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Folk Music Magazine
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1 RAMBLER
ACID TONGUE:
JENNY LEWIS
WHAT TO BRINGFestival Goers guide to waht to pack and why.
LAURA MARLING
A SHORT HISTORYFrom the begining all the way to its resurgence in todays popular folk music
+an exclusive chat with
DONNA THE BUFFALO
2 RAMBLER
3 RAMBLER
FOUNDER
EDITOR
ART DIRECTOR
CO-FOUNDER
CREATIVE CONSULTANTS
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
GURU
MASSAGE THERAPIST
GENIUS
SUBSCRIPTIONS
MAIL ORDER
PRODUCT SALES MANGER
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR
SHIPPING
Roger Femmings
Veronica Safron
Justin Kunis
Sam Dodson
Elaine Damasco, Ashley Smith
Ashley Smith
Sinbad Gregory
Amy Peterson
Chelsea Alford
Sandy Wilson
Lindsey Valderama
Timothy Abernath
Jennefer Fields
Hank Hillock
Rambler Magazine is Produced and Published by Down Home Folks Productions, Inc 898-565-3986
EMAIL TO: Editor@rambler.com / www.rambler.com
This publication would like to thank everyone who has furnished information and materials for this issue.
Every effort has been made to reach copyright owners or thier representatives. The Publisher would
be please to correct and mistakes or omissions in our next issue. Since we are just a bunch of down
home, music loving, festival going, semi- professional folk, you’ll have to exucuse us for the occasional
blunder. We hope you enjoy this months issue and look forward to bringing you another one soon.
4 RAMBLER
INTROINTRO: 4, 2012 / Vol. 1
Welcome to another Issue of Rambler folk music magazine. The season
is upon us, the season we wait for all year long when sitting at home
or work listening to our music playing devices wishing we were hearing
them live and watching it happen. It’s finally arrived, festival season.
That magical time of year trumphs Christmas, or even halloween to us
serious music buffs. And this issue is largely dedicated to it.
In celebration of the season of hearing, we have a couple of real helpful
surprises in this issue for you to aid with your festival quests. Some to
help you remember, and some to helf you forget all about your nine to
five. I hope to see you out on the festival grounds folks.
I’m also excited to present to you a couple of up and comers with big hearts
and even larger talent. I won’t reveal just yet who they are, but you’ll find
out soon enough. Many of you may have already heard the buzz.
You’re also going to get a history lesson today, don’t worry there will
not be a test. We wanted to focus on where our little niche of music
comes from. So we spoke to some folks who know all about it and
asked them to give us the down low on what the folk started all
this mess of musical madness and when. We will learn who,
when, how and where. Have a good read, see you next
issue, and remember, I like mail, it makes me less
lonely in my little office.
-Veronica Safron-
5 RAMBLER
CONTENTS
Acid Tongue: Jenny Lewis
Laura Marling
Donna the Buffalo: 17 years
Short History of the Mandolin
What to Bring
612
1921
28Hey! we forgot to send out a giant thank you to
our support staff, this issue wouldn’t have made it
to shelfs if it wern’t for all the brilliant folks who have a
passion for spreading the word about folk music. So Thank you
writers, designers, coffee getters, research finders. Gracias, graphic
designers and illustraitors. Photographers and Pillow Fluffers (you know
who you are). Rambler Magazine hopes to bring you many more issues in the
future and is proud of its contribution to the folk scene. See you at the Fests!
6 RAMBLER
acid Tongue
Indie-folk goddess Jenny Lewis discussess
inspiration, writing her second record, and
why she loves collaborations.
J enny Lewis began her
career as a child actor in
kid-friendly ‘80s movies
like Troop Beverly Hills and The
Wizard, but around the turn of
the millennium she moved into a
bigger, brighter spotlight as the
frontwoman and co-songwriter
of the much-loved indie-rock
band Rilo Kiley. The tiny, big-
voiced, frequently adorable
Lewis blossomed into something
of an indie goddess over the
course of the first three records
she wrote and recorded with
Blake Sennett for Rilo Kiley. But
it was her glowingly received
2006 solo debut, Rabbit Fur
Coat, that cemented her status
as a captivating songwriter and
performer.
Jenny Belts out her title track “Acid Tongue” with her distinct big-voiced style.
7 RAMBLER
Lewis returned to Rilo Kiley for the
band’s 2007 major-label effort, Under The
Blacklight, which landed atop several year-
end best-of lists and earned the band the
most popular notice of its career, but also
alienated some longtime fans with its buffed,
pop-friendly sound. Seemingly undeterred,
Lewis has veered into yet another direction
on her sophomore solo disc, Acid Tongue.
The new album replaces Rabbit Fur Coat’s
old-school country-gospel vibe and backup
vocals from the Watson Twins with a livelier
collection of tracks that draw from a rock,
soul, and country influences, fused together
The A.V. Club: You wrote a lot of Acid
Tongue during the Rabbit Fur Coat tour and
while you were doing Under The Blacklight
with Rilo Kiley. Were you writing with
another solo record specifically in mind, or
did it just grow out of the material that you
really a different approach. A lot of the songs
came out of a live context. We played them
on the road 100 times, so we knew that we
could walk into the studio and record them
the same way. So the record had a different
intention from the outset. It wasn’t really a
studio record, but more of a live record in
in a live-tracked studio setting and assisted
by a stable of guest musicians. The A.V.
