Well here it is ... three o'clock in the morning and what am I doing....! This is one of the reasons that my participation on this forum may be sketchy... but for now I am enjoying hanging out with you all. Thanks for the warm welcome.
In answer to the question about how I found you... it was a non-member who googled my website and this came up. They wanted to know if I participated and supported the site. In truth I have know Adam Gussow for many years and have great respect for him. So it is a no brainer for me to support any of his endeavors. Then I saw that the hot harper Nitecrawler had intro'd me to you all and "Judge", I thank you for that and all the kind words! (Let's make something happen this year, son! It has been too long!)
But it was that I have been in this for so long, over thirty years, and I am STILL hearing this question of female involvement(?) - that drew me in. And the man that asked it seemed so genuine and sincere. I felt that my experiences might shed some light. Hopefully they have.
I can only speak for myself when it comes to a women's forum within MBH. See, to me that defeats the purpose. I think the important thing is that we coexist and redefine borders as we go. Isn't this the only way we can truly incorporate women into the scene? It requires that we respect each other and that Men and Women with enlightened sensibilities come forward and speak their minds. We do not need police... we get that in the real world. We don't need to turn this into a counseling session (I fear I have been treading dangerously close to this boundary a bit - but it was in an effort to answer the gentleman's question and hopefully we don't have to continue with this trend).
Women just need to know that they are welcomed and respected for their craft.
And ladies, this means you have to learn your craft by whatever means before you push your way in the door. Take lessons if need be, show up at jams and take a chance. But if we as women do not take ourselves seriously, work at our craft, evaluate ourselves fairly and routinely; demonstrate humility, patience and professionalism, then we can not expect the guys to follow suit.
We sometimes forget that we are brothers and sisters united in love of the blues... that there is room enough for us all to get what we need from this and that is only righteous and truly fulfilling if we all get there together! We can then pass this philosophy on to the next generation...! Sounds like fun to me!
If anyone needs my help they can reach me at www.bignancy.com . I would post this with my member name but I don't know how....
P.S. There are a good number of female players in Myspace. If you look within your state you will find them... ask around. Encourage Societies to do shows featuring women in the blues... But most of all invite a sista to sit in!
P.S.S. Unfortunately I don't have a great number of recordings out there.... For Big Nancy and Supreme Court see the web site.... I am in cd baby on Sonny Rhodes "Live" I'm on: Glen Burtnick's Slave's of New Brunswick, Matt Witte's Pumps cd, Bernie Brausewetter's BB & the Stingers New Set of Rules and I play the title cut on Bernie Worrell's hip hop/funk project called Baby Elephant. The Cd is Turn My Teeth Up and its pretty cool - lots of stars on it (Clinton, David Byrne, Yellowman, Shock G and Nona Hendryx).... but I happily play the title track behind Bernie Worrell's false teeth!
Last Edited by on Jan 28, 2010 1:16 AM
In my opinion it's great that there are so many female members of the blues community and of the harmonica community in particular.
I completely agree with Nancy about not having a specific room aimed women on the forum.
Intergration is what it's all about. Young, old, black, white, yellow, pro, amateur, male , female, people of whatever religious, sexual or political persuasion.
We can all learn from each other. Sure we will have disagreements along the way and some of us will always disagree on certain points. That's just what people do.
In the end though we all have a common bond. We all have an undying affection, addiction, love, call it what you will for the harmonica and the music it can create. Whether that music be blues, jazz, pop, country, rock, classical, fusion, folk, the list of genres is endless and is immaterial. Music is music and it only comes in two forms. Good and bad.
I for one look forward to learning from (and teaching what little I know) from all the people of this forum. I have learnt so much already and haven't really even scratched the surface of the depth of knowledge out there yet.
Nancy, if you click on the account button on the top right of any thread it will let you edit your account info, like adding your website addy info. Great to have you here.
