My guest this week is Roger Siminoff. Not only is Roger an authority on instrument making, the physics of music and tap tuning, he's also an expert on the life and work of Lloyd Loar.

Loar worked at Gibson in the early 1920s and oversaw the production of some truly remarkable, game changing instruments - most notably the F5 mandolin, which went on to become an integral part of bluegrass music and shape how we see mandolins for the next 100 years.

We talked about Lloyd Loar's background, why his approach to making mandolins was both revolutionary, yet also harked back 200 years to the golden age of violin making and how Roger ended up researching Loar for a magazine piece (a piece that went on to develop into an interest in Loar's work, a deep friendship with his widow, the discovery of some long lost instruments and, ultimately, a life's work for Roger himself).

It was a fascinating conversation - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

To find out more about Roger and his books, visit siminoffbooks.com

In particular check out The Life and Work of Lloyd Allayre Loar and The Art of Tap Tuning

Roger mentions Dan Beimborn's wonderful Mandolin Archive site, detailing all the known Loar-signed instruments out there.

For more on mandolins, including info and a truly excellent forum, I can highly recommend Mandolin Cafe

Happy picking!

Matt

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Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass.

Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode.

News and Announcements (Church Street News)

• IBMA Black String Band Symposium
• Volunteer at IBMA
• Email volunteer@ibma.org for more info

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Scroll on Buddy

• East Nash Grass at DelFest
• Tony Rice Native American vinyl reissue

Other bits

• Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Peghead Nation
• Use the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course

Happy picking.

Matt

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My guest on the podcast this week is Chris Eldridge, guitarist with Punch Brothers and Mighty Poplar.

Chris is not only one of my favourite guitarists, he's also one of my favourite people I've had on as a guest, so I'm delighted to welcome him back to Bluegrass Jam Along to celebrate the podcast's 400th episode.

In this special episode we're chatting about Bela Fleck's ground breaking record Drive. It's a record that's really important to Chris, and also played a key role in the early days of both The Infamous Stringdusters and Punch Brothers.

Chris talks about first hearing the record, why it grabbed his attention so much and why it holds a key place in not only Bela's output, but also in the rich tradition of progressive, instrumental string band music. We also talk about the remarkable contributions made by the players Bela assembled for this record, including Sam Bush, Mark Schatz, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Mark O'Connor and, of course, Tony Rice.

It was a fascinating conversation to get to have. Drive is one of my favourite records and I know it's a favourite of so many bluegrass fans and players too.

Thanks Chris and here's to the next 400 episodes!

Happy picking!

Matt

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