Club spoke to Lewis the day before her
new album’s release to talk about touring,
the pros and cons of Pro Tools, and how
Elvis Costello stacks up against a tone-deaf
puppet.
had accumulating?
Jenny Lewis: Yeah, it wasn’t the same
process as Rabbit Fur Coat, because I wrote
those songs in a relatively short period of
time and thematically I wanted all the songs
to relate to one another. With this it was
On stage at the Cat’s Cradel in Carrborro, NC.
8 RAMBLER
all your collaborators are a really big part
of Acid Tongue. I take it you’re not a big
control freak?
JL: I’m a control freak with regards to
certain aspects. I think you just have to be
when you’re making stuff in the world. You
have to have a clear idea what you want.
But I’m also fortunate to have friends that
are great and I trust them musically. So I
think with this record that it was matter of
having guest musicians, but not having them
overpower the songs. I think if you listen to
the record, sometimes it’s difficult to pick
people out, but they’re definitely there and
I think that their presence definitely more
supportive than anything else.
AVC: Originally you wrote the title track
from Acid Tongue as a potential Rilo Kiley
track, right?
JL: No, that’s quite not true. I wrote it
on the tour for Rabbit Fur Coat. So it was
first performed with that, and then recording
for Blacklight I had all these songs. We
[Rilo Kiley] tried “Acid Tongue” and it didn’t
really work. So I tried it again for my record
and it worked really well, immediately. We
recorded that one live actually, in a room
with myself and the male choir.
AVC: The live recording of Acid Tongue is
really striking, that analog-y sound. Why did
you to want to record like that?
JL: I am a child of digital generation. I
have done most of the records with Rilo
Kiley on computers, on Pro Tools or other
digital programs. On my last record we did
half of it on tape and then we dumped it into
Pro Tools. Then we tweaked things and we
comped the vocals together and we doubled
and tripled the [Watson] Twins. So it was
very much a record that Mike Mogis and I
tweaked out on for a long time after making
it. With this record I really wanted to go in
and capture the live spirit, mistakes and all.
I wanted to limit myself to 24 tracks, so
that the songs did breathe and all the parts
could be heard. Just returning to the studio
and recording on tape I think it puts you in
a different mindset, and I really wanted to
try something new. I think that Pro Tools is
a very valuable resource and you can use
it in some interesting ways. Tape is very
expensive. That’s why we didn’t really take
a long time recording this record. You can
use Pro Tools in the same way where you go
into the studio and you limit yourself to 24
tracks and you make a rule that you’re not
going to comp the drums together and fix all
of the mistakes. I really love hearing those
moments on some of my favorite records.
It’s fun to pick out the songs that speed up
and slow down and all those little flubs and
strange harmonies. I think you kind of lose
the human aspect when you make things too
perfect.
AVC: What are some of those favorite
records of yours that have that not-perfect
sound you seem to favor.
JL: All the things I grew up listening
to that were made pre-mid-’90s, and the
records that were made in the studio where
we worked, Sound City. Tom Petty recorded
there, Neil Young, Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac.
We were in the same room that Nevermind
was recorded in, which was pretty exciting.
And that record, I know that they worked on
it for a while, but you really hear the room.
You can hear the space and everything.
It’s so rocking but so clear. I mean you can
hear the distorted guitar and the background
vocals, and I think when you layer stuff in
Pro Tools you lose that clarity .
AVC: Because of the way it’s recorded, the
record has this kind of freewheeling, off-the-
cuff vibe, but many of the songs, like “The
Next Messiah,” are way too complex to be
spontaneously hashed out during recording.
How much did you bring in and how much
did you work out in the studio?
JL: We spent a couple of days arranging
the songs before we went into the studio,
and we put together a Band A setup and
a Band B setup. The Band B setup was for
the ballads and the Band A setup consisted
of Jason Boesel, Davey Faragher from Elvis
[Costello’s] band, myself, Johnathan Rice,
and Blake Mills on guitar. We kind of gave
the more complex, rock ‘n’ roll songs to
Band A, and then we kept the ballads for
the other configuration. So we had a pretty
clear-cut idea of what we wanted. But with
“The Next Messiah,” we arranged that song
in an afternoon and it took us a while to get
it right. Then when we got to the studio it
took us all day to remember the parts and
get to where we not only remembered all
the transitions, but where the energy and
the tempo were right. We had to choose the
one with the right kind of singing because I
wanted my vocals to be live, as they are for
the entire record. So it took us about 10 or
15 takes of the mix to get it.
AVC: That track is interesting in that it’s
a medley. Were those just scraps of songs
that you put together or was it composed as
a whole?
JL: Actually, those were three separate
songs that Johnathan and I wrote together.
We just played them around the house for
9 RAMBLER
backdoor of the Ryman and wrote down
some bullshit and then lost it, luckily.
AVC: How did the duet with Elvis Costello,
“Carpetbaggers,” come about?
JL: We had met each other a couple of
times. He actually called me when [Rilo
Kiley’s] More Adventurous came out. My
phone rang and I didn’t recognize the
number. I picked it up and it was Elvis on the
other end of the line. I truly thought it was
a prank. Johnathan wrote “Carpetbaggers”
for us to sing on some of the Rabbit Fur
Coat tour, because Rabbit Fur Coat, the
songs on that record are not exactly rocking.
