Hello again...

Charlie Poole and the North
Carolina Ramblers: a famous Old Time
stringband in the 1920s

This is my second attempt at a music blog. The first was terminated abruptly when it got accidentally deleted along with a misspelt email account…

The first blog touched on my entire musical engagement with English traditional folk music, including acapella singing, the Crane Duet Concertina and a host of other musical instruments which mostly gather dust. I don't know how much of that I'll bother to catalogue again. This new blog appears at a time when I have just turned a musical corner, so a clean slate feels quite appropriate.

 My current consuming interest, only publicly revealed at the beginning of last month, is in singing American songs with mandolin accompaniment. The songs are in the Old Time/Bluegrass/Early Country/Skiffle area, but I'm still coming to terms with definitions so let me pass on that for the time being.

Many if not most people are sceptical about mandolin accompaniment in a solo context. They suggest getting a guitar or a partner with a guitar, but there are precedents and I think it works. IMO the mandolin is good for both strumming and adding in melodic breaks (when I've learnt to pick). At some point I'll put some samples on SoundCloud.

As this new enthusiasm is absorbing a lot of my attention, I'm not sure how much time I'll have for my old interest in traditional English folk song, with or without concertina accompaniment. After several years of focusing on the concertina I felt I had reached a dead end. As and when I go back to it, I need to develop a more chordal approach.

In the meantime I'm concentrating on the mandolin and developing my repertoire of Americana.