“Mangler of Bluegrass”
Well, if Bill Monroe heard this recording, he'd probably say "that ain't no part of nuthin'"...
“Mangler of Bluegrass” is my track-by-track deconstruction of one of my
favorite recordings of all time, Bill Monroe's "Master of Bluegrass",
recorded and released when Bill was 70 years old (!) in 1981.
This great recording remained unreleased on CD until January of 2007, when
Bear Family Records released a four CD box set entitled “My Last Days On
Earth”, which contained “Master of Bluegrass” in all of it’s glorious
entirety...
Finally!!
I bought “Master of Bluegrass”
on vinyl the day it came out in
‘81, mainly because I had heard
Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass
Boys perform “Right,Right On”
at the Great American Music Hall
in San Francisco, and just loved the
tune.
“MOB” didn’t disappoint, but there
certainly was a slipshod feel to the
whole affair. Larry Sledge, the bassist on the sessions, later confided
that “we did the entire recording in one session, just not much over 3 hours”.
Wow.
From the wacky production (for bluegrass, that is) to the cool cover art,
"Master of Bluegrass" was a gem, and yet it seemed to always cruise a little
bit under the radar in the bluegrass community.
I started to become a little obsessed with this recording that was only
available on vinyl or cassette (until very recently), and started playing
and recording the tunes just for grins...
One thing led to another, and fairly soon I had quite a few of them on tape.
But there was one problem. Some of them rocked, and some of them rolled,
and none of them really were “bluegrass”...
Thus, “Mangler” it is, with each tune taking on a different genre...
Sorry, Bill.....
OK, here’s the tunes:
“Old Ebenezer Scrooge” opens the CD,
and features a nylon-string mandola
(pictured, right) made by the late
great Ted Beringer...
That’s Mr. Bill layin’ down the law...
“Right, Right On” is next up, with
Jon Parry on fiddle, Mike Simmons
on drums, Jeff Gray on Doghouse
Bass, and me on an Epiphone
Mandobird...
Quite the romp...
“Melissa's Waltz for J.B.” again features Jon on fiddle, and me on
just about everything else. The leads are played on a Bob Schneider hybrid
F4/F5 (pictured below right)--a great mandolin. A Lawrence Smart mandola
and a Paul Duff mandocello join an 1889 pump organ and a Marxaphone....
“Fair Play” again features the Schneider,
along with a Cabletub Bass, a bass
harmonica, dobro, washboard, and
Udu. Jon Parry again on the fiddle...
“Evening Prayer Blues” has Mike
Simmons on drums, Jon on fiddle,
and me on a Bill Bussman octave
mandolin, a Jamie Wiens piccolo
mandolin (solo kicks in at 2:37),
doghouse bass, and percussion...
Thanks to Charles Wolfe for permission to use
the snippet of Deford Bailey’s original version
of EPB that closes the track...
Love that tune...
I’ve been playing a lot of surf music lately here on the island, and
I realized “Come Hither to Go Yonder” might make a dandy little
surf tune...
Dave “Toaster” Seward is on the drum kit, and I’m playing a five-
string electric mandolin made by Joel Eckhaus at Earnest
Instruments (pictured below right), an old Harmony H22 bass,
Baritone Danelectro, and an Omnichord...
“Lochwood” was a fun live track to cut,
with Mike Simmons on drums, Dr.
Jim Lindquist on bass, me on a
Telecaster, and Phil Sottile on
slide guitar.
Phil really gets some great tones
on this take....
“Lady Of The Blue Ridge” is inspired
by the recordings of Aldus Roger.
A very special thanks to Mike
Schway on this one, who plays
the fiddle and squeezebox...
I tried to get the lap steel parts as authentically “bad” as possible.
Toaster Seward on the drum kit....
“Old Daingerfield” (or “Dangerfield”) was recorded in the back of a pickup
truck in Northern Thailand. I’m on 4-string banjo, and Slappy Tubbs is on Thai chicken-whistle...
A pretty good memory...
“My Last Days on Earth” closes the CD, with me leading the way on a Gavin
Baird F5 mandolin tuned AA, DD, AC, DF low-to-high...
The chorus and cello were played on a Chamberlin, one of the most amazing musical instruments ever made...
--------------
OK, “Mangler of Bluegrass” was recorded, Mixed, and Mastered in a Spartan
Mansion Trailer on Orcas island, Washington, and at Bruceland in Bellingham,
Washington.
Special thanks to Jimmy Mudd and Jezibel, Andrew Youngren for graphics, and all the folks who played on these tracks....
And John Sullivan, Gavin Baird, Paul Duff, Dana Bourgeois, Ted Beringer,
Jamie Wiens, Lawrence Smart, Joel Eckhous, Bob Schneider, Kenton Owsley and Bill Bussman for their wonderful instruments...
This CD is for all the folks at
Enjoy!
Bruce Harvie