Carboni, Hamlet carry on Bakersfield tradition of music and kindness BY MOLLY HAINES HTT Contributor
Mario Carboni might be the nicest guy you’ve never met. From the start of our half-hour-long interview, Carboni exhibits the personality traits not of a traveling musician but of a man who genuinely concerns himself with the happiness of those around him. The 35-year-old piano and trumpet player extraordinaire is driving across Alaska in a van purchased specifically for runs in The Last Frontier. A mix-up has caused him and his lone bandmate to miss their hour-long set at the state’s largest festival. Instead of dogging the head of the event, Carboni simply says: “They’re busy. They have so many acts in there it’s understandable.” It’s not the reaction I expected, but as our conversation continues, it becomes clear that perhaps his heroes have not only influenced his music but his attitude toward life as well. A native of Oregon, Carboni’s lifelong affair with music began at 9 months old when he started playing the piano (yes, you read that correctly). By the age of 10, he added the trumpet to his repertoire. “I started out playing ragtime and improvising,” he says. “I ended up playing the trumpet in various school bands, then figured out how to play the two of them together when I was about 20. I ended up going from there, starting to play shows – I did a year of college, and it was not at all what I wanted to do – so I went over to Bakersfield and started meeting folks I considered to be my heroes and met Red Simpson in 2015.”
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Mario Carboni and Norm Hamlet formed an unlikely partnership in 2017, releasing a series of videos garnering hundreds of thousands of views. Since then, the pair has traveled across the country, performing the songs that put Bakersfield, California, on the map. — Photo courtesy of Mario Carboni One of the originators of “truck driving country,” Simpson rose to popularity as both a recording artist and songwriter in the mid1960s, scoring hits such as “Roll, Truck, Roll” and “Hello, I’m A
Truck.” The Bakersfield native remained a permanent fixture in the area’s music scene, coming to the aid of many aspiring musicians until his death in January 2016. “Red was always helping younger
HONKY TONK TIMES
