by Christine | Sep 8, 2017 | Welcome Column
It starts out innocently enough. Assuming you can already play a musical instrument, you pick up a guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, or whatever. Then you play it, and out comes the tone. You may want to call it sound, but something comes out from those wood and wire...
by Christine | Apr 14, 2018 | Welcome Column
Lots of rain yesterday, Friday. But today, on Saturday, April 7, 2018, a quick look out the window shows a mostly blue sky with a few clouds. I wonder if the Sonoma County flood alert is still in effect? Should I go for it? Sure, why not give it a try. Okay,...
by Christine | Jul 9, 2016 | Welcome Column
In the movie, “The Red Violin,” the journey of a fiddle (“violin” and “fiddle” are used interchangeably = bluegrass license) takes place that spans four centuries and five countries. The birth takes place in Cremona, Italy, in 1681....
by Christine | Oct 12, 2019 | Welcome Column
AMERICA & ENGLAND – A couple of hundred plus years ago some Englishmen came to America to discover new things. They discovered that they didn’t want to be Englishmen, and then they became Americans. Then they couldn’t get along with England, so...
by Christine | Jan 13, 2018 | Welcome Column
Too often we have been judged, ostracized, shunned, talked about, looked down upon, and ridiculed. And with the recent courtship, embracing, and wedding of the CBA to the LGBTQ community, I feel that it is high-time to step forward and bring a new issue to the...
by Christine | Jun 10, 2017 | Welcome Column
It came with them. They brought it with them. The came from “across the pond,” and they and it were aboard the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria. But those three ships did not know it, and they did not know it, but it knew it. The whole thing started...
by Christine | Sep 13, 2019 | Welcome Column
It’s June in the year 2020. It’s 2 AM in the morning, Sunday, Grass Valley, California, at the Nevada County Fairground’s CBA “Bluegrass Village.” A large group of bluegrass jammers has gathered under the tall, stately pine trees. Yes,...
by Christine | Nov 11, 2017 | Welcome Column
Recently I saw a rerun of a 2013 PBS TV show documenting the life and times of Jimi Hendrix, the famous electric guitar player and singer. One of the things that came out in this documentary is that Jimi almost always had a guitar with him, wherever he went. Besides...
by Christine | Feb 11, 2017 | Welcome Column
Hey mandophiles, this column may be of more interest to you than to non-believers. But what the heck, there are often things of interest to those who are not interested until they dive in and get some kind of interest out of what they think is not interesting....
by Christine | Jan 14, 2017 | Welcome Column
1. Take out a second mortgage on my house, and buy a 1937 Gibson Flathead Five-String Banjo.2. Take out a third mortgage on my house and buy a 1937 Martin Dreadnought Guitar.3. Sell my house and buy a Feb. 18th, 1924 Gibson F5 Lloyd Loar signed mandolin.4. Form...
