Mandolin CDs

I’m fairly new to the mandolin, and can’t seem to translate the ornaments from my fiddle playing to the mando. I need to listen to somebody good. Could someone suggest some CDs for me? Thank you.

Paul Kelly. Here’s an excellent CD:

http://celticgrooves.homestead.com/CG_Kelly_Paul.html

A lot of the fiddle ornaments don’t really translate well to mandolin. Mick Moloney (Album - Strings Attached) has a highly developed mando ornamenting style that some people find a bit too much, but I like it a lot. He ornaments as vigorously as Frankie Gavin does on the fiddle.

You could also listen to some banjo players. The style and technique of ornamentation will be very similar.

Meanwhile, I’m gonna listen to grego’s link.

Oops, it’s not a listening link.

Here are a couple of samples:

http://www.solitairestudio.com/malgamu-music.htm

You could visit www.mandolincafe.com for links and info
even though it is primarily a bluegrass site

Although he doesn’t play Irish music, Chris Thile is well worth listening to.

A few other noteworthies:

Dan Beimborn. His debut album “Shatter The Calm” https://thesession.org/recordings/658 spotlights a player of great muscularity and brio. Dan is currently working on the follow-up. I’ve heard the odd snippet and what I’ve heard demonstrates some distinct musical development. He retains all the power of his playing, but there’s a mellowness creeping into his playing which is delightful on the ear. Dan’s an incredibly nice bloke … forever passing on tips at the mandolincafe message board http://www.mandolincafe.net. His own website is well worth a look http://www.celticmusic.com … not least to dip into his encyclopaedic database on (mainly) vintage and contemporary high-end Gibson mandolins.

Chalk to Beimborn’s cheese is Michael Kerry. His “The Rocky Road” album is one of my favourite mandolin albums. Kerry has a delicate, dare I say “tender” approach to the music. He’s Clare to Beimborn’s Donegal; Hayes to Beimborn’s Glackin. Kerry can take an old warhorse such as “Out On The Ocean” and infuse the tune with such grace and beauty that it becomes a Palomino before your ears. I gather that “The Rocky Road” is hard to get hold of these days, but that some people have tracked it down through cdbaby http://www.cdbaby.com

Try obtaining Brendan O’Regan’s “A Wind Of Change” album. Lots of the bigger string instruments in evidence but the “wee yoke” is there as well.

Check out the mandolin playing of John McGann. His “Upslide” album featured some stuff that will be of interest, but to my mind his best outing to date has been on the recent Mapleshade release of Joe Derrane, Seamus Connolly and John McGann “The Boston Edge” where his mandolin playing is a delight. (However, his main role in the CD is as guitarist and the flashes of mandolin are relatively few and far between, but when you’re competing for airtime with Derrane and Connolly, you’re up against it!!)

And buy “Paddy In The Smoke” just to hear Father O’Keeffe playing “Condon’s Frolics/James McMahon’s Favourite”. (It’s a classic album, after all, and you won’t regret being able to soak up the atmosphere of what is generally regarded as London’s Irish music golden age!)

And don’t forget our pals across the water … some great mandolin stuff from Scotland. Kevin MacLeod has made two superb albums, Springwell and From Polbain To Oranmore … the latter with Alec Finn accompanying. I gather that Kevin’s in the process of putting together a further album and I’m itching to hear it. See http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/kevinmacleod/ for details on Kevin.

Dagger Gordon is likewise a master of the “highland mandolin” and has made two albums well worth checking out… “Highland Mandolin” and “The Frozen River”. Here are some details http://www.nigelgatherer.com/perf/music/mando/dagg.html

And then there’s Shetland’s Hom Bru featuring the complementary mandolins of Gary Petersen and Davie Henry. There’s Shooglenifty which once featured the legendary Iain MacLeod and which now features the equally legendary Luke Plumb. And on and on.

However, I sympathise with your predicament that as an aspiring mandolinist, your listening choice is very restricted. This was one of the reasons that I decided earlier this year to persuade a few mando luminaries to contribute to an upcoming compilation of traditional music on the mandolin. I’m hoping that it will be ready for release in the New Year and no doubt I’ll announce its arrival in these pages.

However … having said all of the above … there is a sense in which it’s quite exciting for mandolinists not to have heaps of role models around. There’s great scope for breaking new ground!

Hope this has been helpful.

have a look at www,mandolin.co.uk

Anything by Simon Mayor.

Aidan is Mandolin Central focal point for the UK and Ireland. I concur wholeheartedly with his post up there^.

Though I don’t know what “brio” is. Is that what Dan uses to make his hair stick up like that?

A piece marked “con brio” is to be played lively and with spirit. Brio means brilliance in Italian.

So he’s brilliant in Italian? 😉

When I first began playing traditional music (insert obligatory “wayyyy back in the ’70s”), which was also when I took up mandolin, I found inspiration from two obvious but formidable sources: Dave Swarbrick and Steeleye Span’s Peter Knight. They may have been obscured by time and the emergence of other talented mandolinists -- and I’m sure some would debate whether their style and approach represented the tradition well -- but both at least offered a benchmark for me.
I can point to two tracks in particular that got me going. Swarb’s duet with Dave Pegg during the “Flatback Capers” medley on the “Full House” album, especially their swingin‘ rendition of “O’Carolan’s Concerto” (I was quite surprised when I later heard it played “straight” by other musicians); and Peter Knight’s multi-tracked mandolins on the jig set on “Below the Salt.”
I should also mention Dave Richardson of The Boys of the Lough as an early influence, although of course he tended more toward cittern.

Paul Kelly on “The Mandolin Album” if you can find it. I had to order this CD from Malgamu Music in Dublin.

Thank you to everyone who helped me in my quest for mandolin CDs. I’m taking all of your advice; I’ve already ordered 4 new Cds. I have no excuse now for not becoming a better player. The websites are great; cdbaby is really fun. And the mandolin archives---? Oh, my. I’m just going to have to win the lottery!

To Cath: I listen to Chris Thile a lot…he makes me think of my mandolin as a hunk of glorified firewood..He’s phenomenal.

Thanks again to everyone. Can’t wait ’til my CDs arrive.

I just mentioned a classic on a banjo thread that should be included here, as well: Mick Moloney’s “Strings Attached.” Mandolin and banjo cuts alternate throughout the entire CD. The mandolin playing tends to be in the courtly style, with O’Carolan tunes and slow airs predominating, while the banjo tracks tend to be up-tempo dance music. But you can rob ideas from both for use on the mandolin and it’s a great CD. You could spend a whole lot of time with it getting great ideas for ornamentation on mandolin.