There are some mid-tempo numbers, but
we wanted something that was a little more
upbeat. We sang that song as a duet on the
road for about a year. Johnathan sang it in
a very low register, and when Elvis came
in he basically took it up an octave and
changed the intention of the song, which I
really like. I think he made it less country.
Wait, you asked me how it happened. Sorry,
I’m rambling on and on, I haven’t had my
morning coffee yet. [Laughs.] I e-mailed him,
basically, and I sent him a YouTube video of
myself and Johnathan singing that song with
a tone-deaf puppet.
AVC: A puppet?
JL: A puppet, yeah. We did this thing
backstage at Town Hall a couple years ago
for this puppet show called Steve Paul’s
Puppet Music Hall. That was the only
recording or reference that I had for Elvis.
So I sent him that YouTube and told him to
Top: Jenny Lewis poses for the camera showing off her trademark folky style of vintage
shirts and oversized belts. Bottom: Jenny performing live with her band Rilo Kiley in
2006 at the house of blues in hollywood california. Photographs by Dana Williams.
10 RAMBLER
just nostalgic in a different way, kind of
a ‘70s California-country vibe. Was that
a natural transition from the old-school
country of Rabbit Fur Coat, or was that a
sound that you’ve always wanted to explore
and didn’t really get a chance to until now?
JL: No, I really didn’t plan out the
direction of this album. I didn’t say, “I’m
going to create a California-country record.”
The songs kind of just came about, and my
friends happened to be in Los Angeles and
these are the sounds that we created as a
group. I think you can definitely hear the
influence of the producers on the record,
myself included. Some of it might reference
some older Rilo Kiley songs because that’s
where I come from, I kind of come from an
indie-rock world. Farmer Dave Scher, one
of the other producers, he was in a band
called Beachwood Sparks. They’re a Sub
Pop band and they were and are huge fans
of The Byrds, so you can kind of hear some
of those aspects listening to some of the
singles on the record. Johnathan Rice made
a record in the same studio the year before
and his record was heavily influenced by
Tom Petty, so you can kind of hear some
of those aspects, like some of the tones of
the guitars. The whole thing kind of reflects
the tastes within the group and within our
production team. Between the four of us we
make a really sweet human being.
AVC: It’s interesting that this is what
immediately followed Under The Blacklight,
because that record has such a different set
of influences—it’s more dance-oriented, and
just shinier.
JL: I like all different kinds of music, but
that particular sound reflects Rilo Kiley. That
isn’t entirely my sensibility. It’s about what
the four of us enjoy listening to and playing
as a group. So that’s what you get when you
throw us into a room at that particular time.
This record wasn’t necessarily a reaction to
Under The Blacklight, but I think the process
with which we made this record was. It took
us a long time to make Under The Blacklight,
and it was somewhat agonizing because of
that. This record was made in under three
weeks, which I think for me, I tend to work
well within a deadline. If I know I have to get
something in three weeks.
AVC: Speaking of Rilo Kiley, fans of that
band seem very protective of your so-called
place in it. Do you ever worry with your solo
material that how they’re going to react to
it, because it is in a pretty different direction
than in the band, or are you like, “Screw you
guys. This is what I want to do.”
JL: I know. I mean I love all of our Rilo
Kiley fans, but you know, that’s a different
band. I’m not trying to repeat myself or cater
myself to one specific group of people. I
think the people that come out to my shows,
it’s a different kind of audience. Senior
citizens are welcome.
AVC: Acid Tongue seems to move away
somewhat from the religious theme that
was on Rabbit Fur Coat, lyrically at least,
but there’s still definitely kind of a spiritual
vibeSDo you consider yourself a spiritual
person, or is it more of the aesthetic that
appeals to you?
JL: No, I think I’m a person who is always
looking for answers. I’m always questioning
things and searching for clues. I tend to also
to get bored with one subject, so I think I
exhausted some of those ideas on Rabbit
Fur Coat and I think I exhausted them in a
way that’s very, you know, in your twenties
singing about these things.
--Genevieve Koski
11 RAMBLER
12 RAMBLER
Laura Marling sits at her kitchen counter, small and pale in an Iron Maiden T-shirt, and smokes a cigarette in the mid-morning sunshine.
T he pack of Camels, the heavy metal
shirt – both seem to serve as gentle
reminders that the darling of the
British folk scene is perhaps not quite what
you might expect; allusions to the fact that
while, in person, she may appear poised
and still and quietly reserved, in song, she
is a different animal altogether: one marked
by the keenness of her songwriting, the
steeliness of her lyrics.
This month the 21-year-old Marling
will release her third, accomplished album,
A Creature I Don’t Know, inspired by the
work of Robertson Davies and Jehanne
Wake, as well as a fascination with
John Steinbeck’s third wife, Elaine. Its
preoccupations – strength and weakness,
love, hate and the complexities of
13 RAMBLER
14 RAMBLER
desire – help to tell a story of sorts, a
tale centred around a hulking six-minute
song named The Beast. It is a towering
record, darker and bolder than its
predecessors, that will cement Marling’s
growing reputation.
The record’s roots lie in the lull after
touring 2010’s I Speak Because I Can;
an electively solitary time in which she
remembers a lot of sitting in cafes,
newspaper crosswords and scrawling in
notebooks before any songs took shape.
