FRANK WAKEFIELD: 

FRANK IMPROVES HIS LLOYD LOAR MANDOLIN

Interview by Jim Moss

Frank: I was working at Generous Electric and I had access to all that stuff…bakelite… epoxy and fiberglass.  Jim: and that’s when you made it, so this bridge has been on there since then.  Frank: Right.. yeah.  I use to sell those bridges.   I didn’t actually sell them I actually gave them away. And they never wore out.. the one I have now you don’t even have to sand the top of it cause it don’t wear.  So then I got up here and I was going to make it sound better… So I put a coat of Spray Paint on it!  Jim:  Which color now? Frank: It was RED… ha ha ha  Jim: And you used what kind of paint? Frank: Just a regular can of spray paint..  Jim: So where did you get this from… a car store? Frank: Right! Jim: Epoxy paint? Frank: I am not sure if it was or not I don’t remember.  So I figure I’d dry it and bake and everything… I baked it for a while for about 300… well about 110 or 120 degrees something like that.. Jim: In the oven? Frank: Yeah.  (continued)»

FRANK WAKEFIELD: 

A SHORT INTERVIEW ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS

Interview by Jim Moss

Jim: Frank... Tell me about your earliest musical instrument..  Frank: I had a guitar that I played with a case knife.  Jim: What's a case knife? Frank: A butter knife, a lot of people call it a case knife... a regular butter knife that ain't sharp. You've seen those right?  know what those are? Jim: Yeah, I have them here.  Frank: Ya do...? What do they call them out there? 

Jim: Butter knives...  Frank: Oh.. Ok.. fact that is probably what it was.

Jim: So you use to play with that?  You didn't pick up a piece of pipe or a bottle?  Frank: Nooo. We never had no bottles around... moonshiners.. 

We had moonshiners around that would buy old bottles from you.  ha ha ...

Jim: Is that right?  Was there a lot of moonshiners there back then?

Frank: Yeah, they had to have bottles of glass, they would use quart bottles, gallon bottles, milk bottles... anything that was glass. There wernt no plastic in those days... everything was glass. Jim: So what would they do just come by asking for them?  Frank: Yeah, they'd give you a nickel for a glass bottle, that was a lot of money back then. Jim: They couldn't buy the glass I guess cause...  Frank: No... they would get caught that way... have em.. put em in jail.  My first cousin he drank it, he drank a pint of that moonshine.  He died right after he drank it.  He paid for someone to drink some first.. in case something went wrong.  Jim: It's an interesting part of Americana isn't it?

Frank: Yeah it is.. them Ole billhillys  (continued)»

FRANK WAKEFIELD: 

HOW FRANK BEGAN PLAYING MANDOLIN

Interview by Jim Moss

When I was playing for the snake handlers, I heard all those people singing.  A person would get up and sing solo and a couple people would get up and sing some harmonies.  When I started hearing them I was right involved with it.  They was real billhillies.  You could call it Bluegrass because they would do songs like “You go to your synagogue and I’ll go to mine” you’ve heard of that one.  (laughs).…or was it “you go to my synagogue and I will go to my church”? (continued)»

1) JIMMY MARTIN  "TELLS IT LIKE IT IS!"

Interview by Jim Moss

Jimmy Martin:  I'll tell you one thing.  When I come with him!  You listen, you put this on your web site...   When I come with Bill Monroe, he was singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in A.   OK?   Then every song that he and Lester had recorded in A like "Will You Be Loving Another Man", "Cabin Home On The Hill"?   I throwed it up in B natural. So his solos was in A.  Bill's was.    FOLLOW ME?!   Like Lester... Bill's singing like Lester.  Ok, when I went with him all the songs that him and Lester recorded in A, we moved them up in B and high C.  So Bill says, "well what's the use of me singing tenor to you in B and singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in A?"  "I am just gonna move it up in B". So there is where the high lonesome sound come from. Ya understand?  Put that on your web site!   Now any song that him (Bill Monroe) and Lester sung in G, me and him move it up in A.  Anything they done in A we do it in B.  And so Bill was singing Blue Moon Of Kentucky in A, he recorded it in A, FOLLOW ME?   (continued)»

2) JIMMY MARTIN  "TOGETHERNESS"

Interview by Jim Moss

Jim Moss: The 1954 version of that band was tight.

Jimmy Martin: There ain't a band as tight right now.. There ain't a band like me and the Osborne Brothers were tight..  like me and JD Crowe and Paul Williams was tight.  Bill Emerson, that group was tight.   other words... but I kept it tight...and we lived in the same town together.. we traveled together.  Now we don't travel together, there's no family, no nuthing...  just separated.

Put this in there...  The artist his band and everything are separated... its no togetherness. And how can you play music together when your band is not with you... not nothing together.  I bet yeah I don't say 15 words....  15 words to neither one of my band in ten summers.  and that's negotiating with them.  They don't have nothing to say to me... or nothing.  They sitting around waiting till they get their money!  When they get their money there gone.   And when they come up to a festival, I'm sitting on the bus... sitting there by myself.  neither one of my bands is sitting there talking to me.  Now use to be we'd talk together.  And visit together...  be together...  but there is no togetherness anymore.   (continued)»

3) JIMMY MARTIN   "THE OPRY"

Interview by Jim Moss

Jimmy Martin: Well...  Then I done a few spots on the Grand Ole Opry as guest.  Then Bob Neon and the Williming Brothers, I was working through their office, they didn't have enough a power to get me guest spot on the Grand Ole Opry anymore till Bud Windell got down there.   Then I was guest... and every time I was guest there I'd encore a few times and Bud Windell told me, personally, that I would be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.  That the Opry fans liked the way I entertained and play Bluegrass music, and I would be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.    BUT, some'en had come up that Mr. Windell did not make me a member.  And I did not feel hard at him.  I know what he was up against.  I think everybody knows what Mr. Windell was up against.   Cause, Roy Acuff had already told me that Bill told him, that he would resign and quit the Grand Ole Opry it they let me become a member   (continued)»

(mp3)

The Frank Wakefield Band 1998

Live at The Freight & Salvage, Berkeley California  

with Special Guest David Grisman