Mike Dowling & Randy Sabien

Wednesday, February 07, 2001
12:00 am
Location: Elderly Instruments
in-store performance (free)

Elderly Instruments’ patrons are in for a real treat this Wednesday when we will be visited by the virtuoso jazz guitar and violin duo of Mike Dowling and Randy Sabien. MIKE DOWLING: The great Jethro Burns once said, "I don’t play guitar when Dowling’s in the band. You don’t take the game warden fishing". A professional career that has spanned four decades has taken Dowling from sideman, session player, and band leader, to solo performer and composer of amazing versatility. Firmly grounded in authenticity and possessed of a musical soul as old as the vintage instruments he favors, Mike draws inspiration from deep in the musical bag of American roots guitar. Influenced by traditional Piedmont style fingerpickers like Mississippi John Hurt and swing jazz legends like the great George Barnes, Mike has developed a style, uniquely his own, that he translates fluently to arch top, flat top, and resonator guitars alike. Along the way on this musical odyssey Mike has met and worked with some of the best musicians the diverse genres had to offer, including Burns and jazz violin legend Joe Venuti. When master fiddler Vassar Clements heard him he hired him to play guitar in his first touring band. Clements calls him simply, "One of the finest guitar players there is, anywhere." Mike can be heard on dozens of recordings including Vassar’s 1979 grammy-nominated "Nashville Jam". These days, when he’s not on a trout stream, Mike divides his time fairly equally between teaching and performing. As a solo artist, he’s capturing the hearts of acoustic music fans worldwide with his engaging voice, self-deprecating wit, and elegant arrangements of an arsenal of old blues, swing, ragtime, and original tunes. He brings three or four guitars to the stage in different styles and tunings, switching effortlessly from bottleneck blues on a well-worn National to swing interpretations reminiscent of the great jazz artists of the early days During a ten year stint in Nashville Mike had a string of songwriting successes, including tunes recorded by such artists as the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Emmylou Harris, Tim O’Brien, Kathy Mattea, Claire Lynch and Del McCoury. He and Jan wrote a #1 hit for Canadian country artist George Fox and have four tunes listed in "The Decade’s Top 200 Bluegrass Songs" as compiled by Bluegrass Unlimited (Jan. 2000). One of those tunes "Backtrackin’, written by Mike and recorded by the Nashville Bluegrass Band, was nominated Bluegrass Song of the Year in 1994 by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Since leaving Nashville Mike has been focusing on writing instrumental music for the guitar. His compositions have been featured in the pages of Fingerstyle Guitar and Acoustic Guitar magazines, and his haunting arrangement of a Civil War era melody he calls "Rosalie" is included on the Acoustic Guitar compilation CD, Habits of the Heart. RANDY SABIEN: When Randy Sabien (suh bean’) picks up his violin, get ready. His rhythmic, bluesy sound melded together with swing jazz will have you bobbing your head, tapping your toes and dancing right out of your chair. Randy’s jazz/blues style comes from learning classical violin technique and applying that to music by artists like Duke Ellington, The Grateful Dead, George Gershwin, The Beatles, Miles Davis, and The Allman Brothers. Ultimately his most important influences are from the legendary jazz violinists of the swing era. All of these elements combine seamlessly to form a unique voice on the violin. They also account for an audience that is equally diverse. Whether it’s a standard, pop tune or his own material, Randy is clever, soulful and irresistible. His playing rings true to what you already know and love about music.

Check out recordings we carry featuring Mike Dowling & Randy Sabien