Mandolincafe.com has become "the" website for the mandolin world, covering just about every aspect of the mandolin. Scott Tichenor is the man behind the website, he's a great guy and of course, quite a mandolin player.
Joe: Scott, when did your interest in mandolins and your interest in computers start?
Scott: I've played guitar since I was old enough to hold one but didn't touch a mandolin until after graduating from college. I had moved to Kansas City to take a job and wanted to be a guitar player for a bluegrass band. No luck, but a fiddle player in a local group asked if I'd consider trying out for a spot on the mandolin. I didn't even own one, so he gave me his and I auditioned two weeks later. Then I spent the summer touring regional festivals with them. Honestly, it took awhile to warm up to the instrument, but once I did put the guitar down, I've rarely touched it and that was over 25 years ago. My interest in personal computers happened around 1991. I had a lot of mainframe experience through my employment prior to that. When the web started to hit big I was doing a fair amount of desktop publishing, book design and layout, so I was pretty comfortable around a keyboard.
Joe: How did you get the idea to combine the two for the website?
Scott: A local music store (Mass St. Music) asked if I'd build them a web site. I'd been toying with the idea and was scheduled to attend a MacWorld conference where I hoped I could pick up some information. This was early 1995 and at that time I could find only one book at the show that provided instructions on how to construct a web page. I read it cover and cover and began building Mandolin Cafe to gain some experience before trying a site for a customer. The first mandolin site I saw on the web was called the Mandolin Pages and was run by a guy named Dan Beimborn, who is now an important part of the Mandolin Cafe. I thought it'd be fun to create something similar to what he'd done.
Joe: How did you decide on the name Mandolincafe.com?
Scott: The fact that web pages actually having a menu to choose from made me think of a restaurant or cafe, and in a way, there are similarities. Plus, cooking is a second hobby so the name just fell together. It's really that simple. There were no focus groups or marketing studies (laughing).
Joe: Did you have any idea that it would be as popular as it is?
Scott: To be honest, I'd have to say no, but I'd like to clarify something. It's the mandolin that's popular, not this site. It's the perfect instrument for the focus of a web site. I can't say this is 100% the case, but in general, bluegrass players are willing to mingle with the jazz crowd. Celtic and classical players mix with the old-time folks. Few other instruments can boast that kind of community. Guitar and fiddle/violin sure can't. All I've done is try to catalog the mandolin on the web and provide sort of a virtual water cooler where people can gather to share what we all love. The fact that the mandolin is enjoying a resurgence means a lot to me because most of the people I call my friends are involved in this activity.
Joe: Are you surprised by the number of well known members?
Scott: I'd have to say it's a pleasure to have some folks like Darryl Wolfe, Stan Werbin, Frank Ford, John McGann, and representatives of the manufacturers hanging out with us. There are too many to mention. I think it's the way it should be.
Joe: How much time do you spend administering the website?
Scott: (laughing) Next question! Seriously, email is the single biggest consumer of time, and it can literally bury me. Doing the maintenance and updating of the site is fun and doesn't take up much time but is definitely a daily chore. I've been doing web development of various types for close to ten years now so what I'm capable of doing I can do fairly quickly. I spend a fair amount of time evaluating what's eating up my time and look for technical solutions that streamline those needs. When I sit down to work I know what I need to do and what needs to get done. There are a lot of behind the scenes tasks involved in managing large sites that have little to do with the visual content. My family understands what it takes to run this but I attempt to do as much as possible outside of family time. That means a lot of very early morning and very late evening work.
Joe: How many people help with running it?
Scott: Dan Beimborn, who I mentioned earlier, hosts a dedicated server that we share for our sites. He runs mandolinarchive.com which is a marvelous resource. He's a world class system administrator and programmer and works as a consultant for a major investment bank in London. Because of his expertise in setting up and fine tuning servers, we're able to run a message board that can handle the kind of traffic crush that would be cost prohibitive for most sites. Most importantly, I have total trust in him for advice on issues involved in running this place and consider him a good friend. Interestingly we've never met, but plan to later this month at WinterGrass in Tacoma, Washington.
