The Complete Story of Little Anni, the 1964 Martin Mandolin

This is a story about Anni Beach’s treasured mandolin. In case you are new to the Arizona Bluegrass Association or Bluegrass at all

for that matter, Anni Beach has been instrumental in Arizona in introducing and teaching bluegrass to the youth, the next generation of bluegrass, since 1994. What began as two youth showing up on substitute teacher Anni Beach’s doorstep after school asking to learn to play to now 3 decades later to Anni’s home/music campus with dozens of students known as Jam Pak Neighborhood

Band. As Anni’s students have grown and became more skilled, several bands have sprung from the ranks. These bands include

Cisco & The Racecars, Fair Black Rose and Crumpled Bills Kin (parents of Anni’s students!!) to name just a few. Anni’s mentorship

and dedication to her Jam Pak Family and the bluegrass genre has garnered attention and awards from the IBMA (International

Bluegrass Music Association). To read more on Anni Beach, here is a link to an article written in 2023. Life & Work with Anni Beach – VoyagePhoenix .

This below article was provided by Steve Forcier

Anni’s first mandolin and the one she took to Howard’s Jam (an in-person jam) in 1995 was a turtle back

from Italy her parents brought for her in 1966. Prior to that she had bought an Alvarez mandolin and installed

sound and got an amp. She was on a roll after answering an ad for a country gospel jam at The Heavenly Power

House in Mesa. That was in 1993 or so. She met the good old people of country gospel and she and and her husband

Vincent (he played flute) were welcomed into their tiny church and home. But the Alvarez mandolin, even

with an amp, just didn’t make enough noise against drums and electric guitars. Lester Kroeger, purported to be

in the Arizona Country Music Hall of Fame brought out a precious pristine 1964 Martin Mandolin. By then Lester

was having heart attacks on a regular basis. Anni wanted that mandolin. And in 1997 she bought it from Lester

for $500. That was big money back then.

Anni played that Martin mandolin (named Little Anni) in Jam Pak’s first festival appearance in February 1998. Not a scratch or mark. Lester said he had even taken it to China way back when it was new. But he preferred to play guitar. Anni worked hard to learn to play better but the sound was still light. She guarded it against scratches. She kept it in the soft padded case that the owner of Colorado Case Company gave to her for free. The owners boyfriend, for whom she made the case, left her and she just wanted the case out of her sight. Anni and some Jam Pak kids, including Francisco Briseno, flew to Washington, DC around 2010 to play at her daughter Jenny’s All Boys Charter School. Without warning Little Anni’s strap came off and the mandolin crashed to the cement floor and burst apart. Heartbroken, Anni rushed to Music Traditions Store and bought a mandolin so she could still play. Back home, Kevin Wyman of Wyman Fine Instruments glued Little Anni back together providing no cosmetics but Little Anni was playable. Another trip to DC and snuggled in a cute cloth bag, Little Anni suffered another blow when the bag hit a seat in the aisle of the plane. That sickening crunching sound again! One more time to Kevin but by now Little Anni was never going to be pristine again. First one sticker helped, then another, and since the sound didn’t seem to change many more stickers were applied. Little Anni no longer plays festivals with Jam Pak. She hangs on the wall by the kitchen for Jam Pak practices. Little Anni got replaced by Little James for jams and performances when James Reams left his pristine Smith Creek mandolin (#74) to Anni upon his death in June 2022.

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