Aubrey Haynie is a Nashville session player who works on mandolin as well as fiddle. He took up the mandolin two years after his first fiddle lesson, and by the late 1990s he was one of the most sought-after studio fiddle and mandolin players in Nashville. On his 2000 Sugar Hill album, A Man Must Carry On, he plays mandolin and fiddle beside Bryan Sutton, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, and fiddler Bobby Hicks. His fiddle career has its own page.
Why Haynie matters
Haynie writes tunes that mandolin players want to learn. Sierra Hull learned his Lakeland on the road, and mandolin teachers have posted lessons on his Thonotosassa and Tobacco Patch. Critics noticed the mandolin too. Reviewing A Man Must Carry On for PopMatters, Dan Moss praised his fiddle and wrote that his mandolin skills were “no less stunning.”
Life and career
Haynie was born on March 27, 1974, in Tampa, Florida. At nine he started fiddle lessons with Ted Locke, his grandmother’s cousin. After two years on fiddle he took up the mandolin. Within four years of his first lesson he had joined the Bluegrass Parlor Band in Tampa. In the early 1990s, while still in high school, he toured with Aaron Tippin, and about two years later he toured with Clint Black.
He moved into the Nashville studio world in the 1990s and became one of its busiest session players on both instruments. His album credits run from Clint Black, Trisha Yearwood, and Tim McGraw to Rhonda Vincent.
Sugar Hill released his first solo album, Doin’ My Time, in 1997. Mike Compton played mandolin on the sessions. The album introduced Tobacco Patch, one of his tunes that mandolin teachers now use in lessons.
For A Man Must Carry On, cut in the fall of 1999 in Nashville and at Doobie Shea Studios in Boones Mill, Virginia, Haynie played mandolin and fiddle. Bobby Hicks also played fiddle on the sessions. The band included Bryan Sutton on guitar, Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes on dobro, Béla Fleck, David Talbot, and Kevin Haynie on banjo, and Kenny Malone on percussion. Sugar Hill released it in March 2000. Its tune Happy Go Lucky, with Haynie on both mandolin and fiddle, later ran as the music bed for a national Subaru television campaign in 2013.
On The Bluegrass Fiddle Album (2003) he stayed on fiddle, with Sam Bush on mandolin.
Playing style
Haynie’s tunes come from the fiddle side. Tobacco Patch is a driving tune in the key of E, a fiddle key, and mandolin teachers present it as a fiddle tune. Several of his titles name Florida places, including Thonotosassa, Lakeland, and Yeehaw Junction.
On Happy Go Lucky he plays both lead instruments himself, so the mandolin and fiddle parts fit together the way one player hears them.
Influences and legacy
Ted Locke taught him. Kenny Baker’s records shaped his fiddle. In the studio he has played beside Bryan Sutton, Jerry Douglas, Bobby Hicks, and Mike Compton.
His tunes have reached the next generation of mandolin players. Sierra Hull learned Lakeland while on tour in Lakeland, Florida, and posted her version.
Signature tunes and songs
Lakeland Thonotosassa Tobacco Patch Happy Go Lucky.
Essential recordings
Doin’ My Time (Sugar Hill, 1997) A Man Must Carry On (Sugar Hill, 2000)
Watch and listen
Sierra Hull plays Haynie’s tune Lakeland on mandolin. She learned it while touring in Lakeland, Florida.
What to learn from Haynie
Learn Tobacco Patch. It is a key-of-E tune, so it pushes a mandolin player out of the G and D comfort zone and into the shapes a fiddler uses every day. Once you have it, learn Lakeland from Sierra Hull’s video. The technique to steal is Haynie’s habit of writing tunes that work on both instruments. If you play mandolin and fiddle, write one short tune and play it on each. The places where it feels awkward on one instrument will show you what to change.
Sources
Aubrey Haynie, Wikipedia Aubrey Haynie, Contemporary Musicians, Encyclopedia.com Aubrey Haynie session listings, Praguefrank’s Country Discography Aubrey Haynie gets some Subaru love, Bluegrass Today Mandolin Tune of the Week: Tobacco Patch by Aubrey Haynie, Thomas Cassell Thonotosassa mandolin lesson, Keith Witty Sierra Hull, Lakeland (Aubrey Haynie)
Related players
See the mandolin players hub and the mandolin guide. Mike Compton played mandolin on Haynie’s first album, and Sam Bush played it on his third. Sierra Hull plays his tune Lakeland. Haynie’s fiddle work and awards are on his fiddle page.