This gestation period was, she feels,
essential to the way she writes. “I think
I stew over ideas for a long time,” she
says, her voice faintly brisk. “And I can
get fixated on an idea, it will probably
start with something from a book I’ve found
interesting, and then I’ll probably think
about it and then I’ll have conversations
with myself about it, and then obviously
it seeps into my conscious and a song will
be written about it.” She looks vaguely
amused. “It’s not very romantic, but I’m
an amazing procrastinator,” she says. “The
songs had been written, or more accurately
there was nothing
left to say, but
I think I waited
for a month or
so before I did
anything with
them. Then most
of them were
demoed sitting here, with a microphone
hanging there,” she says, with a nod to a
shelf above her head.
The period of isolation, writing and demoing
the material alone, as well as working out
the vocal arrangements before she played
any of the songs to her band or her producer,
were reflective of Marling’s growing self-
assurance. “It was quite an interesting way
of doing it,” she says, “because it allowed
me to put my stamp on it before anybody
else put their stamp on it. With the first
two albums – Charlie [Fink, lead singer of
Noah and the Whale
and Marling’s ex-
boyfriend] produced
Alas I Cannot Swim,
and it’s as much his
album as it is mine,
and with I Speak
Because I Can,
the style of the drumming and the bass
playing is very much a representation of the
characters who were playing on that album,
and Ethan [Johns, the producer] stepping
in as well. This time I thought: ‘Well, I’ve
got the confidence now, and I know what
I want it to sound like, so before anybody
else gets their grubby mitts on it, why don’t
‘Well, I’ve got the confidence
now, and I know what I want it
to sound like, so before anybody
else gets their grubby mitts on it,
why don’t I put my stamp on it?’
15 RAMBLER
I put my stamp on it?’” Marling’s burgeoning
confidence is also a reflection of a young
woman increasingly at ease with her status.
“I think earlier on I was trying to prove I was
a songwriter,” she says. “But now I really
struggle with the idea of referring to myself,
or someone referring to me as an artist. It
makes me shudder a bit. But then there’s
some parts of me that would like to proudly
say that I’m an artist … I just wouldn’t ever
want to use it anywhere in between.” She
laughs. “One day, in retrospect maybe I’ll
say: ‘I was an artist once upon a time … ‘”
Marling grew up in the county of Hampshire,
the youngest of three daughters, and
was always drawn to music and writing.
“I was looking for some form of expression,”
she says. “I was thinking about it recently,
and I think one of the reasons I was a bit
of a recluse when I was younger is because
what defined me when I was a teenager
was my taste in music; nobody else liked
the music I liked. It was the old stuff – Joni
Mitchell, Neil Young, Bob Dylan.”
Encouraged by her school music teacher, and
by her father, who ran a recording studio,
she began writing her own material in her
teens, and released her first album shortly
after her 18th birthday. “I guess if I look at
myself at 17 and myself now, there’s a huge
difference,” she says. “Even the way I speak
in songs is different.” How would she define
that difference? “I think there’s less of
an insecurity behind it,” she says slowly.
“There’s more of a curiosity, about life, it’s a
tone in general.”
Marling has always been at pains to stress
she is not a confessional songwriter – to
the extent that some of her writing might
seem an elaborate process of covering her
tracks, an exercise in elusiveness. Are there
any of her songs, I wonder, that might be
identifiably her? “Mmm,” she draws on her
cigarette, and her voice disappears up her
nose. “I think the song that’s most me, and
most how I speak, is Goodbye, England.
Because it’s so sort of soppy.” She laughs.
“And the line ‘We will keep you little one’ is
so my family, because in my family I’m Little
One, even though I’m about twice the size of
them all. There’s some lines like that in my
songs that I think only people who know me
would know where that sits with me. That’s
one of them.”
The last time I spoke to Marling was
shortly after A Creature I Don’t Know
had been completed, when the songs
were still new and untested. I ask her if,
with time passed and a summer of festivals,
her opinion of the new songs has altered.
“It’s funny,” she says, “because I can feel
them shifting. There was a time when all of
these songs meant so much to me that I was
completely lost in the lyrics all of the time.
But for instance, we’ve been playing Sophia
a lot, and I guess it’s self-protection, but
the fact it starts so low, and the sincerity
of the lyrics makes me laugh. I suppose I’ve
already given my sincere bit [in writing the
song], and if I’m going to have to keep on
being sincere every night, I at least want to
have a little chuckle to myself.”
The pace at which Marling’s songwriting
has matured over three years and three
albums is testament to both a furious talent
and an untempered ambition as a musician.
Along the way there have been two Mercury
nominations, performances on the Pyramid
stage at Glastonbury, and much feting from
her peers; last year, she was invited by
Jack White to visit his Third Man recording
studios in Nashville to record a cover of
Jackson C Frank’s Blues Run the Game.
“It was amazing,” she says. “He’s one
of the people who I think forms the last
bastion of how music is created. I think he’s
phenomenal.”
There are other ambitions, she says –
to record with some “old boys” for instance,
and perhaps to try different styles of music:
“We were on tour with Smoke Fairies last
year,” she recalls, “and jokingly talking about
starting an all-girl garage band. Those kind
of things you always say you’ll do, but if
we actually did it, it would be so cool.”
“I guess if I look at
myself at 17 and myself
now, there’s a huge
difference,” she says.
“Even the way I speak in
songs is different.”
