ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.

And by Santa Cruz Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Strings.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

Hello, and welcome to The Life of a Musician, recorded live in the beautiful city of Danville, Virginia.

Tonight's episode is recorded from the Dog-Eared Page.

Let's step inside and listen.

["Cattle in the Cane" instrumental music] -Yeah, man.

[catchy mandolin music] [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] -Yeah, man.

[♪♪♪] Nicely done, young man.

-Very cool.

-Nicely, nicely done.

This boy can pick, folks.

Hello, and welcome to The Life of a Musician .

I am your host, Brandon Lee Adams, and we are coming to you from Danville, Virginia.

And the wonderful, beautiful, great, amazing place, the Dog-Eared Page.

And today, my very special, very talented young guest is Mr. Jonah Horton.

-Hi, Brandon.

Thank you for having me.

-Hey.

Well, thank you for being here.

I am absolutely blown away by you, buddy.

-Well, thank you.

I very much appreciate it.

-This is our first meeting this morning, and it has been just a barrel of fun.

-Yeah, man.

Just getting to pick together, and hang out and talk the music business, is always fun.

-Whoo!

I don't know how much you'll learn from me about the business, but I'll tell you what I know, and I'll tell you what might have worked, and a whole lot of things that don't work.

-Yeah.

-But, I got to tell everybody, you know, at home watching.

I heard about Jonah from a good friend of mine, Mr. Scott Vestal.

I was listening to Scott's last album, and I kept listening to the songs on this album, and this mandolin player I'd never heard of just kept popping up.

And I'm listening to this gritty, Grisman-esque kind of tone that's still unique in itself.

And I called Scott, I said, "Man, who is the mandolin player on that project?"

And he said, "That's," you know, "you," and he gave me your number, and I am awful, awful glad.

How does it feel, brother?

How's it been to-- well, how old are you?

Tell everybody how old you are.

-Yeah, I'm 20 years old.

I started playing mandolin at age seven, so I guess that math works out to 13, I believe 13 years.

-Thirteen years, and he's still not wet behind the ears.

Fantastic playing, man.

Just blown away by it.

-Thank you.

-What, you know, what was the genesis for you?

What was the thing that said, hey, this is what I want to do?

-Yeah.

So, I grew up in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the home of MerleFest, if you're familiar with that wonderful bluegrass festival, one of the biggest in the country.

So, I attended that every year, from the time I was a little baby up until recently, you know.

And when I was six years old, there was a gentleman at the festival playing his mandolin.

I just happened to be walking by with my parents.

I saw it, I was fascinated by it.

He allowed me to strum on it, you know.

Of course, I didn't know what I was doing, um... he lets me play it.

And then, from that day on, that's in April, I begged my parents for a mandolin.

I just begged them and begged them and begged them.

I want lessons.

I want a mandolin more than anything in the world.

They're like, you know, he's six.

Is he going to take it seriously?

Is he going to do it?

So, I was persistent.

So, I kept this up all the way until Christmas.

And they said, "All right.

You know, you've been doing this for a long time.

We'll get you a mandolin under one condition that if you don't practice, we're going to sell it."

So, they got me a mandolin for Christmas, they got me lessons.

So, I guess I practiced.

-You practiced.

You have been woodshedding, as they say, back home.

-Yes, sir.

-And doing a fantastic job with it.

One of the things that I always find interesting with great musicians, and the ones that I've been blessed enough to be around, they all kind of have the same, I guess, attitude towards things.

It's a real successful attitude.

And one thing I get from you is, though you're a very brilliant young man, you are very down-to-earth and very humble.

Where does that come from?

-I would say that comes from, number one, my faith.

And beyond that, I would say it kind of comes from my family.

I have been taught from a very young age, you know, to treat people with respect, treat others how you want to be treated.

And you don't see enough of that in today's world.

And, you know, even in the music industry, there's a lot of treatment of others.

If you don't think a certain way, if you don't act a certain way or believe a certain thing, or make a certain social media post, you know, you can get alienated for that.

So, I try to stay above that, don't punch down, as they say, and kind of be above it, and just treat everyone how you want to be treated.

And I think that's-- -That's a beautiful thing.

And I think that's a lesson you can learn in kindergarten, and you can learn in the retirement home.

That's a universal truth.

And then really, I feel like that's the key to success in any kind of walk of life.

It's just remembering that everybody is somebody, and then applying that work ethic to whatever your passion is.

-Right.

-And you are clearly, clearly successful with this.

Do you want to try to do another tune?

-I'd love to.

Let's do it.

-Let's try to do another one.

We'll try...

I will try to properly sing this one.

