Mike Marshall's Mandolin Concerto No. 1
Thu, 05/08/2014 - 11:22am
American Public Media has featured Mike Marshall's "Mandolin Concerto No. 1" on their program Performance Today. In Hour 2 of the broadcast, they play the full Mandolin Concerto which Mike composed himself for the New Century Chamber Orchestra and was influenced by his love for bluegrass as well as Bach.
For more information on the New Century Chamber Orchestra visit their website at ncco.org.
Into My Own - The New Album from Bryan Sutton
Wed, 05/14/2014 - 12:05pm
“The goal was to try to make a record that only I could make.” - Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton's new album Into My Own is now available on Sugar Hill Records. The album marks an evolution for Bryan as a singer and songwriter, with five of the tracks featuring him as lead singer. Other musicians on the album include Bill Frisell, Noam Pikelny, Sam Bush, Ronnie McCoury and Stuart Duncan among others. As always when Bryan plays guitar, expect to hear flatpicking at its finest!
Visit Bluegrass Today to read their in-depth review and check out the links below for purchase information.
The Best Dobro Songs According to Andy Hall
Fri, 05/16/2014 - 8:35am
Dobro expert Andy Hall tells us what he thinks the best Dobro songs are out there. Some of these you may be familar with while others you may not have heard before. Either way, they're all great Dobro songs that come highly reccommended by a great Dobro player. These are in no particular order and we've included Andy's notes on each one above the videos. There's also some great Dobro playing from Andy on the new Infamous Stringdusters album Let It Go, which is now available.
We Hide and Seek - Jerry Douglas
"To me this song really defines the creative approach to modern Dobro music. Most Dobro music tends to be heavily blues based, but this embodies a more melodic, more adventurous sound."
Profiles In Online Learning: Annie, Mandolin Student
Thu, 05/29/2014 - 4:57pm
Annie is a musical sign language interpreter who started off her musical journey tone deaf and discouraged at the idea of learning an instrument. She overcame her hesitation by teaching herself to play violin, and now takes Mike Marshall's mandolin lessons here at ArtistWorks.
AW: How did you get into playing mandolin?
Annie: I was playing violin and you always play by turning to the left with your chin on the instrument, and you never get to play in the other direction. I wondered how good that could be for your body. I wanted to play more, and mandolin has the same fingering [as violin] and it's one less instrument because you're not dealing with the bow. So I tried mandolin and fell in love with it.
Annie is a musical sign language interpreter who started off her musical journey tone deaf and discouraged at the idea of learning an instrument. She overcame her hesitation by teaching herself to play violin, and now takes Mike Marshall's mandolin lessons here at ArtistWorks.
AW: How did you get into playing mandolin?
Annie: I was playing violin and you always play by turning to the left with your chin on the instrument, and you never get to play in the other direction. I wondered how good that could be for your body. I wanted to play more, and mandolin has the same fingering [as violin] and it's one less instrument because you're not dealing with the bow. So I tried mandolin and fell in love with it.