16 RAMBLER
She speaks of “barely feeling like I’m
attached to the music industry now,” and of
relishing that sense of detachment. “I think
it’s really important,” she explains. “If there
were more people who understood my music
or what needs to be done in order for me to
prosper, I’d probably spend a bit more time
with them.” She pauses and remonstrates
with herself: “Ugh,” she grimaces, “horrible
thing to say. But it’s scary that there’s so
many people working in this industry that
…” She hesitates again. “Oh,” she chides
herself, “it’s my scorn bucket coming out!
But there are some people working so hard
to keep the value of music, and keep the
understanding of what great music is, and
then there are some working equally hard
to sell it, and sell you know … crap.” All
the same, Marling appears tethered to a
generation of talented songwriters, namely
her contemporaries on the London scene,
such as Noah and the Whale, Mumford &
Sons and Jamie T.
“It’s the kind of thing you might
understand in retrospect,” she nods.
“Lately, a lot of people from Europe or
America have been saying to me: ‘So, tell
us about the new folk scene.’ And the last
time I was asked that, around the time of
the last album, I remember I said: ‘Oh
don’t be ridiculous, there’s no scene!’ And
now, I feel kind of sentimental, because
there was a time when we all used to
play gigs together, and if it wasn’t a
scene, well that was me and my generation.”
But if there is anything that connects that
generation, she suspects it is probably
little more than the fact that “we all
started digging into our parents’ record
collections at the same time”. Laura Marling
performs her song I Speak Because I Can
in an exclusive live performance at the
Guardian in 2010 Link to this video
She remains exceedingly close to her
parents, and they are, she says, “super-
supportive” of her career. She played her
father some of the new material as the
album was being made. “I was really nervous
about playing him anything,” she admits,
“especially The Beast, but he knew the
process that I’d been going through to try
and arrange it myself, and I think he was
proud that I’d done that.”
Her mother has yet to hear the new record.
“it’s my scorn bucket coming out! But there are some people working so hard to keep the value of music, and keep the understanding of what great music is, and then there are some working equally hard to sell it, and sell you know … crap.”
17 RAMBLER
“It’s quite different for her,” Marling says.
“She’s not really into music in the same
way, and my Mum’s the only one who
would dare pry into the lyrics.” She laughs.
“Even now she talks about a line from Tap
at My Window that goes: ‘Mother, I blame
you with every inch of the being you gave
… ‘ And I’ve told her so many times that
it’s artistic licence, and that she mustn’t for
her own sake take what I say in any song as
c licence, and I know there’s no mystery
behind it.” Is that, I suggest, an elaborate
double bluff? Marling laughs wickedly.
She has spoken of much of this album,
particularly The Beast, being about a
balancing act between wanting and needing.
It is, she says now, an internal battle that
remains unresolved. “It’s a constantly tipping
balance,” she says, “and songwriting is my
way of desperately trying to understand
it. Probably the reason why I will continue
to write songs is because I never will
understand it.” I wonder if this is a conflict
she feels more keenly at different times in
the writing and recording process. “I think
there are highs and lows,” she nods, “and
probably when I’m writing a record I’m at my
lowest, and that’s probably where it comes
from I’d say.”
The problem, she concedes, is that those
who buy her music only really hear her at
her lowest. “I struggle slightly with it,” she
says. She speaks of fans who approach her
after shows, of the people who tell her of
the connection they feel with her lyrics, and
then she lights another cigarette, and her
pale hands push at the sleeves of her T-shirt.
“And that’s a really lovely thing,” she says,
“but there’s also a side where I go home and
wonder ‘Do people think that they know me?’”
Marling must be familiar with the feeling of being written about in song – or at least of people thinking she’s been written about; after dating Fink for several years she was then romantically involved with Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons. “Yeah, I feel the weight of people thinking it,” she agrees. “And I also know what it’s like to be a fan and want to know the mystery behind a song. But actually now I’m on the other side of it, I know it’s artistic licence, and I see no mystery behind it.” Is that, I suggest, an elaborate double bluff?
Marling laughs wickedly.
18 RAMBLER
17 years strong
Sometimes all it takes is a niche, and
the members of Donna the Buffalo
have certainly found theirs.
With easygoing songs and a low-key peace-
love vibe honed over the past 17 years,
the western New York folk-rock band can
essentially play as many intimate halls and
small festival gigs as it wants
-- Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, for example,
where the band performed Thursday night.
It was a generous set, spread over more
than two hours, with guitarist Jeb Puryear
and violinist/guitarist Tara Nevins alternating
on lead vocals on songs drawn from folk,
country, rock and Cajun traditions.
Backed by drums, bass and keyboards,
the co-leaders had an easy rapport with
each other, and with the crowd, which
occasionally stood to dance in the aisles.
Puryear sang with the same mellow inflection
as Willie Nelson, though the former’s
voice isn’t quite as rich, and he played his
Stratocaster guitar without a pick, coaxing a
smooth, buttery tone from the instrument.
19 RAMBLER
Nevins, who also played accordion and washboard on the thrumming, bayou-flavored
“Part-Time Lover,” has a pretty, slightly frayed voice that sounded wistful on the
countrified “Locket and Key” and bobbed lightly on “Blue Sky,” an easy flowing rock
song with Puryear’s electric guitar cascading over Nevins’ sturdy acoustic strumming.
The band often stretched out, steering songs into light jams. The electric guitar and violin
each sounded in turn as though they were straining toward the heavens during an extended
middle section on “Let Love Move Me,” and the rest of the band left Puryear and Nevins
alone on stage to finish the aptly named “Funky Side” themselves, locked together on the riff
that drove the song.
