Finnders & Youngberg, Colorado’s premier Americana quintet, will add yet another honor to their impressive resume: they’ve been chosen as an official showcase act for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass conference in Nashville, Tenn., this fall. They are one of just 13 acts invited to perform during the bluegrass industry’s biggest and most important week.
Festival Mozaic has announced its 2012 summer season, which will take place July 12-22 in the most charismatic spaces across California's Central Coast including Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, Chapel Hill in wine country, Hearst Castle overlooking the sparkling Pacific Ocean, and Mission San Miguel . The theme, "In The Footsteps of Giants," will showcase a lineage of masterworks which inspired – and were inspired by – phenomenal composers over the ages.
The San Francisco Mandolin Orchestra with singers Susan Gundunas and Twila Ehmcke will be performing one of the gems of the Baroque music era, Stabat Mater, written in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
The Newport Festivals Foundation has announced the lineup for the 2012 Newport Folk Festival set to take place July 28-29 at Fort Adams State Park.
This album is sophisticated urban pop played with a combination of acoustic instruments usually found in bluegrass bands. Any further references to blugrass is hard to find on the album.
A neurological disorder called dystonia is estimated to have ended the careers of at least one member of every major American metropolitan orchestra. Dystonia has claimed the livelihoods of musicians across genres including the acclaimed pianist Leon Fleisher of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, former first oboist of the Chicago Symphony Alex Klein, acoustic guitarist Billy McLaughlin, classical guitarist Liona Boyd, keyboard player Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and others.
Luckily, Alexandra Coutinho and Rio Con Brio decided to make this a stand alone album. The plan was to feature Alexandra Coutinho on some tracks of Rio Con Brio's Caprice.
Caprice is an album by a guitar and mandolin duo playing mostly choro standards. It could be a challenge to make this fly. Rio Con Brio have pulled it off.
Watertown is an honest low cost production. All tracks but one are signed songwriter Cheryl J. Watson. Fellow musicians helped her by contributing takes from their home studios.
The expression Goat Rodeo is a description for an event where a hundred things must go right in order for the event to work. That is the concept for this cross genre production.
Magazine
A mandolin camp for the Rest of Us
Jim Richter is inviting all to his 1st annual Jim Richter rock-n-blues mandolin camp. He hopes it'll approach mandolin instruction from a perspective more immediately beneficial and useful than some workshops. He also has top ten advices for beginners.
By Reidar Falch
"Calling me Jim is perfectly fine. As the old joke goes, you can call me whatever you like, as long as you call me to supper," Jim Richter opens.
Jim Richter - Photo by Micaela Richter
Jim Richter's top ten advices to the beginner
- Have fun!
- Don't feel obligated to learn Golden Slippers or Old Dan Tucker if you have no interest in that style of music.
- Though it is true that you can make music on near anything, buy the best mandolin you can afford. Nothing discourages a beginner than an instrument that doesn't fret true, bounces out of tune, and sounds like crap.
- Regardless of instrument quality, have a professional technician or luthier set up the mandolin.
- Attend a mandolin workshop or camp. This is not so much for the instruction, as it is the networking. It's an opportunity to meet other pickers, swap mandolins for an evening, and breathe everything mandolin. Become immersed.
- Keep the mandolin handy to pick on throughout the day. You should spend 1/2 hour playing daily, but that doesn't have to be in one sitting. Play a few minutes here and there as you have the time and inclination.
- Practice with a metronome.
- One of the easiest mods you can do to your sound is trying different strings and picks. Don't be afraid to experiment. You don't have to use the archetypal mandolin pick. Find what's comfortable for you and sounds good to your ear.
- Before stretching out, learn the melody to any song you're learning.
- My most important one: breathe the genre of music you want to play. Listen to it, investigate it, analyze it, and become enculturated. The culture which created a musical genre cannot be overlooked. How can one seriously play reggae without understanding Jamaica, Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, Jamaica's abject poverty, it's roots in RockSteady or Ska, it's American R&B influences, etc. And those that I name barely scratch the surface. I'm not one who says that a white guy can't play the blues. Or that a person from Eastern Europe can't play bluegrass. However, to be more than a parrot of the music, it requires a deeper commitment to living and understanding the music. I've taught bluegrass banjo to people who owned no Earl Scruggs. If they wanted to learn blues banjo, that wouldn't be an issue. However, you tell me that you want to play Scruggs style banjo without ever listening to Scruggs save for the Beverly Hillbillies Theme? Lesson 1 was instructing that person to listen to Earl Scruggs, if just to make sure that is the style of banjo he wanted to learn.
