Jerome Henry "Butch" Baldassari (December 11, 1952 – January 10, 2009) was an American

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

ist, recording artist, composer, and

music teacher Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a res ...

Biography

Early life

Baldassari played guitar in rock bands as a teen with his brother Buster, but converted to mandolin in 1972 at the

Philadelphia Folk Festival The Philadelphia Folk Festival is a folk music festival held annually at Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. The four-night, three-day festival, which is produced and run by the non-profit Philadelphia Fo ...

when he saw

Andy Statman Andy Statman (born 1950) is a noted American klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist. Life and career Statman was born in New York City and grew up in the borough of Queens. Beginning at age 12, he learned to play banjo and gui ...

with

David Bromberg David Bromberg (born September 19, 1945) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. David Bromberg biographyat Billboard.com An eclectic artist, Bromberg plays bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock a ...

and

Barry Mitterhoff Barry Mitterhoff is a musician who plays mandolin. He is a former member of Skyline, Silk City, Bottle Hill, and Hot Tuna. Played with Peter Rowan, Tex Logan and Lamar Greer in The Green Grass Gringos. Mitterhoff is also known as a film score p ...

with the Bottle Hill Boys.

Weary Hearts

While completing postgraduate work at the

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

, Baldassari joined the bluegrass band Weary Hearts. He was a member of the band from 1986 to 1990. Besides Baldassari, the band included

Mike Bub The Del McCoury Band is a Grammy award-winning American bluegrass band. History Originally the band was called Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals with Del on guitar and his brother Jerry on bass. The band went through a number of changes in personn ...

(bass),

Ron Block Ronald Franklin Block (born July 30, 1964) is an American banjo player, guitarist, and singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the bluegrass band Alison Krauss & Union Station. He has won 14 Grammy Awards, 6 International Bluegrass Music A ...

(banjo, guitar), and Chris Jones (guitar). In 1988, they won the Best Bluegrass Band Award by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA).

The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble

Baldassari moved to Nashville in 1985, and founded the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble in 1990. Their musical repertoire included bluegrass, classical, Celtic, and jazz, and they revived the 19th-century

mandolin orchestra A mandolin orchestra is an orchestra consisting primarily of instruments from the mandolin family of instruments, such as the mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass or mandolone. Some mandolin orchestras use guitars and double-basses instead ...

concept: 11 musicians incorporating

mandocello The mandocello ( it, mandoloncello, Liuto cantabile, liuto moderno) is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paire ...

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

, guitar and bass.

Lonesome Standard Time

From 1992 until 1998, Baldassari was a member of the bluegrass band Lonesome Standard Time with

Larry Cordle Larry Cordle (born November 16, 1948) is an American country and bluegrass singer-songwriter . Cordle is most famous for his song "Murder on Music Row", which was recorded by George Strait and Alan Jackson and received the Country Music Asso ...

(vocals, guitar), Glen Duncan (violin), Keith Little (banjo, guitar), Robin Smith (bass), and Charlie Cushman (guitar). Their 1992 album ''Lonesome River Band'' was nominated for a Grammy, and the song "

Lonesome Standard Time ''Lonesome Standard Time'' is the seventh studio album by American country artist Kathy Mattea. It was released on September 22, 1992, via PolyGram and Mercury Records. It was recorded during a period when she was experiencing vocal challenges. Th ...

" was named Song of the Year by the

International Bluegrass Music Association The International Bluegrass Music Association, or IBMA, is a trade association to promote bluegrass music. Formed in 1985, IBMA established its first headquarters in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1988 they announced plans to create the International ...

in 1993.

The Grass is Greener

In 1995, Baldassari performed with violinist

Richard Greene Richard Marius Joseph Greene (25 August 1918 – 1 June 1985) was a noted English film and television actor. A matinée idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series '' ...

in his band The Grass is Greener. Their 1997 album ''Sales Tax Toddle'' was nominated for a Grammy.

The Nashville Mandolin Trio

The Nashville Mandolin Trio consisted of Baldassari, Gene Ford (guitar) and John Hedgecoth (mandocello), and recorded several albums on the SoundArt label.

Leavin' Tennessee

Baldassari's final recording project ''Leavin' Tennessee'' was a collaboration with guitarist Van Manakas. It was released August 29, 2010 on SoundArt. Other musicians involved with the project included

Stuart Duncan Stuart Duncan (born April 14, 1964) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo. Life Duncan was born in Quantico, Virginia, and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band. He ...

and

Bobby Hicks Bobby Hicks (born July 21, 1933) is a Grammy Awardbr>winningAmerican bluegrass fiddler and a professional musician with more than fifty years of experience. Career Hicks was born in Newton, North Carolina and learned to play the fiddle before ...