After finishing the main set with Nevins singing the acoustic country-ish song “No Place
Like the Right Time,” she and Puryear started the encore as a duo as she played a mournful
violin line over a plucked guitar groove, before diving back into a good-natured jam on the
next song.
“ We have found that easygoing songs and a low-
key peace-love vibe honed over the past 17 years is
what keeps our band loving what we do”
20 RAMBLER
21 RAMBLER
The mandolin can
be described as
a small, short-
necked lute with eight strings. A lute
is a chordophone, an instrument which
makes sound by the vibration of strings.
As a descendent of the lute, the mandolin
reaches back to some of the earliest musical
instruments.
Deep in the grottos of France are beautiful
cave paintings made between 15,000 BC
and 8500 BC. These paintings include one
of a man with what appears to be a simple
one-stringed instrument that is being played
with a bow. This musical bow represents
the first stringed instruments man invented.
They were played by plucking the string with
the fingers, and later by tapping the string
with a stick. An increase in volume was first
gained by holding the bow in the mouth.
Later, gourds were attached to the bow to
act as resonators.
Lute-like chordophones appear as early
as 2000 BC in Mesopotamia. These early
instruments were fretless. Changes in pitch
were made by pressing the strings down
onto the neck of the instrument. The strings
were sometimes plucked by using hard
objects or plectrums rather than the fingers
as the plectrums or picks produced a louder,
sharper, sound than the fingers.
By the Seventh Century AD a folk lute called
the oud was in use. The oud remains in use
today, virtually unchanged, in the music of
the Near East, particularly in Armenia and
Modern mandolins
originated in Naples, Italy
in the late 1800’s.
Egypt. ‘Oud’ is the Arabic name for wood,
and the oud is a wooden lute. The oud
found its way into Spain during the Moorish
conquest of Spain (711- 1492), to Venice
through coastal trade, and to Europe through
returning Crusaders (around 1099).
In a gallery in Washington, a painting by
Agnelo Gaddi (1369- 1396) depicts an angel
playing a miniature lute called the mandora.
The miniature lute was probably contrived
to fill out the scale of 16th century lute
ensembles. The Assyrians called this new
instrument a Pandura, which described its
shape. The Arabs called it Dambura, the
Latins Mandora, the Italians, Mandola. The
smaller version of the traditional mandola
was called mandolina by the Italians. >
22 RAMBLER
1
2 3
MANDO EVOLUTION
1- A REALLY REALLY LONG TIME AGO
a.k.a about 15,000 BC the first single
string instrument was invented.
2- 7th CENTURY AD
A folk lute called an Oud was
developed. ’Oud’ is the Arabic name for
wood, and the oud is a wooden lute.
and is still in use today through much of
mesopotamia and the Spanish Moor.
3- THE FIRST MANDOLIN
in Naples, Italy somewhere around the
1500’s the first mandolin as we know it was
developed. It had a rounded back and single
round sound hole and was generally highly
decorated with either inlays or paint.
4- FIRST FLAT BACK MANDOLIN
By the mid 1800’S Mandolins were
enjoying a surge in popularity as a common
parlor instrument along with ukeleles and
guitars. Around this time the first flat back
mandolin was developed in America. It still
had only one sound hole but the shape was
becoming more like a modern Mandolin.
5- THE GIBSON A-4 1950’s
Gibson Deveopled and produced the
massively popular A series. By this time
F-holes were more common than the older
single sound hole style.
6- THE MODERN MANDO
The mandolin is fully developed and a
higly popular folk and bluegrass instrument
int he western world. Variations are starting
to occure as Instrument craftsman try new
ideas. Banjolins, octave mandolins, Steel top
mandolins, electric mandolins and others
are all the rage as the mandolin currently is
experiencing its highest popularity in years
with bands such as Mumford and Sons and
Fleet Foxes leading the way to mainstream
success.
THEN
23 RAMBLER
4
56
24 RAMBLER
COMING TO AMERICA
The mandolin entered
the mainstream of
popular American
culture during the first epoch of substantial
immigration from eastern and southern
Europe, a period of prosperity and vulgarity,
when things exotic and foreign dominated
popular taste.
It was in vogue in the 1850s, when it shared
the parlor with zithers, mandolas, ukuleles,
and other novelties designed to amuse the
increasingly leisured middle class. A marked
increase in Italian immigration in the 1880s
sparked a fad for the bowl-backed Neopolitan
instrument that spread across the land. The
mandolin was even among the first recorded
instruments on Edison cylinders. In 1897,
Montgomery Ward’s catalog marveled at the
‘phenomenal growth in our Mandolin trade’.
The Rage of the New Century
By the turn of the century, mandolin
ensembles were touring the vaudeville
circuit, and mandolin orchestras were
forming in schools and colleges. In 1900,
a company called Lyon & Healy boasted
‘At any time you can find in our factory
upwards of 10,000 mandolins in various
stages of construction’. From the Sears
and Montgomery Ward catalogs, mandolins
proliferated across the South. Attempting to
beat the competition, the Gibson company
sent field reps across America to encourage
sales of mandolins, and to establish mandolin
orchestras.
