There is an old tradition of playing blues on mandolin predating anything even remotely like bluegrass. I used to listen a lot to Yank Rachel forty years ago in Chicago and he'd already been recording for thirty-five years. I got to see him again in 1993 just four years before he died at age 87 and he could still play. We got a chance to visit a little, it was good to see him.

Jethro Burns was another early player to take the mandolin in other directions as was Buck White when he founded The Down Home Folks (now known as The Whites). As I recall, Buck was originally a piano player.

      - Mark