A New (to me) Mandolin

Its been much too long since I've posted, but here goes anyway.

While at a recent (back in October) car show put on by the national (international?) car club that I belong to, a friend had a surprise for me. I finally had the opportunity to meet my friend Ken in person. He and I had talked many times before via the internet and have much in common beyond just the marque of car we are both fans of.

When I finally got the chance to meet him and shake his hand, he tells me 'come over to my car before you leave, I have something for you'. I promised to do just that. Before I left, I made it a point to stop by his car and he pulled out a mandolin case from the back of his car. To say I was surprised is a gross understatement. He then said 'Its just a case' and grinned at me.

As I opened the case, I found a beautiful 2 point Aria mandolin inside. Ken me that he remembered that I played mandolin and since he did not play it anymore, he wanted me to have it. He also commented that maybe someday my son would play it. I know he is right about the last part!

Ken is a generous guy. He is always helping people on the car forum where we both regularly participate, and I know that he is like that in real life as well. That day, I must have shook his hand a million times and said thank you every time as well.

When I got it home, I cleaned up the case and glued down some of the vinyl. I then went to work on the Aria. I set the action the way I like it, and restrung it. I also polished it up and brought it to a wonderful shine. I also polished out the pickguard and glued it back in place.

The results are absolutely wonderful. It has great tone, plays well and I play it every evening after work.

 

I did some digging and found that the instrument is likely to be 35 -40 years old based on all the documentation I could find on the web. Below is a link to a catalog page from that era.

 

http://www.matsumoku.org/models/a-ap2_acou/mando_banjo.html

 



Chromatic Blues Scales

One good reference I was able to find on the web is the blues scale tablature for pretty much every blues scale, while played on a C Chromatic.

Very useful.

Blues Scales for Chromatic Harmonica

Credit to Andy Wilson for this document

Chromatic Blues Harp - Part 2

So more of the 'tools' of this blues harmonica business....

As mentioned in my earlier post, I started with a Hohner 270. Great Chrom, and this one works well.

 

 

The only issue with the 270 is that the 16 hole Hohner 20 (64 Chromonica) is what many of the old blues greats played. The 270 also does not have quite the range of the 280.

 

So some Ebay searching yielded a number of different 280's and eventually I won one of them. The Harp that arrived was terribly dirty on the outside. Nasty.... I spent an evening cleaning it, and now it is quite nice. It will need new windsavers at some point. It also needs one cover support, but I may try to make that myself.

 

Truth be told, I'm still barely past making horrible squeaking sounds on both of them, and anything resembling music is purely by mistake... But I'm going to keep at it.



Chromatic Blues Harp

Many many years ago, while hanging out in a music shop to buy a new harp (blues harp/diatonic), I spotted a harmonica with a button on it. As you can imagine, I was intrigued. I bought the funny looking harp and took it home.

When I got home with the little Chrometta, it completely confused me. It was hard to play, sounded like crud and just did not seem like the Marine Bands I had been playing. Windsavers and the slide really threw me off. I returned it (they actually took it back) and that was the end of my Chromatic playing...

Fast forward another 15 years and I was beginning to play diatonic blues harp a lot. I played in the car and really enjoyed it. I was listening to a lot of the classic blues harmonica stuff and found George Harmonica Smith. His blues chromatic harp playing is really the standard by which all other players are judged. The fact that he taught many of them does not hurt that a bit.

Once again, I decided to get a chromatic and learn to play it. I got myself a Hohner 270 and began playing with it. Once again, I was thrown off by the slide and windsavers. The truth is, the layout of the notes threw me off much more, and once again it went into a drawer to hibernate.

The hibernation did not last more than a couple years though, and I began trying to learn Chromatic Blues again. This time, Youtube has helped, as well as a lot of Google searching, and a website called www.Slidemeister.com.

Slidemeister is great. Though very few of the contributors there speak the blues vernacular, they are still chromatic players. Their encouragement has been helpful, and info I've found on that site has helped as well.

This song really gets my attention!

Blind Mississippi Morris at BB's

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to go downtown to Beale and soak up a little more blues. I was actually taking my new boss out to see the 'sights' and give him a feel for Memphis. So of course I took him to Beale Street.

When we got in BB's, they introduced Blind Mississippi (Morris) Cummings! Definitely a treat. That evening, he was just playing by himself with one guitarist. They didn't need no more! He laid down a bunch of great tunes and really lit the place up.

After the show, I bought a CD of his and it rocks every bit as good as his live show does. Great fun!

If you have a chance to see him play, make sure you do!

Charlie Musselwhite Live At the Dakota Jazz Room

While on a business trip to the Twin Cities, I decided to check out the blues scene up there (I live down south). A google search popped up the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis, and sure enough on my last night of the trip (Thursday night) Charlie Musselwhite was playing there.

The Dakota is a nice venue to go see good music. Food was a bit pricey, but it was good. I managed to get a seat all of 10 ft from the right side of the stage. The house was packed, but somehow I managed to get a full 4 person booth to myself got to sit in the best seat.

I had never seen Musselwhite live before, and he did not disappoint. His chops were great and he worked the crowd as I expected he would! The band was tight and his guitar player, Matt Stubbs, was killing it all night (I'm also a guitar player and really appreciate that instrument too).

 The set ran just under two hours and finished up with a great rendition of Christo Redentor. Definitely a great song recorded, but even better live.

After the show, I had the chance to meet Charlie and talk with him a bit and he really seems like a down to earth, genuine guy. I picked up copy of his latest CD and got it autographed by the band.

I thought the evening was over, and the club owner came out and announced that the second show was not quite full, so if we had paid for a 7pm ticket, we could stay for the 9pm show (for free)! I'm so glad I did. The second show was mostly different material than the first, and the band really kicked into high gear. Charlie cut them loose and let each member get a great solo section in, much to the crowd's great appreciation.

 Charlie is getting up there in years, and I'm glad I've gotten the chance to see him. So many of his peers are already gone. Seems like we've got to take the chances we've got to see the original innovators and creators of this great music.

All in all, an awesome show!

I also need to mention that the CD I brought home with all those autographs is awesome. It includes many of the tunes I heard at the show and just like the show, Charlie's licks are strong, his band is tight and the music is solid! Definitely worth picking up.

Some Changes To My Blog

When I started this blog, my intention was to post about Mandolin Blues. My intention remains just that, but reality has shown me that I have much wider interests in the blues than just those played on the Mandolin.

My interest in the blues started a very long time ago with a harmonica from the corner drugstore in my family's Arkansas hometown. Later, it grew to include the guitar when I first heard Stevie Ray Vaughan, I even played blues on the trumpet for a while during gradeschool. It was much later in life that I found blues on the Mandolin and the Electric Mandolin.

Truth be told, I'd be much better off sticking with one instrument, but understanding myself as well as I do, I know that as the surroundings of my life change, so do my interests. I know if I would stick with one instrument, I might become a master of one, instead of the master of NONE that I am.

I do plan to continue discussing mandolin blues as I originally intended, but now I'll talk about other blues experiences that I have here in the Bluff City. This is the home of the Blues! As Charlie Musselwhite said the other night (he's a fellow Memphian), 'The blues just comes up out of the ground in Memphis, and you can't help but get it'!