Blue Mandolin by Jimi Hocking

The ‘Blue Mandolin’ album is in many ways the sister to my ‘Blue Guitar’ album, as both projects started out as a labor of love. I am a bit of a fixture in the local blues guitar scene these days, but when I originally set about recording a ‘Blues’ in 1998 I heard plenty of ‘advice’ indicating that it was not a good ‘business’ move… I remember thinking at the time… yep, and that’s why I am a musician not a businessman!
My desire to play blues guitar after a successful career in rock music was no big surprise to anyone that knew me, but a ‘mandolin’ album of this nature may raise one or two eyebrows.

I’ve never really had many friends who played mandolin to bounce off on this journey … but some years ago I fancied the idea of a mini guitar to travel with, and maybe even use on stage… but I never found one that I liked.
One night I saw my mate Jeff Lang using a mandolin for a song in his set, I thought maybe I could find a uke tuning or something that would work for me.

At that time, it wasn’t so easy to find a mandolin, but I ended up buying a banged up ‘el cheapo’ to fool around with. It wasn’t a great player and had almost no wood tone coming through… it was all strings, but it was a start.
I messed about with a few tunings before deciding to actually tune it like a mandolin. That thing toured with me for a while and even appeared on a couple of ‘Screaming Jets’ recordings.

One day I stumbled across a home made 4 string solid body mandolin (?) in a store, it was pretty funky looking so I bought it. It became my new travel companion, however the neck was ‘clubby’ and the tuning sketchy. Since one of my main guitars was built by Steve Gilchrist… who is a mandolin builder of much repute, I thought he could bring it up to speed. Steve is a busy man, but agreed to help out. If I had known then what I know now about mandolins, I would have been too embarrassed to trouble him!

Some time later, while I was touring as a guitar slinger, I found myself in Gilchrist’s neighbourhood, so I arranged to drop into his workshop. The sight of these instruments being built was intoxicating. Steve asked if I had heard any contemporary mandolin players… I had not, so he made some coffee and played me some CD’s. Ricky Skaggs had recently recorded a version of ‘Get up John’ with Kentucky Thunder and Steve put it on… I listened in awe, we talked about Bill Monroe and I heard some Ronnie McCoury and Sam Bush, It knocked me out… The throaty tone of the instruments and the speed and accuracy of the playing was better than many rock guitarists I knew, and these guys had no amps or distortion!

I drove home via Melbourne a changed man, I dropped into ‘Basement Discs’ to buy the Skaggs album also the Bill Monroe complete box set.
Steve had given me a catalogue of his instruments that had a lot of cool information in it. I had long been a fan of archtop guitars and I realised the close relationship that a mandolin and a jazz guitar had. Some months later I found myself filling in an order form to purchase a Gilchrist A style mandolin… I was hooked.

I wanted to know anything I could about mandolins, so while performing as a guitarist on the festival circuit I would chat to many of the local luthiers that would show their instruments. John Liddy was also building some amazing mandolins, and Ray Black was working on a reasonably priced F style with a well carved top, I couldn’t resist and bought one while waiting on my Gilchrist.
Ray advised me to check out a CD Ronnie McCoury and David Grisman had put together called ‘Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza’… this Dawg production would become my next cornerstone, I listened to it like my personal tutorial.

When my Gilchrist mandolin was finally ready I couldn’t wait. I drove the 4 hours to Warrnambool to pick it up! I now knew enough about mandolins to really appreciate what I was getting, and that mandolin is one of my most prized instruments.

As time went by, I did what I normally do… writing tunes and recording ideas. But now I was using the mandolin as a serious writing tool, it was exiting to have a different sound to create with, and although I didn’t realise it at the time… the ‘Blue Mandolin’ album project was being conceived.
A version of ‘Shooting Stars’ was the first song to actually take shape and was heavily influenced by the sounds from Dawgs ‘Extravaganza’.

I was enjoying some success and had my second (Guitar) blues album in the works at the time, I played some of my mandolin ideas to John Durr at Black Market Music, I thought it might be cool to include something on my next release. John liked the concept but had an inkling that my mandolin songs might be better served on an album of their own… I really hadn’t considered that, as I simply didn’t have enough material.

I released the (guitar) album ‘Give Jimi some love’ and held back the mandolin tracks. I spent some time touring around and would play the mandolin for relaxation …and of course I wrote a few more tunes.

One day I got a CD in the mail from John… “you should check this out” he wrote. The CD was blues man/mandolin player Yank Rachell. It was a major epiphany. I had been listening to bluegrass players… and here was Yank playing in a pentatonic blues style. I thought it was so cool, so I decided I would fuse the bluegrass sounds I was discovering with my existing blues guitar style … but on the mandolin, it would be my own little thang!

Shortly after, my guitar took me abroad to perform, I spent some time in New York City and one morning I took the ferry to Staten Island to check out the ‘Mandolin Brothers’ store. The staff were cool and even sent out for cake as it was lunch time… I had the greatest time, playing and admiring vintage guitars and mandolins.

When I entered the mandolin room, I was short of breath. I had never seen so many mandolins in one place! I cheekily played a little… the boss put his head around the corner and said with a smile “I’d like you to play everything in the store”. I didn’t need to, as I had fallen hopelessly for a well worn Gibson F2. I tried to summon up the will power not to buy her, but it was no good, I melted my credit card and then proceeded to live on fresh air and bagels. Ironically, I got a gig the very next day playing mandolin as part of a trio for an ‘Earth Day’ concert at Columbia University.

I named the F2 ‘Rosie’ and took her everywhere I went. I was too scared to leave her at my accommodation. I learned of a bluegrass jam at one of the Irish bars downtown and started to hang out there on a Wednesday night, I got a lot of ideas at those jams, and wrote things like ‘Big Garage’ based on some of the well worn jam songs.

When I got home, I couldn’t wait to hear Rosie on tape, so I recorded some of my new ideas. I had been working on a new electric (guitar) album for quite some time at this point, but while going through material, I realised that I actually had enough mandolin material to put together an album, so ‘Blue Mandolin’ went from being a pet project to becoming a real album.

When I listen to this material, I hear my own development on the mandolin… I also hear myself playing for the sheer joy of it.

So even if this project doesn’t really do it for some tastes, it will probably end up one of my personal favorites. I hope it strikes a chord with you.

Australian Guitarist Jimi ‘the human’ Hocking has been recording & performing music since 1980. He is a member of The Screaming Jets since 1993, & his own band Jimi the Human & Spectre 7.
He also performs as a blues artist. 2005 winner of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis USA.
Jimi plays electric & acoustic guitar & Mandolin. www.jimihocking.com

jimihocking.com
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