Jim is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, banjo, bass and mandolin, "Of the instruments I play, mandolin is the one through which I feel the most complete as a musician. I'm a good bluegrass banjo player, but not much else. On guitar, I'm a heckuva blues and blues-oriented rock player, but not a compleat player. Mandolin, however, is the genre-busting instrument where I think I make the best music."
"I became enraptured with bluegrass and New Grass Revival back in the early 80's. I had already been playing classical guitar for a year prior to seeing the newly reformed NGR with Fleck and Flynn. For those who don't know, NGR was the granddaddy of all newgrass jambands, originally staffed by Sam Bush, John Cowan, Curtis Birch, and Courtney Johnson. When Birch and Johnson quit circa 1981, it was reformed with Bush, Cowan, Bela Fleck, and Pat Flynn," Jim says.
He continues, "After seeing Bela play, I started playing banjo that week. But I also loved Sam and less diligently took to learning some mandolin. At this time it wasn't my passion, however. I played mandolin on and off for 15 years, till I seriously picked it up in 2002, with the focus on blues and old time mandolin, including some Monroe."
Jim has posted his music on YouTube, "Motivation? That is hard to say. I think it primarily comes from being somewhat musically isolated, as I don't gig, teach, or play as much as I used to due to family. I have a day job, 3 kids, a wife, and am currently in school. YouTube is a conduit for sharing my creativity with others, since I can't gig or jam that frequently. I love live performance or jamming more than anything musical. It's also a litmus test to see how my arrangements or instruction connect with people."
Jim Richter - Voodoo Child
He is very proud to say that the YouTube videos has connected with people, "I regularly receive emailed testimonials from people who claim to have picked up the mandolin because they saw my Voodoo Child or Rain Song videos. Do you realize how that makes me feel? I picked up mandolin because of Sam Bush, who is a bona fide icon of mandolin. How overwhelming is it for someone to tell you that started playing because of what you've done. Someone you've never met, never seen, and maybe lives 1/2 a world away."
"I don't gig that often -definitely not more than regionally, my discography is short, and my chops are above average. Yet YouTube has allowed me to connect with someone on a very personal level. I didn't start posting stuff on YouTube because of that, but it is why I continued," he states.
His announced camp is for the Rest of Us. He explain the concept of the Rest of Us, "Those individuals who get into music, want to make an artistic statement, but feel overshadowed and tiny next to those with powerful technique. This comes from my own battles with thinking I'm a hack because I don't have the clean rolling eighth notes of an Adam Steffey, the incredibly fast triplet runs of a Andy Leftwich, or the genre jumping abilities of Chris Thile. At times I think your professionalism as a mandolinist is based on technique and not substance."
"It can also include those who get into it for fun, but feel that the music instruction available is not for them," Jim continues.
Jim Richter
Jim Richter
Jim's approach to teaching is one of co-leadership, "At its most authoritarian, it would be mentorship. I'm a firm believer that we each learn in different ways; thus, no one way can be the right way."
"I've worked in mental health and social work for 20 years and am currently in the Masters in Counseling program at Indiana University-Bloomington. My approach to music education cannot be separated from that experience," he states.
"The over-arching desire I have in the co-leader relationship with the student is to assist the student reach his/her stated goals by helping them locate the trigger for change and the barriers disallowing this," he is using the word student just to clarify the role of the co-leader.
Jim's question is, "For example, someone wants to be a blues player. Why should the student start out in some of the primers readily available which focus on bluegrass, scales, etc? If the person wants to play for fun, why should I take him down the road of scales, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, etc?"
He will ask them what they want to play for fun and allow them to direct the nature of the education, "I want the student to feel that they are making progress from the beginning, which usually means being able to play some songs they like or to jam with others. Very few students actually want to become contest pickers or professional musicians. Why should music instruction for these folks come from that more formalistic perspective?"
