I’ve seen this post a while ago but didn’t really reply to it. I first became interested in the mandolin from seeing Levon Helm play one with The Band. Being a guitar player myself I liked how he used it as a rhythm instrument and not doing all the fancy soloing. Then came Old and In The Way with David Grisman. I was in a music store one day and picked one up out of curiosity and thought ‘this is really cool!’ That’s when i got my MD315!
These days I like Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Andrew Marlin from Mandolin Orange. I’ve also enjoyed a lot of A.J. Lee and the Tuttles. I’ve taken lessons online with Matt Flinner, and also been to a couple bluegrass camps where he was teaching.