A SkiBumMusic.com exclusive interview with Clint Troxel of Jackson, WY, reveals an interesting online community for mandolin players. MandoPlayer.com offers discussions, articles, reviews, music tabs, and more.

SBM: What are your short term and long term goals for mandoplayer.com?

Clint: My main short term goal for the mandoplayer site is to drive usage. I think
that mandoplayer has something real to offer the mandolin community, I just need to find a way to get people involved with the site. Hopefully, as mandoplayer.com gets a base of users it will evolve into a living entity -- a place for mandolin players to share their knowledge, expertise, tips, tricks, and excitement with others.

SBM: What interests you about the mandolin, and/or mandolin players?

Clint: I think I first decided that I liked mandolins when I heard a friends
grandpa playing bluegrass on the radio -- something about the quick, bubbly expression got me going. I was a guitar and a piano player for a while, but something about playing the mandolin just made sense to me. I also think they look really cool ;)

SBM: What features would you like to see in your site, in the near term, and in the long term?

Clint: I'm trying to persuade people to write mandolin related articles and reviews for mandoplayer.com -- I'd really like to see those areas of the site start to take shape. Mandoplayer.com could really start to become a 'community' if I could get users to write articles and reviews that other people could respond to and comment on.

SBM: What will your site offer to mandolin players that they can't find elsewhere?

Community and involvement. There isn't another mandolin site on the net that encourages its users to actively participate in the direction of the website. There are plenty of sites that offer featured articles written by famous mandolin players and reviews written by paid professionals, and even lots with mandolin discussion boards. With mandoplayer.com I'm trying to take the interaction one step further and let the sites' users have a hand in creating and sustaining it.

SBM: How did you conceive the idea for the site?

Clint: One of the things on my 'life to do list' is to create a webiste that people enjoy using. So, I sat around one weekend brainstorming about how I could make that happen and I came up with mandoplayer.com. I guess it's just something that I know about and care about and am interested in. I still haven't checked that particular item off the list quite yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

SBM: Are you a ski bum musician? If so, what music/instruments do you play, and do you see a connection with your music and skiing or riding?

Clint: Let's see... Skibummusic.com says "A SKI BUM MUSICIAN is one who thrives on music and snow sports. For all of us, living in a snow-town and making music is part of the dream." -- Yup, I guess I am a ski bum musician. I mainly play a Weber Bitterroot and a Fender Fm 60-e 5 string electric mandolin when it gets hard to hear me. And yeah, I do see a big connection with making music and making turns -- expressing myself with music makes me feel a lot of the same "good things" that expressing myself waist deep in powder makes me feel. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

SBM: Where are your top 3 favorite places to ski?

1)Granite
2)At the village with friends on a big day
3)Boyne Highlands with my family (gotta stay true to your roots eh?)

SBM: What music are you listening to these days?

Clint: Wow, lots. I've been playing lots of the New Mark O'Connor double live album (with Chris Thile, Bryan Sutton, and Byron Scott), some Jurassic 5, Modest Mouse a lot when I'm in the car, Iron and Wine on headphones, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Radiohead always, Wilco's on a lot. my music taste has been all over the place lately.