(fiddle), Scott Vestal (banjo), and Byron House (bass).

SoundArt Recordings label

Baldassari established the SoundArt Recordings record label in the late 1990s. SoundArt specializes in acoustic mandolin music and instruction, ranging from classical to bluegrass.

Music education

Starting in 1986, Baldassari taught at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music for several years, achieving the rank of adjunct professor of mandolin. In addition, Baldassari released a series of mandolin instruction books, CDs, and DVDs via Homespun Music Instruction.

Pa's Fiddle Project

Baldassari and Professor of Musicology Dale Cockrell co-produced the Pa's Fiddle Project, a projected 10 CD series that will record and collect the 127 songs Pa Ingalls played in the " Little House" books by

Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, mostly known for the ''Little House on the Prairie'' series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood ...

. Baldassari was involved in the production of the first two CDs in the series: ''Arkansas Traveler'' and ''Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder''. He also performed on ''The Pa's Fiddle Primer'' CD which accompanies the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

TV special ''Pa's Fiddle: The Music of America''. Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder is part of the We the People

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

collection, which is distributed to 2,000 public, school, and military libraries in the United States and overseas.

Blue Moon Over Kentucky

On October 26, 2002, Baldassari and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra premiered "Blue Moon Over Kentucky", his orchestrated tribute to the instrumental music of

Bill Monroe William Smith "Bill" Monroe (; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre take ...

, and incorporated standards such as "Roanoke" and "Rawhide."

Death

In May 2007, Baldassari was diagnosed as having an inoperable brain tumor and died Saturday, January 10, 2009, in Nashville at age 56. He was survived by his mother, wife, and son.

Discography

Solo albums

* 1987: ''What's Doin (Cactus) with Elek Bacsik (as Mr Elbak, pseudonym) * 1990: ''Evergreen: Mandolin Music for Christmas'' (SoundArt) * 1994: ''Old Town'' (

Rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; ...

) * 1998: ''Cantabile: Duets For Mandolin And Guitar'' (SoundArt) with John Mock * 1998: ''New Classics for Bluegrass Mandolin'' (SoundArt) * 1999: ''Reflections'' (SoundArt) with

John Carlini John Carlini is an American jazz guitarist and arranger who performs bluegrass and jazz. He has performed with David Grisman, mandolin player Don Stiernberg, singer Bill Robinson, Bucky Pizzarelli, Rio Clemente, flatpicking guitarist Tony R ...

* 2002: ''Silent Sound: Nightfall'' (Spring Hill) with David Hoffner * 2003: ''Romance In Venice'' (Spring Hill) with Jack Jezzro * 2004: ''Travellers'' (SoundArt) with Robin Bullock and John Reischman * 2006: ''A Day in the Country'' (SoundArt) * 2007: ''The Vespa Love Festival Sessions'' (

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that "C ...

) * 2007: ''Music of O'Carolan'' (SoundArt) with John Mock * 2010: ''Leavin' Tennessee'' (SoundArt) with Van Manakas

As a member of Weary Heart

* 1987: ''Faith Is The Answer'' (Cactus) * 1989: ''By Heart'' (Flying Fish)

As a member of The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble

* 1995: ''Plectrasonics'' ( CMH) * 1996: ''Gifts (

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

) * 1998: ''All the Rage'' (

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

) * 2004: ''Bach, Beatles, Bluegrass'' (SoundArt) * 2006: ''Nashville Mandolin Ensemble – Classical'' (SoundArt)

As a member of Lonesome Standard Time

* 1992: ''Lonesome River Band'' (Sugar Hill) * 1993: ''Mighty Lonesome'' (Sugar Hill) * 1995: ''As Lonesome as It Gets'' (Sugar Hill)

As a member of The Grass is Greener

* 1996: ''Wolves A Howlin (Rebel) * 1997: ''Sales Tax Toddle'' (Rebel)

As a member of the Nashville Mandolin Trio

* 1999: ''American Portraits'' (SoundArt)

As contributing artist

* 2003: various artists – ''The Mandolin Tribute to Andrea Bocelli'' (CMH) * 2012: various artists – ''Pa's Fiddle: Charles Ingalls, American Fiddler'' (Pa's Fiddle)

