Everyone enjoys hearing new music, and discovering unknown artists – unknown to us, at least. Sometimes their stories are as interesting as their music, and such is certainly the case with mandolinist and vocalist Alan Epstein.
Alan is a life long bluegrass musician, now 71 years of age, who has been involved in the music now for 53 years. Originally from Pittsburgh, he’s worked in construction jobs that have moved him across the country and back, but wherever he ended up, he found the grassers and time to jam and play. Now retired, he and his wife are comfortably settled in Glens Falls, NY.
Mandolin students and lovers who spend plenty of time online may have seen Epstein before. He has appeared a number of times on David Benedict’s Mandolin Mondays sessions, and has taught on Lessonface. He’s also performed at events with the Classical Mandolin Society of America, and taught workshops all over the country. Alan is no newbie.
He has just recently released a single, his version of JD Hutchison’s A Year Ago Today, with Aaron Ramsey on guitar and Tim O’Brien singing harmony. The story he shared about what led him to cut this track really caught our attention.
“On February 8 of this year I played my first ever solo gig, at The Rockhill Bakehouse here in Glens Falls, NY. I played two sets featuring mandolin tunes and singing bluegrass songs, it was a blast. One of the songs I sang that night was A Year Ago Today, an obscure Hutchison Brothers song, written by JD Hutchison, that I first started singing when it came out back in the late 1970s.
>My solo show was live streamed, which I found out the next day, so I sent the replay link to various music friends to get some feedback, it was all good, and one even said, ‘What took you so long?’ The whole experience got me motivated to work on my solo act, and it’s been very exciting.
It also made me think about doing a new recording project, and I definitely wanted to record A Year Ago Today, as I think it’s about as good a lonesome bluegrass song as there is, and should be heard and played by a wider audience. I decided to contact Tim O’Brien (back in 1979 when I lived in Colorado I took mandolin lessons from Tim, and knew that he and JD were friends), to find out who was administering JD’s songs since he passed away a few years ago. Tim connected me with JD’s nephew Zeke, who is administering his song catalog, and after talking to Zeke I got the OK to record the song whenever I got the chance.
Fast forward to April, I was in North Carolina to teach at a bluegrass camp and I stopped to see my friend Mike Ramsey on the way. His son Aaron (great picker and engineer) was home, so I had an opportunity to record A Year Ago Today at their house. I sang and played my 1922 Gibson F4 mandolin with Aaron playing guitar, and also recording us.
I was pleased with the recording, but I also thought it would be cool and truer to the original lonesomeness if it was a vocal duet. Anyway, one thing led to another and I asked Tim to sing harmony, and he agreed.”
Here’s a listen to what they recorded…
