Yank Rachell，One doesn`t usually associate a mandolin with a blues musician, but that`s what Yank Rachell played, and he played it with such legendary blues artists as John Estes (aka Sleepy John Estes) and Hambone Willie Newbern. James "Yank" Rachell was born in 1910 in Brownsville, TX, and learned to play the mandolin as a child.