"Students do not sign on to a particular Jim Richter system of learning. At most, they sign on to a Jim Richter approach, which is Jim being supportive and allowing the student to determine the curriculum and pace of learning. Will this approach work for everyone? -No, because some can be uncomfortable without the traditional and rigid teacher/student relationship," he explains.
Jim's approach to music in general? "Saying the most with the fewest notes possible. Finding a great melody and sticking with it. Studying John Lennon is never time wasted."
The 1st annual Jim Richter rock-n-blues mandolin camp happens July 22nd and 23rd. It'll be held in Bloomington Indiana at the Grant St. Inn.
Radim Zenkl, the Czech-born, California-based magician of the mandolin has been on the road and onstage since he arrived in the USA more than twenty years ago. He recently swung through my hometown of Portland, Oregon and performed his eclectic solo show to a packed house of enthusiastic fans.
Rio Con Brio started out to make one CD. As they recorded tracks, they realized they had two albums on their hands. One is their third choro album, the other is the debut of fado singer Alexandra Coutinho.
If you were there, you’ll agree that the Baltimore host team put on an excellent convention for our quarter-century landmark. With so many people attending, the energy level was high. If you weren’t there, you want to know what you missed. Here are some highlights.
James "Yank" Rachell was the primary exponent of blues mandolin, although he also played guitar, violin, harp and sang expertly well.
To create a violin with the same characteristics as the 1704 instrument known as "Betts," Dr. Sirr worked with professional violin makers John Waddle and Steve Rossow of St. Paul, Minn. They used a CT scanner and a CNC router. Here are a few photos.
Recently, Cheryl Watson released a CD called Watertown. She unplugged her Fender Tele and turned to acoustic guitars. She traded a guitar for her first mandolin. Chloe, her cat, listen with the eyes closed when Cheryl plays the mandolin.
International mandolin super-group revives the name and repertoire of a 1930's Polish Jewish mandolin orchestra. And this September, they took the music back to its source. Full story and notes from the tour by one of the Ger mandolinists.
Alon Sariel is young, gifted and busy. He is one of those remarkable guys from the Beer Sheva Mandolin Orchestra in Israel. This Friday he appears in Cambridge, UK, to teach in the Cambridge Performance Masterclasses.
Conference. College. Genre bazaar. Horizon expander. Mandolinirvana. Musical family reunion. An ear-stretching, soul-filling, life-altering immersion experience. Surely, we must be talking about the Mandolin Symposium.
Nigel Forster is a luthier. He has a lot of thoughts about his trade. One book is not enough space for his thoughts. He willingly shares more thoughts.
Jim Richter is inviting all to his 1st annual Jim Richter rock-n-blues mandolin camp. He hopes it'll approach mandolin instruction from a perspective more immediately beneficial and useful than some workshops. He also has top ten advices for beginners.
"Enjoy." This quiet word, unheard by the expectant audience behind him, flew straight from the conductor's lips to the hearts of 35 mandolin, mandola, and mandocello players. Instantly, the chemistry in a Chelsea rehearsal room in the middle of New York City was altered - a subtle change, but the perfect one.
Raffaele Calace released his mandolin method in 1910. Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg have reissued his work in English, 100 years later.
He found way to combine Finnish traditional music and Brasilian choro. An unique flavour of choro was born.
Los Hermanos Cubero, The Cubero Brothers, live in Lliçà d'Amunt, a small town near Barcelona in Catalunya, Spain. Combining their folk music with bluegrass is a natural consequence of their influences.
French rock star Feloche has created his own cajun universe. It's rooted in his Urban Bajou.
"Oi, Druzil here," he presents himself, "The Dread Pirate Druzil is the resident mandolin, banjo, and tin whistle player in the world travelling band of raving drunken lunatics and purveyors of fine clusterfolk known as the Dreadnoughts."
Tim O'Brien is a traveller. He wants to get off the road and write and produce more.
Mandolin Cafe was launched November 18, 1995. The number one mandolin site is celebrating 15 years.
The education of the fashionable girl is not complete nowadays until she has secured a certain degree of proficiency in playing upon one or more of the popular string instruments.