[lively instrumental music] ♪ Well, I dreamt I went away On a steam powered aeroplane ♪ ♪ I went and I stayed ♪ ♪ And I damn near Didn't come back again ♪ ♪ And I didn't go very fast In a steam powered aeroplane ♪ ♪ Where the wheels went around Up and down ♪ ♪ Inside And then back again ♪ ♪ Sittin' on a 747 just A watchin' them clouds roll by ♪ ♪ Can't tell if it's sunshine Or if it's rain ♪ ♪ I'd rather be In a deck chair ♪ ♪ High up over Kansas City ♪ ♪ In a genuine ol' fashioned ♪ ♪ Authentic steam powered aeroplane ♪ Here we go!

[♪♪♪] ♪ Well I wish I was a pilot ♪ ♪ Of a steam powered aeroplane ♪ ♪ I'd turn that pilot wheel around ♪ ♪ And then back again ♪ ♪ And I'd wear a blue hat Yeah ♪ ♪ That says 'Steam powered aeroplane' ♪ ♪ In letters That go 'round the brim ♪ ♪ Over and back again ♪ ♪ Sittin' on a 747 just a watchin' them clouds roll by ♪ ♪ Can't tell if it's sunshine Or if it's rain ♪ ♪ I'd rather be In a deck chair ♪ ♪ High up over Kansas City ♪ ♪ In a genuine ol' fashioned authentic ♪ ♪ Steam powered aeroplane ♪ Get it son!

[instrumental music continues] Yeah.

[♪♪♪] Yeah.

[♪♪♪] ♪ Well, I dreamt I went away On a steam powered aeroplane ♪ ♪ I went and I stayed And I damn near ♪ ♪ Didn't come back again ♪ ♪ Didn't go very fast On a steam powered aeroplane ♪ ♪ Where the wheel went around Up and down ♪ ♪ Over and back again ♪ ♪ Sittin' on a 747 just A watchin' them clouds roll by ♪ ♪ Can't tell if it's sunshine Or it's rain ♪ ♪ I'd rather be In a deck chair High up over Kansas City ♪ ♪ In a genuine ol' fashioned authentic ♪ ♪ Steam powered aeroplane ♪ [catchy mandolin notes] Lovely, man.

Lovely.

I just love watching you play.

-Thank you, man.

I appreciate it.

-Beautiful.

Beautiful.

I want to do kind of a technical question for you.

-Yeah.

-With some of the, you know, the mandolin aficionados out there in the audience.

-All three of them.

-All three.

All three of them.

Both of them.

So, when you're going through, let's say a song like that that's got so many close changes, you know, we're not doing the, you know, if we got four beats of this, four beats of this, four beats of that.

You've got a kind of a split measure in some kind of things in your thinking.

So, when you're going through that on the mandolin neck, what are some of the things that might be going through your mind?

-First of all, when I'm in the act of playing, I don't really consciously think about, okay, I'm going to play this change here, then I've got to catch this, got to catch that.

I think that's, you know, where practice comes in.

But when I am practicing a tune like that, and especially recently, me working with jazz, a lot of more complex forms of music that have a lot of these faster changes that come by, a great exercise is just to take it slow and just kind of outline or, you know, what people in the music theory world would call "spell the chord" as they come by.

So, with this tune, I think the B part of it is a part that has a lot more changes.

So, you know, you have that A minor 7 come by.

So, if I was going to practice that, I would just... [plays notes on mandolin] And then here's B minor 7... A minor... D7... G major 7...

So, and right there, I threw in a passing tone of E dominant 7, right?

And that can get you right back around to the second half of the B part to that A minor.

So, that's of course-- that's an example of something that I'll throw in there.

You can-- a lot of changes are implicit within the music so you can, especially with bluegrass, as I've studied jazz, I've kind of applied this back over to the bluegrass world is that you can throw in extra changes once you kind of understand how these chords are all interrelated.

-Right.

As you said, just a lot of passing.

-So, that's something I like to do, like, I think I even did that once or twice in my comping on this tune, just like... A minor... B minor... A minor...

So, there's that E7, right?

And then to get you back around, so... -It's a beautiful little jazz pass, but it works.

-Yeah, it's nothing too complicated or fancy, but it adds something to the music beyond what would be just on the page.

So, I think it's pretty cool.

-Yeah, and that's great.

And I think it's a testament to just your experience as a musician, knowing when to do that and when not to do that... -Yeah.

-...is another skill learned in itself.

Music is an art that you never perfect.

You know, we're always trying to get better and trying to learn when, you know.

When might be the biggest question of them all.

But thanks very much.

I mean, I appreciate you taking the time to answer that, because I'm going to go back and watch and say, okay, that's what he did.

So, I just learned something there, right?

I know you mentioned you're playing jazz bass.

-Yes.

-How do you...?

Explain that to me, man.

How do you go from mandolin to jazz bass?

-Wow, this is a-- I can get as far into this and as deep into this as you want to go.

But, it all started for me when I discovered the music of Jaco Pastorius... -Mm-mm.