As producer

* 2006: various artists – ''Happy Land: Musical Tributes To Laura Ingalls Wilder'' (Pa's Fiddle) * 2006: various artists – ''The Arkansas Traveler: Music from Little House on the Prairie'' (Pa's Fiddle)

Also appears on

* 1992: Luke & Jenny Anne Bulla – ''Luke & Jenny Anne Bulla'' (Rounder) * 1992: various artists – ''All Night Gang: Bluegrass From Nashville'' (Rebel) * 1993: Bob Kogut – ''Heart of the Mountains'' (Pinecastle) * 1994:

Chubby Wise Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise (October 2, 1915 – January 6, 1996) was an American bluegrass fiddler. Originally starting out playing the banjo and guitar, Wise began playing fiddle at age 12, working locally in the Jacksonville area. He joined ...

– ''Chubby Wise in Nashville'' (Pinecastle) * 1994: Kevin Williamson – ''Write Between the Lines'' (Pinecastle) * 1995:

George Ducas Voivode George Ducas (Greek: ''Γεώργιος Δούκας'', Romanian: ''Gheorghe Duca'') (c. 1620 – 31 March 1685) was three times prince of Moldavia (September 1665 – May 1666, November 1668 – 20 August 1672, November 1678 – January ...

– ''

'' (

Capitol Nashville Capitol Records Nashville is a major United States-based record label located in Nashville, Tennessee operating as part of the Universal Music Group Nashville. From 1991 to 1995, Capitol Nashville was known as Liberty Records, before returning ...

) * 1998:

Taliesin Orchestra The Taliesin Orchestra (alternately known as Taliesin) is an American musical group (generally classified as new-age) that specializes in remaking famous songs into orchestra-style melodies. The band's first album, ''Orinoco Flow: The Music of En ...

– '' Maiden of Mysteries: The Music of Enya'' (

Intersound Records Intersound Records was an American independent record label that operated in the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by industry veteran Don Johnson in 1982, who purchased some assets of Pickwick Records from its parent company and named his ...

) * 1999:

David Amram David Werner Amram III (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings.

– ''Southern Stories'' (Chrome) * 2000: Dead Grass – ''Dead Grass Featuring

Vassar Clements Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and ...

'' (Cedar Glen) * 2000: various artists – ''Pickin' on the Allman Brothers'' (CMH) * 2001: Maro Kawabata – ''Carolina Blue'' (Copper Creek) * 2003: Bluegrass All-Stars – ''Play Country Classics'' (

Varèse Sarabande Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as well as newer r ...

) * 2003: various artists – ''Blue Ridge Mountain Mandolin'' (Pinecastle) * 2004: Montana Skies – ''Chasing the Sun'' (Sonic Grapefruit) * 2007: Kathy Chiavola – ''Somehow'' (My) * 2008: Craig Duncan and the Smoky Mountain Band – ''Bluegrass Jamboree'' (Green Hill) * 2012: various artists – '' To Rome With Love Motion Picture Soundtrack'' (

Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by S ...

)

Tribute albums

* 2009: ''Road Home, a Tribute to Butch Baldassari'' (SoundArt)

Music instruction videos

* 1996: ''You Can Play Bluegrass Mandolin Vol. 1'' DVD ( Homespun) * 1996: ''You Can Play Bluegrass Mandolin Vol. 2'' DVD (Homespun) * 1997: ''Thirty Fiddle Tunes for the Mandolin'' CD (Homespun) * 2003: ''Mandolin Tunes for Practice and Repertoire'' book/ CD (Homespun) * 2004: ''Butch Baldassari's Bluegrass Mandolin Workshop'' DVD (Homespun) * 2008: ''Mandolin Hymns'' CD (Homespun) * 2008: ''Appalachian Mandolin & Dulcimer'' book/ CD (Homespun) with David Schnaufer * 2013: ''Mandolin Jam Along'' book/ CD (Homespun) with Matt Flinner

Music books

* 1995: ''Evergreen: Mandolin Music for Christmas'' (

Mel Bay Mel Bay (February 25, 1913 – May 14, 1997) was an American musician and publisher best known for his series of music education books. His '' Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords'' remains a bestseller. Biography Early life Melbourne E. Bay was bo ...

) * 2001: ''New Classics for Bluegrass Mandolin'' (Mel Bay) * 2015: ''Cantabile: Duets for Mandolin and Guitar'' (Mel Bay) with John Mock

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldassari, Butch 1952 births People from Scranton, Pennsylvania American jazz musicians American bluegrass musicians American mandolinists American session musicians American bluegrass mandolinists 2009 deaths Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania Country musicians from Pennsylvania