Tag Archives: Don Julin

Bringing Mountain Music to the City

LunchmeatLet me tell you about the night my fingers snapped off and fell onto a beer-stained wood floor.

A tremendous rainstorm had its way with the sky as I moved across the Hudson River. I pulled up to a roadhouse about ten miles north of Manhattan. Juggling my guitar case and an umbrella, I brushed past the determined smokers huddled outside by the front door, walked down the length of the bar to a small alcove in the back, and nodded to a couple of folks I recognized. For a few months I’d heard talk about a bluegrass jam in the neighborhood, and this was my first chance to check it out.

Despite having been a finger-style player for over 50 years, with an interest in all sorts of old-time and roots music, I’d never attempted to do any serious flatpickin’ before. Still, I figured it couldn’t be all that hard. Three or four chords, a good capo, and a Fender 451 medium pick would do the trick, right? And after all, this is New York, not the hills of Kentucky. I’d step up, dazzle, and shred.

Right. Can you see where this train wreck is headed?

Tara Linhardt is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist from rural Taylorstown, Virginia, who moved here less than a year ago and has already earned recognition in the relatively small but highly talented New York bluegrass scene. In addition to organizing the monthly jam that attracts a large and talented group of musicians, she also teaches mandolin and guitar, plays in several bands, is an excellent photographer, and has put together a number of festivals and events. She organized and broke the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest mandolin group. Tara & The Galax Fiddler’s Convention Mandolin Ensemble featured 389 mandolins that performed four tunes. Including this one:

She’s also a founding and managing member of The Mountain Music Project, which works to preserve, promote, and educate folks about traditional music throughout the world. That project focuses mostly on the Appalachian region of the United States and the traditional music of the Nepali Himalaya.

There’s a film documentary about the project that’s been released on DVD, and a collaborative album that, along with Linhardt, features other American musicians like Sammy Shelor, Tim O’Brien, Curtis Burch, Mark Schatz, Abigail Washburn, Danny Knicely, and Tony Trischka.

That rainy night jam, which I thought would be a piece of cake, ended up serving me a big slice of humble pie.

The 15 musicians who stood in the circle were by and large regulars on the festival and jam circuit, professional performers, parking lot pickers, and other assorted but exceptional players. From the opening notes, which seemed to be going at about 220 beats per minute, it took every ounce of energy in my body to keep up.

I kept my eyes glued to the left hand of singer/guitarist Christian Apuzzo, whom I had met previously when his band opened for Billy Strings and Don Julin. I could strum the chords but felt like I was on a roller coaster with no brakes. My mouth was hanging open most of the time in awe of the musicianship. I thought I did pretty well until about an hour and 45 minutes into it, when Linhardt looked over at me and yelled, “You’re behind the beat … step to the back.” Now I didn’t take that as being mean spiritied at all, but instructive. This jam is a welcoming and friendly place for all players.

Nevertheless, given how easy I expected this to be…cue instant exhalation and deflation.

Two songs later, I called it quits. My fingers were as crispy as fried clams.

I wasn’t quite finished foolin’ around with this bluegrass excursion yet, though. I showed up two weeks later for another shot. This time I swapped the jumbo cutaway for my more traditional dreadnought, put on heavier strings, and grabbed a handful of Dunlop 1.14 mm picks.

I still couldn’t last more than a couple of hours. I apparently, desperately need to lock myself in a room with Tony Rice videos, but as long as Lindhart keeps the door open I’m going to try to walk through it again. Because while it’s great to write about music, it’s even better to make it.

Matheus Verardino, who played harmonica in that first video, and the aforementioned Christian Apuzzo are members of Cole Quest and the City Pickers. They have a new album that’s currently being mixed.  And it might be of interest to know that Cole ‘Quest’ Rotante sings and plays Dobro. His mom’s name is Nora and his uncle is Arlo. You can figure out that lineage.  I like this band.

Linhardt has been touring this year with Shyam Nepali of the Mountain Music Project. At this year’s Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, they played with percussionist Raj Kapoor, Apuzzo (this dude is everywhere), and violinist extraordinaire and fellow jammer Mary Simpson, who was a founding member of Whiskey Rebellion and now tours with Yanni.

Photo of Lunchmeat Larry by Tara.

This was originally published at No Depression dot com, as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column.

Don Julin: The Mandolin Master From Michigan

Don Julin

Earlier this year Devon Leger over at Hearth Music sent out an email blast touting a new release he was working. It was the debut album from an old-time music duo by the name of Billy Strings and Don Julin from somewhere other than Seattle, Austin or Brooklyn. I really liked the album, and was quite impressed with some of the videos I found on the internet. In fact, I ended up sharing one recently in my highly anticipated annual (ok…this was the first year) Lazy Man’s Guide to My Favorite Albums of 2014.

In early November I got a chance to see these guys open for David Grisman and Del McCoury at the City Winery in New York. From the opening notes, their set decimated the room and left the audience dazed and staggering. And not from over-consumption of the white Zinfandel. While many of their videos seem a bit laid back, in front of an audience Billy channels some alternative world version of Doc Watson and Don attacks his instrument like the fury unleashed from a metal band but with the delicate hand of a fine line artist.

