Blues Mandolin and Beyond

I discovered that the Paypal checkout on THE PURCHASABLE page for my DVD Hootenanny! was inoperable.  This has been fixed.  Buy away!

Pink Floyd has been one of my top bands for a very long time.  Whether it be the Syd Barret era Floyd, the Rogers Waters era, or the Waters-less era, Pink Floyd is still one of my favorites.  The Wall truly stands as a masterpiece within the band’s catalog and I can safely I say I learned every guitar part and solo from that album.  David Gilmour, much like Clapton, has the incomparable ability to say more with less.

I arranged Goodbye Blue Sky for octave mandolin some time back.  It works well for standard scale mando too.  The challenge of this fairly easy piece is two fold: 1)  try to achieve a ringing sound throughout to more closely achieve the open guitar string sound of the Gilmour’s playing and 2) achieve the steady “pulse” or “heartbeat” of the original.  It’s steady but never rushed.

Tab is available both in TEF and PDF on THE TRANSCRIBABLE page.

Rene Castro (bluesmandolinman on the mandolincafe.com) politely rebuked me for not giving any report back on the Rich DelGrosso workshop I sponsored here in Bloomington last month. Figured I post some photos and share some info.

First off, as always, I feel very fortunate to have sponsors (likewise, good friends) in the mandolin community who help me get these events to completion. You’d think Bloomington Indiana would have some stuff going on between the IU here in town and BeanBlossom 30 minutes down the road, but it ain’t true. There are less than a handful of us in south central and central Indiana that put these things on. Plus, when you consider that 75 per cent of my camps include out of towners, some traveling as far away as New York State, maybe there’s not much going on period..

Any case, my deep thanks to Scott Tichenor and Will Kimble for continuing to give me support when I need it (and when I don’t even ask for it). Will is my compadre and it’s a definite plus to having him around at the events. He helps me keep my head on straight.

Also, Paul Wagoner, the innkeeper at the Grant St. Inn, is first class and has helped me every since I started putting these on with Taterbug. If you’ve attended any of my things out here, please send a note of appreciation to Paul at the Inn and let him know you’d like to see them continue to support us in these ventures. They’re a first rate bunch over there.

The man of the hour was obviously Rich. I had obviously been aware of Rich’s body of work before I first met him summer 2008 at the Midwest Mando Fest. Very friendly, personable, had a great time playing with him and Andra Faye. Sat in his workshop and was very impressed by his teaching ability. Given that he’s a retired science teacher, the man has the education bag down.

We had a wonderful meet and greet Friday evening, with Rich leading the round circle jam. Saturday was the workshop. Rich makes full use of his time. There was a precious lot of info, good instruction, and tab in his 4 and 1/2 hours.

We had 10 students for the workshop, including the 11 year old Maria Sarah, a music prodigy. Right now voice is her strong suit, but her instrumental abilities are quickly developing.

Saturday evening we had the concert. Myself, JJ Perry, Doc Malone, and Bruce Lockwood opened up with a couple of tunes and then backed Rich up for and hour and 1/2 of blues goodness, culminating in members of the workshop joining us for the last tune.

Rich and I afterwards spent awhile talking about his association with Howard Armstrong (Louie Blouie).

A great, though tiring, time. After this was over, I thought about not doing anymore do to the amount of work. But given a month respite, I’m already starting to come up with ideas for either this year or next. I have a great one in mind, suggested by a friend. We’ll see where it goes.

If you attended and want to share, feel free. I thank you for coming.

Camp Attendees

Rich with Jim, Bruce, Doc, and JJ (Photo by Tina Hanagan)

A few months ago someone messaged me through YouTube asking for some far out rock with “Frankenstein” being one of the requests.

I worked this up over a period of a couple days.  Hard part is keeping track of all the parts.  Hope you enjoy!