User:Andy Denes

I'm a 63 year old career letter carrier for the U. S. Postal Service. I have been playing old time music since about the time I was in the 6th grade, circa 1959, when I got a Harmony Monterey mandolin. I took up the 5-string banjo a couple years later, taking lessons from Al Hjerpe, who learned from Stu Jamieson, who I believe learned from Rufus Crisp. I've attended/competed at the Topango Banjo Fiddle Contest since 1963. I used to walk to my high school, which is only of interest because I daily walked by the Ashgrove, a Los Angeles folk club, where I got to see the likes of Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Rev. Gary Davis, New Lost City Ramblers, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, Jesse Fuller, Maybelle Carter, Ry Cooder, the Fat City String Band (later, known as Highwoods), and plenty others I can't recall at the moment.

After getting a B. A., I went back a few years later to get an M. A. in Folklore & Mythology from UCLA doing my field work on Vancouver Island. About that time I was in a string band called the Last Straw String Band which included Charlie Seemann (a working folklorist!), Mike Springer (who wrote Bouchard's Hornpipe), Jack Aldrich, Randy Rich, and Steve Nelson. We played various gigs around Southern California and, when the band was Charlie, Randy, and me, we made an LP in about 1975.

I didn't play much music in the last 25 years of the 20th century, but I never gave it up entirely. I used to volunteer to help out at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest, and I eventually got roped into serving on the Board of Directors for a few years. These days I don't play as much banjo as I used to because I have a pair of torn rotator cuffs, and it hurts too much. I've taken up the mandolin again both because it is all forearm and wrist - no shoulder involvement - but also because I found it easier to pick up all the new tunes on the mandolin than on the banjo.

Right now, my main musical activities are working on a tablature for old-time tunes on the mandolin and jamming at as many of the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara jams that I can get to.