The energy these two men bring to the stage, never mind the mastery of their craft and a catalog of songs that seems as if it comes up from a bottomless well, makes the heart race and the brain freeze. I think on several occasions I had to make a point to lift up my chin to shut my mouth, because it was a jaw dropping set. Although I knew Billy was young with Don being the older of the two, at times it was hard to tell which was which. I even developed this little theory that the duo was really a ‘put on’…that Don was really in his twenties but wearing makeup, fake beard and a costume, and Billy had one of those rubber masks to hide his true age and identity.

The day after the show I reached out to Don and asked if I he wouldn’t mind doing a new fangled type of interview. Meaning, we traded emails and finally settled on some questions that I’d be able to ask and he’d write a reply to. Cut and paste journalism. Below is the outcome, and I think the story of the two men coming together, along with Don’s personal journey, makes for a very interesting read.

Q. Far from Appalachia and based in upper-Michigan, how did you discover the mandolin and eventually get into the bluegrass/old-time world? Or less politely, where the hell did Don Julin come from? And were you able earn a living while raising a family by staying local, or did you need to get out on the road?

A: I started playing mandolin in 1979 at the age of 19 after hearing the first DGQ (David Grisman Quintet) album. I started playing a few open mics and coffee house type gigs and realized that I really liked playing live music in front of an audience. At the same time, I was enrolled in the local community college studying music theory. I became friends with a couple classmates and we started jamming a bit in our free time. In Traverse City Michigan we had, and still do have this great college radio station (WNMC) that at that time featured a variety of new music including reggae, ska, punk, avant-garde jazz, etc. We were all attracted to that sound so we started a band called the Microtones. It realized that my favorite instrument may not be well suited for this music so I went to the local music store and bought a Fender Stratocaster. We played some dances and benefits and eventually got good enough to record two 45’s and take the band on the road playing college bars around the Midwest for a few years.

Around 1988 I decided to settle down, get married, and start a family; which meant playing gigs close to home, running a small demo recording studio, doing some live mixing for other bands and any other form of music related activity that could generate some income. Remember, I was about to become a daddy and them diapers can be expensive. It was that same time, that I put down the Strat and picked the mandolin back up. I started gigging around town playing any type of music I could on the mandolin, eventually getting into electric mandolins so I could play with louder electric bands and jazz combos with drums and horns. I started giving mandolin lessons at a local music store to help make ends meet and found that I enjoyed it quite a bit. For the most part I stayed pretty close to home for 24 years while my kids were growing up.

A few years ago William Apostol (AKA Billy Strings) moved to Traverse City and started getting some attention. He has a large repertoire of traditional bluegrass songs and knows the Doc Watson style better than anyone I had ever played with. This gave me a chance to play some of the music that first attracted me to the mandolin. I have had a great time making the transformation from the eclectic mandolin guy that could be seen playing Bob Marley, Frank Zappa, Antonio Carlos Jobim or Miles Davis, to a bluegrass mandolin player trying to incorporate the styles of Bill Monroe, Frank Wakefield, David Grisman, and all of the great bluegrass mandolin players. What I found is that not only is the mandolin built for bluegrass, but bluegrass is built for the mandolin.

Q: When I plugged your name into a Google search, it came up with what seems like a million hits for a book called Mandolins for Dummies, which came out in 2012 and has great reviews. I also found a You Tube video shot at some festival of you performing with David Grisman, and the two of you together are pretty captivating. Had you met before that, and can you share about about your book?

A: The video of Dawg and I was actually shot at the 2011 Mandolin Symposium in Santa Cruz California. I first attended the Mandolin Symposium in 2009 as a student and was invited back in 2011 to assist by leading the swing/jazz jam sessions held nightly after the faculty concerts. That is where I became friends with many of my mandolin heroes including Dawg, Mike Marshall, Andy Statman, Don Stiernberg, and others.

In 2011 I was approached by Wiley publishing about the possibility of authoring Mandolin For Dummies. After a fairly long qualifying process they offered me a contract on the book. Apparently I had the skill set they were looking for. I could play a variety of music on the mandolin, had some teaching experience, could produce standard notation and tablature, had a small studio in my basement were the audio tracks could be recorded, and knew a lot of top level pros that I could go to for specific techniques or advice if needed. I actually ended up reaching out to many of the worlds best mandolin players for specific techniques.

There is a chapter on Dawg music which David personally proof read and approved, a chapter on blues mandolin which Rich DelGrosso contributed, a chapter on Irish mandolin which has some great tips and techniques as shown by Marla Fibish, and a bluegrass chapter with some exercises from Mike Compton. The book has been successful enough for Wiley to offer a contract on a second, book entitled Mandolin Exercises For Dummies, which was finished and released earlier this year.