Ted Eschliman of jazzmando.com and Mel Bay columnist serves as the moderator for our message board. Ted is someone I have an equal amount of trust in. He's a savvy businessman with great people skills, and he's a heck of a mandolin player as well. Our members recognize that and respect him for it.
I can point to many features and contributions to this site that have originated from people all over the globe. While those folks don't technically help "run" the site, their contributions have proven very important. This site really is the result of a community effort.
Joe: The message board is the most popular part of the site, I would imagine that is causes the most headaches also. You have taken a lot of heat from some members about posts and threads that you have removed or edited. How do you decide when enough is enough and what subjects are off limits?
Scott: Do you have an easier question (laughing)?
Politics, religion and sex are off-limits for discussion. Those are polarizing issues that didn't bring people to the message board in the first place. As far as removing posts or topics, we have clear guidelines we ask everyone follow. You're a welcome guest with your membership, but we will act upon failure to follow those guidelines. Content that is inappropriate for public viewing or clearly outside of our guidelines is removed. It's as simple as that.
Joe: What do you see for the future of Mandolincafe.com?
Scott: As long as it's fun, I'll continue to run it. It's always evolving. For example, we recently took a more active role in providing real archived news articles for the web, and they get picked up immediately by Google's News Service. I've become dissatisfied with the amount of coverage newspapers provide about mandolin related recordings and events, so I took it upon us to start our own version. I anticipate there is room to expand in this area and I am exploring some options related to that.
Joe: What is Mandofest and how did it come about?
Scott: Mandofest is a once-a-year concert series I started in 1993. Originally a one-evening concert, the 2005 edition is three days complete with two evening concerts, the First Annual Midwestern MandoTasting, the Mass. St. MandoBrunch and a mandolin workshop to name a few of the activities. We missed a year in 1994 but have been going strong every since.
The original idea was sparked by my discovery of the Uptown Mandolin Quartet, a local world-class group playing their own arrangements on a matched set of early 20s Gibson oval hole instruments. They're marvelous musicians and I wanted to share their sound with the community. They were a part of the first concert and every concert since. Jeff and Beth Dearinger of the quartet are close friends and our partners in Mandofest. My wife and daughter and I have had a standing date with them to cook dinner and watch Star Trek once a week for close to ten years. We're on our third version of the show!
Joe: Do you suffer from M.A.S. (mandolin acquisition syndrome)?
Scott: I didn't used to but it seems I got bit a few years ago and never recovered. After initially learning on a couple of borrowed instruments I settled on a marvelous Randy Wood custom F5 that was my main ax for over 15 years. That was followed by a Nugget F5 for another seven years before I ever owned more than one mandolin. Now I own five. Or is it six?
Joe: What is the best or most exciting experience you've had through your work with Mandolincafe.com?
Scott: It'd be hard to pinpoint any one thing. The reward for me is just the daily interaction and friendship and the continuous stream of interesting information that flows from various directions. Last year one of those experiences included being the first person to restring and play a Loar that had set quietly in its case unplayed for over 50 years.
We really have a great community and I'm proud to be a part of it. What I wrote on the Cafe's "About" page many years ago still applies. I'd like to extend this quote to you, the folks at Mel Bay, and to the mandolin community at large. The quote is "thank you for allowing us to indulge in this bit of fun."
Joe: I wish you continued success with Mandolincafe.com and I hope to see you soon.
Mandolincafe.com is loaded with mandolin-related news, links to articles about artists and mandolins, workshops and new releases. On the site are lessons, exercises, chords and a builders list. If you can't find what you're looking for on the site a post on the message board will almost certainly point you in the right direction.
The message board is filled with discussions about anything related to the mandolin. Topics include; discussions on many music styles, mandolin building and repair, and various mandolin-family instruments and equipment. Check out Mandolin Cafe at Mandolincafe.com.
Scott can be reached at: eadg@mandolincafe.com
