Jethro Burns Mandolin Book
Mel
Bay
Author: Jethro Burns and Ken Eidson
Book with 2 CDs
Tablature and Notation Included
Learn from the master of bluegrass mandolin - Jethro Burns. More than 70
tunes and two dozen exercises are found in this bluegrass bonanza. The Complete
Jethro Burns Mandolin Book is an incomparable resource of bluegrass mandolin
repertoire - all in standard notation and tablature, just the way the maestro
played them - with chord symbols for an accompaniment instrument. Presents some
of Jethro's finest and most challenging solos, in addition to a special section
on Jethro's mandolin techniques. Ample performance notes and mandolin lore are
provided, along with many photographs of Jethro in the latter half of a career
lasting more than half a century.
Contents: In
this book, Ken has accurately transcribed Jethro Burns' unique mandolin style.
Carefully selected exercises are sprinkled throughout the book in preparation
for specific tunes. No effort is spared in clarifying technical concepts. This
is a must-have book for any serious student of the bluegrass mandolin.
Index
of Tunes
All Strung Out Amazing Grace America the Beautiful Annie Laurie Aura
Lee Back Up and Push Bile Them Cabbage Down Billy Boy Black and Blues Blackberry
Blossom Blackberry Blossom- High Version Boll Weevil Bridge Work Butter Fingers
Camptown Races Careless Love Chicken Reel Cripple Creek Cross Country Cumberland
Gap Devil's Dream Dirty Old Mandolin Dixie Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Fickle
Fingers Fisher's Hornpipe Flaky Flickin' My Pick Flop Eared Mule For He's a Jolly
Good Fellow Goin' Down that Road Feelin' Bad Golden Slippers Grandfather's Clock
Greensleeves Hell Amongst the Yearlings I've been Workin' on the Railroad Jesse
James Jethro's Tune Jethrology John Hardy June Apple Junqueyard Just a Closer
Walk Listen to the Mockingbird Litterbug Waltz Little Brown Jug Londonderry Air
Mando Bleu Mississippi Mod Mississippi Sawyer My Old Kentucky Home Nellie Bly
Nellie Gray Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen Old Joe Clark Old Time Religion
Paddy on the Turnpike Pop Goes the Weasel Raunchy Old Rag Ruben Sandwich Rickett's
Reel Rip-Off Sailor's Hornpipe Sam's Bush Scotch Plaid Shift of Wit Slim Pickin'
Soldier's Joy Swanee River Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Tater-Bug Rag Tennessee Wagoner
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Will the Circle Be Unbroken Yellow Rose of Texas
About Jethro Burns
Jethro Burns was more than one in a million. Yes, he was a
one-in-a-million mandolin player; he was also a one-in-a-million showman, teacher,
comedian, guitar player, studio musician, and side man. Jethro lived and worked
by old-fashioned show-business standards: you were always loyal to your partner,
your contract, your music, your audience. Jethro was not terribly fond of agents.
He could spot them at a hundred yards. When interviewers searching for a question
that would make interesting reading asked, "What was your worst gig?" he
would respond, "There never was a bad gig!" In the 1930s, Jethro started
playing in speakeasies in Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was just a kid. His father
had been a Vaudeville performer and gave freely of his knowledge of audiences
and routines as Jethro began to do stage shows. Teamed with Henry "Homer" Haynes
on guitar and sometimes with his brother Aitchie on bass, they worked as Homer
and Jethro and also as the String Dusters, playing square dances, rodeos, radio
shows, county fairs, anything and everything around Knoxville. When swing bands
would come through town, he would be there for the show, soaking up the music.
When black groups like The Jimmy Lunceford Band played, Jethro's white face would
be in that audience, too. Jazz was just as much a part of his musical language
as country music. Jethro served as an infantryman in the Pacific during World
War II. It was the only non-musical work he ever did, and even then he literally
left a foxhole on Guadalcanal to join Special Services and play guitar for the
remainder of his hitch. Jethro said there was one problem with that: as a musician,
he was not allowed to carry a weapon, and he was often in sticky spots where
he would have preferred his M-1 to his guitar! After the war, Homer and Jethro
began to climb the show-business ladder: RCA Victor recording contracts, night
clubs, state fairs, TV commercials. They were funny, and the whole country knew
it. Their run came to an end when Homer died in August 1971. In 1975 Jethro partnered
with Ken Eidson to publish his techniques with Mel Bay. During his latter years,
Jethro enjoyed his status as a world-class mandolin player. His playing skills
never diminished, though his health declined. To the end, he was happy to be
with his family and friends. He left us on February 4, 1989, at the age of 68,
but his playing lives on in his recordings and books.
About Ken Eidson
Ken Eidson, co-author of Complete Jethro Burns Mandolin Book studied
with Jethro Burns for two years before being asked to be his musical partner. "For
the next five years," Eidson exults, "I was paid to learn from him!"