Q: When I got to see you onstage with Billy Strange, whom I believe is in his early twenties, the first thought I seriously had was that you both might be acting…or playing roles in a play. He sounds older than his age, and you seem younger than your bio. Can you clear that up…just how old are you guys and how did you hook up as a duo?

A: I am 54 years old and Billy is 22, which proves that music is really a global language that transcends things like age. We do have different interests off stage but we both share the same intense love of music. We met simply because we live in the same town. Billy is an amazing musician and can play many years beyond is age, but offstage he is clearly a young guy having all the fun that he should be having at that age. His youthful energy most likely does keep me a bit younger and maybe my experience mellows him out a bit. It seems to be a good match on and off the stage.

Q: Based on the audience reaction and some glowing reviews I’ve read for the album, it feels like the two of you are about to really take off. Is this something you guys did as a one-off project, or are you committed to riding it out as duo? I see you’ve signed with a booking agent, which indicates to me you’re in for the long haul. If so, is this the first time for you to commit to traveling on the circuit, or have you done it previously in another incarnation?

A: We are both committed to taking this as far as we can. We recently signed with a great booking agency and are currently talking to several managers. It started out as a local project to play a few gigs around town and has turned into a full time touring operation. Before I had kids I was traveling on the road with the Microtones but we stayed primarily in the Midwest. Now that my kids are grown, I am free to travel more so this opportunity came at the perfect time for me.

Q: From my observation sitting in the audience, you and Billy offered up energy and intensity that really connected from the first note. I love duos, and yours is one of the better I’ve come across. How has the reaction been on your other gigs?

A: You saw it! It is like that night after night. We feel very lucky and sometimes even question the enthusiasm. We just go up on stage and do what comes naturally.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email is easyed@therealeasyed.com

Americana and Roots Music Videos: December 2014

Pixabay License

I was reminded this morning as I went out to shop at our local market that the year is winding down. How did I know? Because there was a lonely trombonist standing outside the door playing a dirge-like version of “O Come All Ye Faithful” in one/one time, and he managed to hit every single note about a half-tone flat. It made me want to write a check for a thousand dollars and drop it into the red kettle just to get him to stop.

The second thought I had was a reminder to myself…it is damn hard to make good music. I’ve not seen the stats from the past year but if they’re close to the year before, musicians have released about 120,000 albums….or about a million new songs. Only about a thousand albums will be heard (via stream or purchase) more than a thousand times, and with the exception of Taylor Swift and a handful of others who will get a couple million of listens, the rest will likely be distributed to friends and families and house concert attendes…making for a wonderful memory in a couple of decades.

I am not your everyday music consumer, and don’t pretend to be. I’ll rarely write a review, tend to wiggle-waggle back and forth between seeking out something new, or spending months pursuing 78s of long forgotten string bands or jazz bands that came and went in a blink of an eye. One night every two weeks I’ll Spotify a couple dozen new releases, maybe hop on over to You Tube, purchase and download something of interest or more likely than not, just go to sleep.

And so it is against that backdrop that I offer up my before-the-end-of-the-year fast and easy look at what albums caught my ears this year. There is no numerical list, no ranking, no convoluted point system nor any claim that this is any way or shape definitive. In fact, before I’ve even finished posting a track or video  from each of the albums that struck something special inside me, I’m sure I’ll realize that I’ve forgotten one, or two, or three.

I’m going to kick it off with a duo from Traverse City Michigan who are getting ready to blow up in a huge way judging from a recent sighting I had of them opening for Del and Dawg. Billy Strings is only in his early twenties, and Don Julin is in his fifties. And we’re off…

Rosanne Cash’s album came out last January, and lets hope that is isn’t lost or forgotten to the real-deal reviewers’ lists. Here she is with her husband doing a ‘one mic, one take’ at the Capitol Record’s studio.

I know very little about the album that came out earlier in the year from the Abramson Singers, and this video was shot in 2013;  but the song was on the disc and is one of my favorites.

A string band trio whom I’ve seen a few times now, that also are beginning to break big on the touring circuit. I love the Stray Birds.

We shared a bucket of naked chicken wings a few weeks ago and talked about Gene Autry. I’ve seen John perform five times in the last six months, and have taken to calling him (although not to his face) Billy Joel Elton John Fullbright. He is the New Piano Man.

Best blues album hands down from two brothers that used to be in a band called the Blasters. If you get a chance to see them live, they’ve got some great stories about growing up in Downey California and cruising over to Whittier Boulevard to hang with some of the old masters.

Somebody told me that this new double album from Lucinda somehow didn’t make the American Songwriter end of the year list. Really? This album is so rich and deep with amazing lyrics and music that I gotta put on one of those rubber overalls that fly fisherman wear just to listen to it.

In all candor, I have no idea who this next band is. But I sure liked their album. I Draw Slow. Like me. I Move Slow.

And finally, if either Scientology scared you off or you have some notion that Beck isn’t one of the best artists making music today, think again. “Morning Phase” is…get ready…I never admit to things like this…my favorite album of the year. And I’ve chosen the least Americana/roots song to share with you. Trust me…go listen to the whole enchilada.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com.