Hi J&B. I'm a big fan of mandolins too. A good friend, Jennings Chestnut from Conway, SC was a successful luthier and builder of his own line of mandolins, The Chestnut Mandolin. He was also responsible for bringing a large, successful bluegrass festival each May to Conway. I own a mandolin but can only play a few chords myself.

My intended use for the mandolin in this song was to standout as almost a solo instrument and contrast the staggered drum beats. I may need to audition some other mandolin styles.

I have Studio One Professional which has a Mastering Suite. I had been playing with this track for several days and realized it needs more than just polishing so it was not a candidate to be mastered at this stage.

I agree that Floyd and Tommy are both top notch at making their songs and the songs of folks they help sound very professional and finished. Floyd recently offered a considerable amount of detailed advice and counsel that really turned one of my songs around. There are many here on the forum that I have a great deal of respect for and this is the friendliest and most unselfish group I've come across on the internet.

This song will be reworked in a way I think will keep the sparse foundation and vibe but will hopefully give everyone a better quality performance.

Thanks for listening and commenting.

Charlie

BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.