From the turn of the century through
the 1940s, a handful of American virtuoso
mandolinists, mostly immigrants such as
Bernardo Dapace, Samuel Siegal, Dave
Apollon, and Giduanni Giouale, performed,
recorded, composed, and arranged for the
mandolin. These artists appeared in concert
halls, and vaudeville settings, performing
ethnic, popular, and classical music.
By this time banjo, mandolin, and guitar
clubs had become the rage among middle-
class youth on college campuses and in
towns and cities throughout the South,
and a variety of playing styles-- some of
them borrowed from guitar techniques--
were made widely available in instruction
books and on the recordings of such urban
musicians as Fred Van Eps and Vess Evan.
The Evolution Of The Modern Flat-Back Mandolin
Orville H. Gibson was born in New York
in 1856, and moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan
as a young man. He began designing and
building instruments in the 1880s. In 1898,
he was granted a patent for a new design in
arch-top instruments. His early instruments
were highly experimental and ornate. In
1902, a group of businessmen bought his
patent, and formed the Gibson Mandolin-
Guitar Co., where Orville remained as a
consultant, but not a partner, until 1915.
The 1905 Gibson A-4 was a revolutionary
instrument in its time, breaking radically
away from the traditional bowl-back
instruments brought to America by Italian
immigrants (disparagingly referred to as
‘taterbugs’). Instead of having a flat or
bent top and a bowlback, Orville’s new
design was based on principles of violin
construction, using a carved top and back.
Though this design was subtly modified
over the years, it clearly set the standard for
what was to become the preferred style of
mandolin used in American folk and music.
Orville Gibson was apparently obsessed with
ornamentation, particularly the scroll. He
also emphasized the importance of machines
in precision manufacture. His personal
hallmark, included as an inlay on many of his
early instruments, was an occult star-and-
crescent.
The 1910 Gibson F-4 with its lavishly
detailed flower pot headstock inlay featured
a new scroll 3-point design. In general, this
mandolin represented a huge step forward
in the development of the modern mandolin
look, one that has carried over to the present
time. The new mandolin had a full resonant,
well-balanced tone with great power.
In 1922, Gibson, under the influence of their
new acoustic engineer Lloyd Allayre Loar,
refurbished their entire line of mandolins. The
new versions had a number of distinguishing
features including an adjustable truss-rod
in the neck, adjustable two-piece ebony
bridge, and a new tapering peghead contour
called the ‘snake-head’. Perhaps Loar’s
finest achievement, at least for devotees
of bluegrass music, was his F-5, one of his
new Master Model style-5 series. There were
approximately 170 F-5s signed and dated by
Lloyd Loar himself. These mandolins are in
great demand, and today are often sold at
astonishingly high prices.
25 RAMBLER
The Influence of Bill Monroe
As the popularity of mandolin orchestras
and the mandolin as a parlor instrument in
the United States began to wane, it began
to take somewhat of a back seat to other
instruments. In old-time country music, the
mandolin was often present, but generally
only as an accompanying instrument, playing
along with the ensemble.
All that changed with the emergence of Bill
Monroe and the Monroe Brothers. Like most
of the other brother acts of the 30’s, Bill
and his guitarist brother Charlie sang sacred
and sentimental songs in beautiful two-part
harmonies. But in contrast to the sweet,
relaxed tremolo style of mandolin playing
so common in the other brother duets, Bill
played fiery cascades of rapid-fire notes
that brought a power and urgency to the
music that simply had not been there before.
As Doug Green from the Country Music
Foundation has noted, he ‘... drew his inner
fire and turmoil into his music, expressing it
with his mandolin...’.
Monroe fused the influences of his two
childhood mentors, Uncle Pen Vandiver
and Arnold Schultz. Uncle Pen played the
fiddle, and had a rich repertoire of songs
and melodies that Monroe was to draw
from throughout his career. His fiddle-
playing techniques became an intricate
part of Monroe’s style of mandolin playing.
Arnold Schultz was a black country blues
player who Monroe would see whenever he
came through Rosine, Kentucky. Through
his influence, Monroe spiced his playing
with blue notes and blues licks. The fusion
of these influences created a unique and
unmistakable style.
This was also the time when radio was
sweeping the country. Monroe’s mandolin
playing was getting to a lot of people via the
radio, people who didn’t know the mandolin
was being used that way. People responded
to the raw emotion of his playing, and the
Monroe Brothers became one of the more
popular brother acts of the era. Monroe later
went on to create the bluegrass style (named
after Monroe’s band, The Bluegrass Boys),
which put the mandolin securely at the
center of the worlds stage.
Close up of the signiture scroll
work on a Morgan Monroe
Rocky Top mandolin. This
High-end Mandolin is a favorite
of performers for its
deep
resonating voice and fret-play.
26 RAMBLER
THE COMEBACKKID
Today the mandolin continues to be
a popular and vital instrument. In
country music, the mandolin has
made quite a comeback since the heyday of
the Nashville Sound in the 60’s and 70’s.
In the early 80’s, the syrupy strings and
layered vocals gave way to a powerful neo-
traditionalist movement that re-introduced
the mandolin to country audiences. In rock
music, the mandolin has been present
consistently since the late 60’s. English
folk-rock, the acoustic-tinged albums of Rod
Stewart, and the heady acoustic ballads of
Led Zepplin all made the mandolin a familiar
sound to rock audiences. Today, the present
interest in ‘unplugged’ music continues to
showcase the mandolin. The Explosion in
popularity of bands such as Mumford and
Sons, Fleet Foxes, Yonder Mountain String
Band, First Aid Kit and many others is paving
the way for mandos in popular music culture.