-...the jazz electric bass player from the '70s and '80s.

He is, by far, the biggest musical influence on my playing, and I've just spent countless hours listening to him.

Jaco played a fretless bass, so I was always intrigued by that sound.

It's almost like a cello and a very strong sense of vibrato and stuff with, you know, the lack of frets on the instrument.

So, I listened to Jaco.

I transcribed a lot of his music into my mandolin playing, and then one day, and this, I guess, is the summer of 2021, I was sitting around, I was like, you know, I think I can do this myself.

I want to...

I at least want to give it a shot.

So, I went online and bought a fretless bass, electric bass, and I started playing that.

And, you know, around the same time, I ended up going to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, for a jazz studies degree.

I was currently an undergrad at the time.

I went in there and, you know, and at jazz school, there's not a lot of need for mandolin players, but there's always a need for bass players.

So, I went there with mandolin as my primary instrument, and I just wanted to kind of do bass on the side.

But it turned into the kind of thing where they just needed bass players.

So, I kind of set the mandolin down for a little while, and started concentrating on bass.

And kind of into that journey, I've just kind of picked up gigs.

I actually just played on a record of the Director of Jazz Studies there at Liberty, Mr. Joseph Henson.

-Wow, that's impressive.

-I played bass on his record, but I just kind of dove in headfirst.

Believe it or not, a couple of weeks ago, I just drove to Nashville and back in one day, which if any of you guys know... -That's a long haul, man.

-You know, United States map.

That's like 16 hours in a car.

But I drove to Nashville and back in one day from Lynchburg, and I bought an upright bass.

So, you know, if you can see, I have a lovely blister on my finger because I've been digging into that a lot recently.

But I just-- through being at Liberty University, where I'm now in a master's program in performance with a jazz concentration, I have really just started to find this love for the bass.

So, and that's translated a lot into my mandolin playing.

I'll play bass lines as a form of comping on mandolin and, you know, studying jazz and studying basslines, especially when you have a walking bass line, it forces you to kind of do that exercise of outlining the changes that we were just talking about.

It forces you to do that in real time.

So, to me, it's kind of like you're constantly playing a solo, and it's just a constant puzzle in your brain of trying to spell these chords as they go by.

So, it's through the music of Jaco Pastorius.

-Jaco Pastorius is somebody else I'll be checking out.

-Yeah, he played with the band Weather Report.

-For me, it was Byron House and Victor Wooten.

-Yes, sir.

-Were my guys.

-Yeah.

-So now, I got another guy to check out.

-Yeah.

So, Byron actually played on Scott's album that you were just mentioning, Bluegrass 2022 , and Jaco is the reason that Byron started playing bass.

Jaco played on several of Joni Mitchell's albums, and Byron, I guess when he was around my age, heard Joni Mitchell's album Hejira.

And on that album, Jaco played and just played some groundbreaking material, and he heard his sound.

And you can-- it's very, very distinct; on the first song on that record is a track called Coyote , and Byron was telling me he heard... -I remember Coyote .

-Yeah, Byron heard that song.

And he said, from that moment on, all he wanted to do was play the bass.

So, Jaco inspired Byron.

-It's pretty, pretty cool, man.

You're kind of bringing it full circle now.

You're bringing his stuff, and you're bringing his stuff into an instrument that might have never been done before.

-Yeah, I think that's pretty safe to say.

-Yeah, I mean, there really are no limits.

And speaking of that, it's kind of a jazz kind of thing.

I'm a big Django fan.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Big Django Reinhardt fan.

And I always say that Django is the guy that if you see Django and learn his story, you've got no excuses.

You know, Django had that crippling arthritis, and he just had the two fingers to work with.

-Yeah.

-And played these amazing, amazing solos, and rhythm, with just a couple of fingers.

-Yeah.

-And the one song I think we, you know, on short notice that we kind of had in common was Minor Swing .

-Yeah.

-So, do you want to give Minor Swing kind of a little swing?

-Yeah.

["3 Minor Swing" instrumental music] [mandolin and guitar music] [♪♪♪] Beautifully done, young man.

-Also, thank you.

-My hands are hurting.

My hands are hurting very much.

But... thank you.

Thank you.

Again, I can't say much.

-Thank you so much for having me.

-That was a beautiful musical experience right there for me.

And thank you, folks, very much for tuning in to the Life of a Musician .

I hope that we can catch you on the next episode.

Be blessed, and be well.

And Jonah, man, that was so fun.

Let's just-- now let's try to just improv and not worry if we make mistakes, and let's just... let's just go out on that one.

That was too much fun, man.

["3 Minor Swing" instrumental music] [♪♪♪] [music continues] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for being a part of our show.

We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Life of a Musician.

["3 Minor Swing" instrumental music] ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.

And by Santa Cruz Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Strings.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

["3 Minor Swing" instrumental music]