The Mandolin Style of Jesse Brock
Authentic Unlimited’s mandolin player, Jesse Brock, has won the Mandolin Player of the Year Award at the IBMA Awards Show three times (2009, 2015 and 2024). He has performed with some of the top bands in bluegrass music, including the Lynn Morris Band, Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Audie Blaylock and Redline, The Gibson Brothers and Fast Track. The groups he has performed with have won an impressive nine total IBMA awards while he was with them. All this to say that if you are a bluegrass mandolin player, it would serve you well to study the style of Jesse Brock. If you would like to do so, help is available in the form of a transcription book published by Nick DiSebastian.
In putting together this book, DiSebastian transcribed fifteen of Jesse Brock’s recorded solos. The transcriptions come from Brock’s solo album Kickin’ Grass, three of his albums with Michael Cleveland and one album, Hard Country, with Audie Blaylock. There are also some transcriptions from YouTube videos, with URLs for the videos included.
The book opens with some notes from both Jesse and Nick about the tunes that are transcribed. Then the transcriptions are presented in both standard music notation and mandolin tablature. The tunes that are presented are: “Kickin’ Grass,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Maury River Blues,” “Lil’ Ben,” “Maine Line,” “Lost Indian,” “Kickin’ Back,” “Dance Around Molly,” “Two O’Clock in the Morning,” “The Chair,” “A Grandmother’s Love,” “Sally Goodin,” “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” “Billy in the Lowground” and “Salt Creek.” There is not much more to say about the book itself. It is a straight forward presentation of Jesse Brock solos. The only thing to comment on in reviewing any transcription book is the accuracy of the transcriptions. Although I did not go through and check every tune for accuracy, I will say that I have worked with Nick DiSebastian for years, as he transcribed many solos for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine when I was the editor and publisher of that publication. So, I know from experience that Nick does quality work.
If you are a mandolin player and want to study the solos of one of the best bluegrass mandolin players in the business, this is the book for you.
