Welcome to The Mandolin Player!

Hi everyone! Welcome to this new site. This is the first of February and we are now up and running!

Like most of you reading this, once upon a time, I fell in love with the mandolin. For me, it was catching David Grisman in concert at a small folk music festival in Spokane, Washington, about 20 years ago. I went to it because Mark O'Connor was the warm-up act and I was learning to play the fiddle at the time, but after hearing Grisman play (and man, did he play), everything changed for me. I bought an inexpensive mandolin and that was it. I listened to everything I could lay my hands on, and read and studied every non-fiction book and instructional book I could find.

Eventually, I ended up writing profiles and reviews for Mandolin Magazine and I did that for seven years until it ceased publication last summer. But my interest in writing about this instrument didn't change or die. And that's why I created The Mandolin Player.

I want The Mandolin Player to be as good as it can be. We will feature long-form profiles of professional players and builders, as well as feature articles covering many other aspects of this special instrument. We'll review the latest recordings, books, and even live concerts, when possible. If it has to do with the mandolin, we'll try to cover it here.

In addition to the wide-ranging mando-centric content, which will remain the primary focus for the site, we'll also dedicate some space to one of the more interesting musical movements of the past few years, and that is Americana or roots music. And this is music that is informed by or is derived from blues, jazz, classical, folk, country, bluegrass, or classic rock. Sometimes all of these genres end up being combined into one glorious mix. The Americana Corner page on this site will have feature articles, profiles, and reviews about this powerful and influential music.

But remember, we are just starting out, and I know we have a long way to go. So be sure to check back now and then, because we have a lot of work to do and we're going to try to get it done as fast as we can.

Thanks,
Hermon Joyner