Poem: “Something that arouses strong emotion because of its beauty.”
Poet: “A person with special powers of imagination or expression.”
Tone: “A musical sound with reference to its pitch, quality, and strength.”
Back in 1994 David Grisman came out with his landmark CD, “Tone Poems.” With Tony Rice on guitar(s) and Grisman on mandolin(s) the two master musicians put their hands and minds to work on seventeen vintage guitars and seventeen vintage mandolins. Tony Rice starts with an 1891 Martin 1-21 Guitar, and then makes his way through a 1923 Gibson Style “O,” 1915 Maurer style 953, 1931 Stahl style 473, 1931 Martin OM-18, 1935 Martin D-28, 1937 Martin 000-45, 1930’s Regal “Le Domino,” 1939 Martin D-45, 1939 Gibson J-100, 1936 Gibson L-Century, 1937 Gibson Advanced Jumbo, 1937 Martin 0-18, 1950 Gypsy Jazz Selmer, 1943 Martin D-18 (Elvis used this model), 1952 Martin D-28, and ends up on a 1993 Santa Cruz Tony Rice Model guitar. At the same time David Grisman starts with a 1905 Gibson mandolin, and then makes his way through a 1909 Gibson “3-Point” F4, 1925 Lyon & Healy style A, 1919 Vega Style 202 Lute mandolin, 1924 Gibson A-2Z, 1923 Gibson “Lloyd Loar” F-5, 1924 Gibson A-4, 1930’s S.S. Stewart “Snow Queen,” 1923 Gibson “Loar” A-5, 1925 Gibson “Fern” F-5, 1936 Martin Style 2-30, 1934 Gibson F-12, 1937 Epiphone Strand, 1934 Gibson F-10, 1942 Gibson Prototype A-5, and ends up on a 1993 Gilchrist Model 5 mandolin. The CD includes a booklet of lush pictures of each instrument played, along with a brief history of each instrument. The tone of the mandolin and guitar duets is as rich as a newly discovered gold mine, and the musical poetry speaks for itself on each track of this CD. The musical poems here are, “Turn of the Century,” “The Prisoner Waltz,” “Sam-Bino,” “Grandfather’s Clock,” “Good Old Mountain Dew,” “I Am A Pilgrim,” “Mill Valley Waltz,” “Vintage Gintage Blues,” “I Don’t Want Your Mandolins, Mister,” “Dawg After Dark,” “Wildwood Flower,” “Morning Sun,” “Banks Of The Ohio,” “Swing 42,” “Watson Blues,” “O Solo Mio,” and “Song For Two Pamelas.” Overall this CD and booklet are a delight to the ears and eyes.
In addition to being a world class mandolin player, you have to admit that David Grisman is a very creative guy. He comes up with new ideas in playing acoustic music and involving new people to play with those ideas. In 2005 Grisman came out with a two-CD offering, “Tone Poets,” In Grisman’s words, “Tone Poets is a natural extension of the concept of the Tone Poems project. In math, it would be labeled a corollary. Like Tone Poems, it attempts to define the relationship between the musician and the instrument he or she plays.” The idea in Tone Poets is to have the same mandolin and the same guitar played by a bunch of different world class players. In this case, the mandolin is a 1922 Gibson “Loar” F-5, and the guitar is a 1933 Martin OM-45. Grisman relates, “It demonstrates that these two classic fretted instruments contain a myriad of sonic secrets waiting to be unlocked by great practitioners of the mandolin and guitar arts.” On disc one of this project the mandolins is solo for track one, then the guitar is solo for track two, and then they keep trading off for the sixteen tunes. On disc two, the mandolin and guitar share each of the fifteen tracks. The various musicians are too many to mention here, but some of them are Mike Marshall (mandolin), Eva Scow (mandolin), Jim Hurst (guitar), Frank Wakefield (mandolin), John Jorgenson (guitar), Tony Williamson (mandolin), Beppe Gambetta (guitar), Tim O’Brien (mandolin), Bryan Sutton (guitar), Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), and Del McCoury (guitar). The interesting thing is that each musician pulls a different tone from the same instrument. As David Grisman puts it, “It ain’t the car, it’s the driver!” In this project a booklet is provided with color pictures of each musician and their musical history. We don’t know how Grisman came up with this idea, but we are glad he did.
And then we have you and me. You know, non-world class musicians, but musicians nonetheless, who have been chasing tone for all its worth. We start out with a basic inexpensive musical instrument that has a certain tone, and then as time goes by we hear other instruments that emit a mysterious, magnetic, elusive tone that we desire and pursue for, for, well, maybe forever. Some musicians have fallen prey to starting out with an instrument that costs a couple hundred bucks, and then wind up taking out a second mortgage on their house to buy that Gibson Lloyd Loar signed mandolin, or that 1930’s Martin D-18 or D-28. That’s not me, and it may not be you. But then again, it just might be you. You know who you are. Chasing that mysterious tone can become addictive. After all, we do have “GAS” (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome), and “MAS” (Mandolin Acquisition Syndrome) that attack many of us now and then. Of course if you don’t go overboard it can be a positive addiction. It’s good to be passionate about something. At any age.
And when you get right down to it, aren’t we all who play music Tone Poets in our own right, creating Tone Poems in our own way, embracing the addictive quality of music? I like to think so.
