stripe.
Ellen
DissidentFish
Well I’m too late to suggest players. But I’ll share this: once at a festival I asked a tired mandolinist among the campers if I could have a go on the instrument, and to my shock, it’s not tuned like a banjo! Or the top four strings of a guitar either. The standard tuning is GDAE — violin tuning.
I made bad bad sounds and went to have a drink instead.
daddyj
@efgoldman: Yeah, Chris Thile plays the mandolin like Bach played the organ. But Punch Brothers is more than just him; the whole ensemble is amazing.
way2blue
Listen to the mandolin on ‘Heartache on the Run’ by Village Jammers on their ‘Til It Happens to You’ CD
My favorite. But then I might be biased…
p.s. sorry but I still can’t figure out how to make a clean URL link.
The Fool
mandolin is much more of a bluegrass instrument than a country instrument
The Fool
For another rock example, the best Zeppelin use of mandolin is Battle of Evermore from the ZOSO album
The Fool
Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime
Kiwanda
A great contributor to the use of the mandolin in the music of the South (India, that is) died last year; I enjoy the recording that includes this.
Jorgen
Sarah Jarosz is also very very good. Her latest album ‘Build me up from Bones’ left me cold at first, but after several listens it is now my favorite.
EthylEster
Elton John “Texas Love Song” from Don’t Shoot the Piano Player.
Paul in KY
Late to this one, but Sam Bush & David Grisman both play the Hell out of the mandolin. Also, guy who leads Punch Brothers is also a great mandolin player.