Biography/Background

How far back do you want to go? I started on the cello in 3rd grade orchestra at Tackan Elementary school on Long Island. I played alto saxophone for a few years too, in Milford, New Jersey. When I moved to Minnesota in 1975 I dropped sax–too many scales, not enough tunes–and switched to guitar. Truman Sogge of Zwemke Music in Kasson introduced me to Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotton and Doc Watson for fingerstyle guitar.

But you want to know how I got hooked on the mandolin.

I played guitar right up to college but for some mysterious reason (beer), put it down for ten years. About 1994, after having been a patron for some twelve years running, I took a notion to work for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. I dusted off my Alvarez and worked up some material. After failing my fingerstyle picking audition, I was graciously allowed to attend the festival’s training classes. I decided to stick with strumming and singing and was rewarded with a spot as a solo musician.

At the Ren Fest I met a number of other musicians and received an invitation to start playing with an Irish pub group called Turmeric as guitarist and singer. Over the next few years, I played just about every Irish pub in the Twin Cities with Turmeric, The Lilting Banshees, and finally The Banshees (lost our lilt I guess). By the time of the last iteration, our fiddle player left and we needed a new lead instrument. So I picked up a cheap Kentucky mandolin and started plunking out tunes.

About 1998 I had the good fortune to see the Del McCoury band at the Cedar Cultural Center in Mpls. I was still playing Irish but this planted a seed. When I fell out of Irish music a year or so later, I started thinking about playing something different. I started playing the mandolin (as opposed to just tunes) when I attended the Steve Kaufman mandolin camp in Maryville, TN, in 1999 and 2000. The potential of the instrument opened up for me and I began to focus hard.

I played in a trio with Chris Jones and Matt Fox called Catskinner where we dabbled in old time, bluegrass, Irish, swing, and originals. This trio didn’t last long but it gave me a strong push towards towards traditional American music. I answered an advertisement and wound up in a bluegrass outfit called The Blue Drifters where I met Joel Olson and Ross Willits.

I learned all the hardcore bluegrass skills in The Drifters but after a season, Joel, Ross and I teamed up with Chris Jones and formed our own group, The Whistlepigs String Band, in 2003. Cati Jo Pidel on fiddle joined in 2008. The Whistlepigs continue to play an aggressive schedule throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, and even Saskatchewan. We strive to play originals, odd old songs, blues, and even pop numbers in our own unique style and have produced a pair of recordings entitled “Unjugged” and “Fenceline.”

Since then I have plunged headlong into the depths of bluegrass, old time, pre-1940‘s stringband blues, and a host of other fascinating forms of old rural music. I’ve had the great fortune to study, either one-on-one or in a group, with the likes of Frank Wakefield, Skip Gorman, Peter Ostroushko, Jody Stecher, Tim O’Brien, Carlo Aonzo, Alan Bibey, Butch Baldassari, Don Stiernberg, and Robin Bullock.

For the past three years I have taken private lessons from Mike Compton, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Monroe-style bluegrass, old time fiddle tune, and stringband blues mandolin styles. I am an utter mandolin fanatic and I am eager to be out playing, teaching, and extolling the virtues of this wonderful instrument. I won’t be done learning everything there is to learn about it in this lifetime but the pursuit brings me joy and I hope to share it.

You can contact me at whistlepigmando [at] gmail [dot] com.