October 27, 2008

EXOTIC SOUNDS: Wabash Valley musicians master the tiny mandolin

By Mark Bennett

GRAYSVILLE — A mystic power dwells inside eight strings, 13 inches of wood, steel, brass and mother of pearl.

That force drove Dave Bagdade, then a teenager, to sell his baseball card collection so he could buy his first mandolin. Solly Burton sold eggs and 4-H pigs from his family’s farm to purchase his first good mandolin. Louie Popejoy, a musical legend in the Wabash Valley, spent 30 years mastering the tiny instrument.

“If a player’s good, they can make some sweet sounds with it,” Popejoy said.

Bagdade fell for its brightly pitched tone after reading a magazine review of an album by 1960s mandolin pioneer David Grisman. “I went out and bought the record, and it literally changed my life,” he recalled.

Now Bagdade, 44, plays mandolin for numerous bands of several different genres, including Terre Haute-based bluegrassers Diamond Hill Station.

It transformed Burton, too.

He’s an easy-going 17-year-old, perfectly content tending to the hogs, chickens, ducks and grain crops on the rural Sullivan County farm where he lives with his parents, Barney and Susan Burton. Home-schooled since seventh grade, Solly takes courses across the Wabash River in Robinson, Ill., but insists with an infectious smile, “I like to stay home.”

That’s getting harder to do, because so many people like to hear him play his mandolin. Fortunately for them, that feeling is mutual. Burton’s fascination with the instrument led him to Winfield, Kan., where he won the National Mandolin Contest last year among musicians of all ages, and to Nashville, Tenn., where he recorded an album, fittingly titled “Back Home Again.” Last weekend, the Burtons drove to Princeton so Solly could perform on a radio show. He’s played at the Boot City Opry, churches, weddings and holiday events. On the bluegrass festival circuit, he’s immediately recognized.

“We’ll go places, and people will say, ‘There’s Solly,’” Susan said, “and we don’t know who they are. Somebody said it’s like Cher — they don’t need a last name. It’s just Solly.”

As he listened to his mother recount that story, Burton quietly plucked his Weber mandolin. That Montana-made instrument was his prize for winning the national title at Winfield last year. Some of his fellow entrants were as old as 68. “I didn’t think I’d make the finals because the other guys in the contest were so good,” Burton said.

Obviously, the judges thought otherwise.

His skill reveals itself immediately. A mandolin seems at home in his young hands. On the back cover of Burton’s album, Danny Roberts — mandolinist for the Grammy-nominated bluegrass band The Grascals — writes, “Great tone, nice clean picking, cool arrangements. Solly has all the tools.”

And versatility. While Burton insists he’s uninterested in commercial rock, pop and country music, he buzzes like a bee from bluegrass to jazz, gospel, blues and Texas swing styles. He even handles the nuances of Django, a gypsy sound made popular in the 1930s and ’40s by Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt. “I just liked it because it was a whole different sound. It had that choppy sound,” he said, demonstrating as he spoke. “It’s a really dynamic sound.”

Sitting on the couch in the Burton’s front room, Solly played “Sleigh Ride” first in its straight, cheery Christmas version and then as a jazzy holiday tune. “It’s more improvisational,” he explained.

Each rendition unique

Susan would like her son to try writing songs. Solly contends that he’s writing every time he improvises a solo, even if it comes in the middle of a song written by someone else. “Anything I play is an original version of that song. Nobody plays a song like I do,” he said, without a hint of bravado.

Until recently, Burton didn’t bother with reading sheet music. Mandolin players who can only perform to scripted notes could get lost in a bluegrass or jazz setting, where improvisation rules, he explained.

“I think reading music is a waste of time, because for some of the songs, you can’t find the sheet music,” Burton said.

Still, he’s now learned to sight-read mandolin sheets, and studies music theory two days a week at Lincoln Trail. He also takes non-music courses from that college online. By the time he completes his home-schooling next year, Burton’s mom would like to see him enroll at a university music program, or pursue session work in Nashville.

He’s unsure of his next step. “I really don’t know what I want to do,” he said.

The only limit on Burton’s future will come from other people, said Popejoy, Solly’s first instructor. Popejoy started teaching 45 years ago, and opened his Terre Haute music center in 1972. Solly first studied fiddle under Popejoy, because Burton’s dad, Barney, was doing the same. The 9-year-old Solly didn’t enjoy violin. But when his mother bought a weathered, old mandolin for $50 at a garage sale, Solly was hooked. Popejoy began teaching him mandolin, and Burton hasn’t stopped since.

Amidst a roster of hundreds of Popejoy’s pupils, Burton has reached a special plateau, thanks to his tireless practice.

“There’s only one obstacle standing in his way, and that’s finding a group that will not only challenge him, but also not stand in his way,” Popejoy said. “It just depends on what he wants to do. He has the same capability as five mandolin players I know who’ve been very successful.”

It’s rhythm, rhythm, rhythm

Burton prefers performing with other musicians, rather than solo. Bluegrass and jazz are better genres for ensembles than pop or country, he said. In country music, “They want the singer to be the star. They don’t want the mandolin player to take all the attention. But in bluegrass or jazz, you want your break to stand out.”

A mandolinist in a bluegrass band must also carry the rhythm, along with a bassist and guitarist.

It’s “rhythm, rhythm, rhythm,” said Bagdade of Diamond Hill Station. “Don’t get me wrong — I love guys and gals who can fly all over the fingerboard and play a million notes. But rhythm is so important.”

Traditional bluegrass isn’t Bagdade’s only stylistic forum, though. He plays “rocked-up bluegrass” on electric mandolin with Indianapolis’ Cousin Brothers, Irish and Scottish music with an accompanying fiddler, and Grateful Dead covers with jam bands, and country. He’s in the duo Mando Commandos, crossing over the boundaries of bluegrass, Celtic, reggae, blues, gypsy and rock, among other styles, and even plays with the Indianapolis mandolin orchestra known as Mandolindy.

“It really is an amazingly adaptable instrument,” Bagdade said, “in the right hands.”



Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.