Quotes

I started playing mandolin when I was eight by necessity, which is pretty much how I do everything. We played at a country music show in Marceline Missouri.. where the guy in charge, his name was Buck Cody, decided that whoever didn't play an instrument didn't get paid. And so this was my dad's answer to that. He said, 'Here's the mandolin. Here's the G, C, and D chords. You're going to be playing this for two-and-a-half hours every Saturday night'. The wage was $10 per man. I don't think I ever saw that $10 either. I might have to talk to my dad about that.

I've been with people who want the spotlight all the time, and I think my father trained me to know your song is going to come. You have your song ready, and when it is your turn you step up and become the featured performer. When your song is done, you step back and support everyone else. Not everyone was raised in that environment.

Every day my dad would pick me up after school and he, my grandpa and I would play until dinner. After dinner, friends came over and we would play until bedtime every night. The living room was filled with people. Each person would take their turn, singing and playing a song that everyone else would accompany. My dad would say, 'Take it Rhonda', and after a while it was like take it, what? And if you didn't take it, things got a little more intense.

My first instrument was actually when I was six years old. For my birthday my dad got me a snare drum, a stand and a set of brushes. Aunt Pearl played the mandolin, grandpa played the guitar, my dad played banjo and electric guitar [and] mom played the stand-up bass. I think snare was the only instrument not taken. Either that, or they thought it was a good way to learn how to keep time.

Buck White is my favorite mandolin player of all time. He has such a unique style. And not only did I listen to his records but I slowed them down to 16 rpm - this is back when there was vinyl - and I would work out note-for-note every lick of his.