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0000017c-60f7-de77-ad7e-f3f739cf0000Arts & More airs Fridays at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.Theme music: "Like A Beginner Again" by Dan Barry of Seas of Jupiter

Eclectic Michigan Mandolinist Makes Instrument Work With His Favorite Genres

courtesy of Don Julin

Don Julin is considered to be one of the most accomplished mandolin players in the country. You’ve probably already heard his work. He’s had compositions on NPR, HBO, VH1, MTV, NBC, Showtime, Bravo, and National Geographic Explorer - just to name a few.

Julin will headline the The Americana Roots Festival on January 14th at 7 p.m. at the Franke Center for the Arts in Marshall. 

Julin fell in love with the mandolin at age 19, but the instrument didn’t always fit in with the kind of music he liked to play - genres like jazz, rock, reggae, and electronica.

In fact, just a few years after picking it up, Julin took a break from the mandolin to become a guitarist in his college band. But when he came back to the mandolin after college, he was determined to use his favorite instrument however he wanted.

“I guess I’ve been offered the challenge - fit the mandolin into any style of music that you like. So I’ve spent the last 35 years trying to figure out how to use the mandolin in just about every style of music you can imagine,” says Julin.

To do that, Julin had to not only master the mandolin, but he also had to carefully study those genres. As a result, Julin is now a well-known teacher. He even wrote two books: Mandolin for Dummies and Mandolin Exercises for Dummies. Julin says he never considered the writers behind the Dummies books until he got an offer to write them:

"My name came up in a global search of people who could possibly have the skill set and interest to do that. And one day I got an e-mail from Wiley Publishing, who are the people who do the Dummies books, just saying we’re planning on producing Mandolin for Dummies and we’re looking for an author. And here are the qualifications and would you be open to a phone call - and you know if it goes good would you be open to doing more? So it was about a three month, I guess you would say ‘vetting process.’ And at the end of that three months they offered me a contract and I spent the next year writing the book.”

Though Julin is known for his eclectic style, he doesn’t shy away from bluegrass either. He just recently ended a two-year collaboration with 20-something bluegrass guitarist William Apostol, also known as Billy Strings.

The duo got together after Strings moved to Traverse City where Julin lives. Julin says he’s studied bluegrass, but he never had the desire to play it regularly until Strings came along: 

“There isn’t a whole lot of bluegrass bands or musicians in this part of the country. You know this far north in Michigan it’s kind of odd. And he brought a real traditional knowledge of that music that I really liked and what I really liked - even more than the traditional knowledge of the music - was that fiery, punk rock edge that he brings to the whole thing. Which I guess is kind of back to how I like to blend a bunch of different elements together.”

Aside from performances and teaching gigs, Julin has also licensed some of his music for TV and film. He says it’s a good way to make some extra cash, but unfortunately you don’t always know where your songs will end up. Julin remembers one of the first times he heard his tune “Mr. Natural” on TV.

“I was on my exercise bike in my basement, watching the news or some TV thing and just exercising away. It cuts to a commercial and I hear my song,” he explains.

Julin says he was excited - his song on national television - but then, he looked up at the screen.

“I went, ‘Oh my God, my song is being used in a natural male enhancement product commercial,” he says.

Fortunately, Julin says he’s had some better placements since then - like NPR’s All Things Considered and the Kathy Griffin Show. He says his songs are also pretty popular on hunting and cooking shows. Three years ago, his composition landed on the documentary Red Army, about the Red Wings.

“I’m a huge Detroit Red Wings fan," says Julin. "It’s a story about how the Russians defected from Russia and came to play for the Red Wings in the late 80s and early 90s. And I had a piece from one of my albums used in that - so that’s more like it.”

"Mr. Natural" - the song on the offending commercial - is pretty well-known. The title comes from the name of a counterculture comic book character created by Robert Crumb in the 1960s and 70s:

“There was a character there called Mr. Natural that gave away all of his earthy belongings and stood on the street corner saying little tidbits of wisdom. And for these little tidbits of wisdom that he would hand out, people were supposed to give him tips or money and that’s how he was to survive in his world. So he would stand on the corner and say things like, ‘Twas ever thus’ and people would throw money in his cup. And that was his cartoon character. So I always just thought, what an interesting dude.”

Julin says the song he wrote just had that kind of hippie feel. 

“I just called it 'Mr. Natural' and that kind of has followed me around, that’s one of my most popular tunes. It’s been published in a few books and other mandolin players around the country know it,” he says. 

So what can we expect from Julin at the Americana Roots Festival? He says a little bit of everything: 

“Look for anything from bluegrass to jazz to maybe reggae - who knows? These tunes kind of pull from all different areas. It’s kind of improvisational music in that it’s sort of like jazz where each player gets a chance to kind of interpret the tune how they like. But at the same time it’s not like jazz - like difficult to listen to jazz - this stuff is pretty easy to hear, you don’t have to be a jazz scholar to understand what’s going on.”

Mandolinist Don Julin will headline the Americana Roots Festival, January 14th at 7 p.m. at the Franke Center for the Arts in Marshall.

DonJulin_full.mp3
Hear the full interview with Don Julin

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