More about the new thingies

So now some words about the second thingy that is assisting my attempts to get the hands back where they were before time and arthritis make that impossible.

Dean put them out until recently, under the name of Mondo Mandolin, but I tend to think they missed the point. It's about the size and shape of the "teardrop" and "bell" parlor guitars that were popular in the early 1900's, as well as some I've seen in pictures that go back as far as the Civil War. The number of strings differ, some of them, like this one, had the treble strings doubled in unison, with the bass strings single. Others had all strings in doubled courses. Still others had six strings.

Actually, that's part of why I got the thing in the first place. I was in a music store and it yelled "look over here!"at me from the back wall. I remembered seeing somebody (possibly a relative of mine or one of his bandmates) playing something much like it when I was a kid. Maybe the shape was a little more bell-like, but the general feel is about the same.(egad moment ... I think that was why I bugged my folks for the bell-shaped Davy Crockett guitar when I was in the second grade and replaced it with another, more playable instrument of the same shape some years later).

Shortened version: I bought this little thing a couple of weeks later. The spacing is tight, given two slightly swollen fingers, and the others that were never all that skinny, anyway, but it's a lot of fun. Perfect for the sort of music made popular by the Carter Family and their ilk.

I never quite know what to call that kind of music. In the past year or so, I've met Bluegrass Purists who are adamant that it does NOT belong to them, and some Old-Timey Purists who are only happy about maybe half the catalogue.

Playparty songs like Weevly Wheat or Goin' to Boston (dating back to Colonial and/or Federal periods - and sung/played right up to today)don't even get a look-in. And you wanna shake up a bunch of Traditional Music types at a jam session? Show up with a jug. It may be authentic, but if experiences in Oregon and Northern California are anything to go on, you'll only be welcome if the thing is full and you're willing to share.

Back to my 9-string parlor guitar (Dean's marketing people can go peel grapes. With single bass strings and doubles trebles, you can play the whoopie-do out of anything with bass runs and flick strums (single or scratch). Somebody asked my why I didn't just stick to a flatpick and play it as if it were an extended mandolin. I claimed I had no idea, because there is no way to say something like "if I wanted to play a mandolin tonight, that's what I would have brought" with any degree of charm.

"The paths we take in this life are illuminated by the people with whom we walk."

When stationed at Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany in the middle 1960's, I joined a folk group -- "The Addicted" -- in company with Jack Krieger and Ed Faulk. We had a lot of fun, made a lot of good music, a couple of other people moved in and out of the group.........but it is in the nature of the military that everybody leaves. People get transferred, people get discharged, etc. Ed and Jack did both. I stuck around the Air Force, eventually got a commission, and retired with 26 years of service.


After finding out about some of the people I knew before I joined the Air Force, I decided to look up Ed and Jack. Ed was fairly easy. He is now Deacon Ed Faulk, with ministry in churches of two different rites. He's also a biggie in the electronics field, raises shelties, and is a certified judge for dog shows and trials.

Jack Krieger is now known as "Cecil" or "CJ". Turns out "Jack" was his middle name. Why didn't I know that? Perhaps I did, and it's part of that increasing part of the personal data storage that seems to have become mushed up with the passing of years. Anyway, he's a world class martial artist, and something of a legend in the world of massage therapy. He also wrote and/or performed an impressive range of music. Did I mention his poetry?

OK, so when we were "The Addicted" Ed played guitar better than I did, and Jack (CJ) sang better than I did. I sort of did the parts in the middle, musically. Outside of a few adventures where I'm not sure about the statute of limitations, it was a good association. OK, even the weird stuff was pretty cool. I also had the opportunity of getting my head handed to me at pool and table tennis. Such things are good for the humility muscles, and I learned enough to actually win a few matches in later years.

Last night, I was noodling around on the 9-string, and found I actually remember the words (and most of the chords) to some of the stuff we did back then. Not too bad for a guy who has to look up the words to the stuff he wrote (and performed) a lot more recently.