Some rock musicians today use
mandolins, typically single-stringed electric
models rather than double-stringed acoustic
mandolins. One example is Tim Brennan of
the Irish-American punk rock band Dropkick
Murphys. In addition to electric guitar,
bass, and drums, the band uses several
instruments associated with traditional
Celtic music, including mandolin, tin whistle,
and Great Highland bagpipes. The band
explains that these instruments accentuate
the growling sound they favor. The 1991
R.E.M. hit “Losing My Religion” was driven
by a few simple mandolin licks played by
guitarist Peter Buck, who also played the
mandolin in nearly a dozen other songs. The
single peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot
100 chart (#1 on the rock and alternative
charts),[13] the highest ranking for a song
featuring mandolin in twenty years. Jack
White of The White Stripes played mandolin
for the film Cold Mountain, and plays
mandolin on the song “Little Ghost” on the
White Stripes album Get Behind Me Satan;
he also plays mandolin on “Prickly Thorn, But
Sweetly Worn” on Icky Thump.
And of course the vibrant, organic folk
musics of Ireland, Scotland, England, and
the American South continue unabated.
Bluegrass music, while far out of the
mainstream, continues to attract young
players who keep the music alive and
growing. And as long as there is bluegrass,
there will be a place for the mandolin
Marcus Mumford performing with his mandolin at a
Folk Festival outside of Oxford, UK.
27 RAMBLER
28 RAMBLER
29 RAMBLER
30 RAMBLER
SUNBLOCK We all know the dangers of UV
rays, and at most fes- tivals, you’re very
exposed to them. You don’t want a sunburn
now, and you certainly don’t want skin can-
cer later, so lather up. For festivals, I like to
use sport spray- on sunblock; I can put it on
myself without having to ask for help with
the hard-to-reach areas, and it won’t sweat
off in the summer heat. Remember to reapply
every few hours!
HEADLAMP I refused to buy one of these for
way too long because of the dork factor, but
now I don’t leave home with- out it. These
convenient flashlights strap around
your head on an elastic band (no more
holding a mini-mag between your teeth).
They’re invaluable for nighttime Porta- John
trips (the scariest thing ever) and they work
well for mixing drinks, making beds, and all
sorts of other things.
BABY WIPES Not just for babies any more,
wet wipes can keep you feeling fresh as a
daisy even after a few days with no shower.
Your hair will still be a rat’s nest, but at least
you won’t smell. Remember what their
original purpose is, as well... they can clean
up even the most sensitive areas when a hot
shower just isn’t available.
Legally run festivals (which are the only
kind you should attent) (wink, wink) are
requiredby law to have first aid ser-
vices available and an ambulance on call, so
if something major happens, there will be
people to take care of you. However, they
often don’t dispense headache medicine,
and sometimes it’s more hassle than it’s
worth to get a simple band-aid put on, so
make yourself a simple first-aid kit and save
yourself some trouble.
TOILET PAPER No one ever wants to talk
about this, but every seasoned festivarian
knows to bring a couple of rolls of Charmin
from home. PortaJohns often run out of
toilet paper pretty quickly and even when
they have paper, it’s usually of the super-
thin super-scratchy variety. Toilet paper also
doubles as facial tissues, and a few well-
tossed rolls can take care of your problems
with the neighboring campsite (kidding}.
We ARE NOT KIDDING, bring this STUFF!
31 RAMBLER
CAMERA You can’t go to a music festival
without your camera! Some festivals have
rules about what types of camera you can
bring (no movie cameras, etc.), but every
out- door festival that I know of lets you
take snapshots. If you’re worried about your
expensive digital camera and you’re not a
hotshot photographer anyway, bring a few
disposables just in case.
BLANKET OR CHAIRS At some point, you’re
probably going to want to sit down
in one place and hear some music. Some
festivals don’t let you bring chairs, but most
do, and if you’re bringing them, the folding
canvas chairs with carrying bags are the
best, comfy and easy to carry. I personally
prefer to sprawl, though, and I really like
those ten-dollar woven wool Mexican-style
blankets. They hold up and they’re easy to
carry, but if they get lost or forgotten, they
are quite replaceable.
BACKPACK Between my little cooler and
my little backpack, I can carry just about
everything I need for the day. Carrying a
purse (as much as I love them)
just isn’t practical at a festival; it’s tough on
your back and purses generally don’t hold
as much as you need. Keep the stuff you’re
carrying to a minimum; you probably don’t
need three changes of shoes, for example
(that’s mostly advice for me).
WATER AND SPORTS DRINKS If festivals
let you bring your own drinking water, by
all means, do it. Staying
hydrated in the hot
sun is very important.
Remember, also, that if
you’re sweating heavily,
it’s important to keep the minerals (salt,
calcium, potassi- um, etc.) in your body
replenished as well. I seldom attend a festival
without a jar of dill pickles for this reason
(seriously), but I’m told that normal people
just drink electrolyte-rich sports drinks.
SMALL COOLER you bring
your own drinking water,
by all means, do it. Stay-
ing hydrated in the hot sun
is very important. Remember, also, that if
you’re sweating heavily,
it’s important to keep the minerals (salt,
calcium, potassium, etc.) in your body
replenished as well. I seldom attend a festival
without a jar of dill pickles for this reason
(seriously), but I’m told that normal people
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