Mystery Solved; There is another instrument playing
Feeling bad blues by Ry Cooder
I knew i was right. I have been hearing a second instrument accompanying Ry Cooder, starting at about 2:30. Every time I mentioned it to other people, they assured me that there was nothing there. Well, it sounded to me like a zither, an old German stringed instrument my father owned. ( He was also a member of a mandolin quartet ) So a few days ago, I started researching in all kinds of directions. I found The Atlas of Plucked Instruments, a fabulous website created and maintained by Henr deBruyn, a Dutch musician. We corresponded for a few days. He assured me that there wasn't anything like a zither to be heard on the record. I persisted. On Ebay, I found a copy of the soundtrack to Crossroads and studied both sides of the album cover. And there it was : a sond entry under Feeling Bad Blues. The instrument is a Dolceola. From Amazon, I learned that the dolceola is an American instrument created and manufactured in Cleveland, OH in 1902. It combines a fretless zither (aha!) and a piano-like keyboard. It was only manufactured for a few years and is now very rare. Blues musicinas werte known to use it for its sweet sound . I emailed my Dutch friend and reported on my success. He came back with a website for these instruments:
[minermusic.com]
I am thrilled to have found all these websites and solved the mystery of the second instrument. By the way, you don't hear the doleola in the movie or the soundtrack on You Tube, only on the Ry Cooder recording.
Love me a mystery!
and the artist is apparently jim dickinson.
g
Thank you. And the mystery deepens. Jim Dickinsin died in 2009 in Memphis. He was also a record producer. There is a cool picture of Jim and keith Richards, probably blissed out! But there is no picture or mention of Jim playing the dolceola on Feeling bad Blues. I guess I am not done with digging for truth yet!
@Spinliesel all i did was google "who played dolceola on feelin' bad blues" and it came up!
g
I heard it! Cool that it's such a weird rare instrument.
Oh, thanks. For a while I thought my old brain was enhancing that great piece of music by itself. I mean, professional guys with headphones could not hear it. But they were listening to the wrong you tube track!