Not What You Think!

What started out as a joke is now Bryan Ranney's "Not a Ukulele" tour.

"People are always asking me if I am playing a ukulele, and I'm constantly explaining that no, in fact, I play a mandolin," the St. Louis musician says with a laugh.

Although both stringed instruments are comparable to the guitar, that's where the similarities end. They don't even sound the same, he says.

The mandolin is based on an 18th century Roman instrument while the Hawaiian ukulele, which is based on a Portuguese design. Mandolins are typically strummed, and ukuleles are often plucked. Ukuleles have nylon or gut strings, different from the mandolin's metal courses.

In short, a mandolin is not a ukulele, Ranney says.

The musician started playing the mandolin in 2001, and although he "hasn't had many organized lessons," he says he felt like it was meant to be. Coming from a musical family, playing an instrument was second nature, but the weekly, formalized lesson plan typically followed by budding musicians wasn't really Ranney's thing, he says.

"I'm not traditionally taught, but I would steal lessons from different musicians by asking very good questions," he says. His father played the guitar, so he took up the instrument, he says, later garnering an interest in the mandolin from his uncle, who also played it.

"I learned music via folk tradition -- literally, my folks taught me to play," Ranney says.

His musical pursuits introduced him to different styles of playing, leading the young performer to adopt a unique sound he describes as folk, blues, bluegrass and '90s alternative without the electric guitar.

Ranney spent a short stint in Chicago in the 2000s, but it was the pursuit of a love other than music that brought him home to St. Louis for good.

"I was working at a bar and writing songs, but I fell in love, and we moved home," he says.

Ranney will bid farewell to his wife and 4-year-old son, leaving the pair in the capable hands of "two really good grandmas," and travel to the Cathouse Lounge in Eureka Springs this weekend for the third stop on his regional tour.

"We'll be playing some covers, but we'll be leaning on the original music," the songwriter says. "I like to dig into the catalogs of bands and pull out some rarities. But I think people will respond to the energy flow we are producing."

Traveling with him are Adam Andrews and Chris Helmick, St. Louis musicians set on providing a night Ranney describes as unlike any other. The duo will be bringing their folk-soaked instruments, including guitars, a washboard and harmonicas, to the lounge to accompany the mandolin-playing vocalist.

No one in the trio will be playing a ukulele.

-- Allison Carter

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NAN What's Up on 02/06/2015