My Girlfriend had a mandolin occupying space at her house. It actually belonged to her ex-husband and had ended up in her possession after her divorce. I had been eying the mandolin for almost 6 months or so, and I finally ask if she thought her ex wanted it back. She was not sure, but stated that she would ask him the next time she spoke to him. So, she did and he did say that he wanted it back.
Well the mandolin sat around for almost a year and he never picked it up, although he came by every other week to pick up the kids. Finally in March last year I told her, I was going to clean it up and restring it and see what I could do with it. I headed to the local music store and picked up a couple of sets of strings and an instruction book that looked appropriate.
The mandolin was in pretty bad shape as paint had been spilled on it and it was just dirty. I went to work on it getting the paint off of it as well as cleaning and polishing it up. I oiled up the tuners and did some other light maintenance on it, put the strings on it and tuned it up.
Being the fact that I play guitar, I figured the mandolin would be a little easier to pick up. I figured out a few basic chords and I was off on my new adventure. The mandolin is a fascinating instrument in it's own right. The small scale and the fact that it is tuned in 5ths as opposed to as to 4ths like a guitar make it a unique sounding instrument. Plus it's a blast to play!
I get home with the mandolin, and begin searching the Internet for related sites. I wanted to know more about the history as well as the different types of music that mandolin is prominent in. Of course I am also looking for lessons, tips, sheet music. On the Internet all mandolin roads lead to The Mandolin Cafe web site. While looking around I happened on a thread about a picking festival scheduled for late April called Pickin' In The Park in Fayetteville Texas. I went to that web site to see what it was all about, and it looked really interesting. My interest was definitely piqued.
Let's back up here a minute and talk about my musical background a bit. I come from the Rock and Roll side of things. I was essentially raised on Top 40 radio in the early 70's as my Mom did not listen to country music at all. Top 40 evolved into Rock and Roll in my teens.
The Pickin' In The Park event was a bluegrass/old time music event. Something I had never experienced in person before. The extent of my exposure to bluegrass would have watching Hee Haw with my grandparents, and The Ballad of Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies.
The weekend came, and I ended up getting to go. The premise behind Pickin' In The Park is, you bring your instrument and set in with musicians and jam. The event is scheduled the second weekend of every month but the one in April was the kick off for the season. There were all kinds of vendors as well as Bluegrass bands scheduled to play on different stages through out the weekend. The best part is...it's FREE!
I did take my guitar, leaving the mandolin at home as I was still to new to the instrument to feel comfortable trying to jam with other people. I arrived at the festival around 11:00 on Saturday, and was completely blown away! There were pickers everywhere, of all ages, playing all kinds of instruments. Upright bass, banjo, mandolin, guitar, bouzoukis, dulcimers, resonator/Dobro guitars and probably a few other instruments I am forgetting.
There were groups of musicians jamming all around the town square. These groups would form and dissolve as the musicians would move from group to group. Some of these groups would get really large, especially if the core pickers were really talented. As I walked around listening to different groups I was so deeply touched by the music. The music was refreshing to me...all acoustic, no electronic processing, no gadgets, just the pickers and the music. Of course I was not familiar with any of the songs, but that did not stop the music from tugging at the strings of my heart.
Bluegrass and Old Time music are often referred to as "Front Porch Music", as was usually where it was performed. In this case I felt like I was on a revolving front porch, all of these incredibly talented musicians forming jams/groups spontaneously was like something out of a dream. What was more amazing were the teen pickers, I saw a kid that was probably all of 15 tearing a banjo up, he was so good he impressed the old timers in the groups he played with. There was another youngster probably around 17, that could fiddle his heart out and then turn around and play the mandolin, resonator, as well as regular guitar with the same finesse. And not a one of them looked like they had fallen face first into a tackle box!
I finally left around 1800 as it had been a long day, but I was seriously moved by this event. For the next 6 months all I listened to was Bluegrass music, what a wonderful world that is.
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