Tracking down an old guitar riff
Yesterday, I was talking with my dad about western swing and similar country music in a conversation about my grandfather who was a mandolin player in a red dirt/western swing band on old timey radio in Texas during the post-war years. Unfortunately, I was never able to connect with my grandfather through music because I was still fairly young when he passed away, but I put on his favorite band, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, while I was thinking about him and getting some work done.
The Spotify top tracks led me to Steel Guitar Rag from 1936. Shortly after the 40 second mark, you will hear a guitar riff that sent me on a scavenger hunt, texting a couple different friends for help and skipping around songs for half an hour. The riff felt really familiar but more uptempo in my head than in the Bob Wills track. My first thought was the band WOLF!, maybe a track like Humdinger. Good song but not it. A friend of mine suggested Folsom Prison Blues, but that has a distinctly different riff in it.
Eventually, it struck me that I knew the riff from a King Curtis live album from 1966, I just needed to skip around until I found it in one of the tracks. The track is titled Medley: Peter Gunn / Get Long Cindy, and the riff starts after the 3:25 mark. Pretty similar don't you think?
Side question in case anyone here can help. I have my grandfather's original mandolin and would like to display it at home. Should I have a professional restore it or display it as is? Here's a photo.
I would personally display it as is, for sure. Restoring it might remove some of the wear & tear and polish it up a bit, but IMO that patina is precisely what gives it its charm and makes it connected to your grandfather.
Also, I love the story of you going on the riff hunt, and am surprised you actually managed to find the track you were reminded of. I often get little sparks like that from certain songs too, especially dub/dancehall/reggae samples, that send me down a rabbithole looking for the original source. It's pretty rare when I actually manage to find them though.
That's what I was thinking. It's not in such a poor condition that it needs to be repaired, and the wear that it does have is meaningful to me.
I'm surprised I found it too! I was pretty determined not to get on with my day until I figured it out though.
You could always bring it to a luthier and ask them to take a look at it.
They might refuse to do anything cosmetic for it, though — from what I can see in the photo the varnish looks intact and the right color, despite the patches in the wood. The guard plate looks great. The tailpiece looks a little tarnished, and I would definitely ask an expert if that's safe for you to polish yourself.
I guess given your username I shouldn't be, but I'm surprised to hear someone else use the word luthier! I sometimes take my cello to a local luthier, but it sounds like such an old-fashioned trade, like I'm taking something to the blacksmith. I think most people would just say "music store" but luthier is much more fun to say. It usually gets people to ask, "What's that?" Anyway, it made my day!
Hah!
Yeah, I work with a lot of violinists, violists, and cellists, and they all seem pretty comfortable with the word. I've also heard it called a "violin shop" or "shop", presumably with some allusion to "workshop" as well as "retailer".
I found a well reviewed luthier in town and am going to talk with them before going to the frame shop. Thanks for the idea and terminology! I have my own mandolin to take in to be restrung as a well.
Basically, the story goes that I found my grandpa's mandolin in storage at home one day and convinced my parents to get me lessons and pay for part of a new mandolin of my own if I stuck with it for a certain period of time. So at the beginning, I actually learned on the same instrument that he played. I had always been passionate about listening to and discovering music but never playing an instrument. Went on to play for a couple years, also took some piano at that time, but gave them both up when I left for school and haven't touched music since then aside for a year or so messing with MPCs/samplers. I figured I would strum on mine a bit now that my parents just gave them to me after sitting in storage (again) for over a decade.
No problem!
I love when people come back to an instrument, like you've both grown and are meeting again for tea or something.