Perfect example of why a stick mic (clean) through a dirty amp or even just PA ALWAYS sounds better versus that "muddy" vintage sound that nearly every harmonica player chases with their bullet mics. Also, Gussows more modern approach and playing style really shines through. Is Adam a better player than the others on the bandstand???? Probably not, but he sure as hell sounded MUCH better, and the proof is in the pudding by the audience response (and quite frankly even Ronnie and akis expression) that Adam dominated on the bandstand. Not that it matters who's better, but at the end of the day good is good, and great is great.
.......just my 2cents
Last Edited by CarlA on May 19, 2016 5:18 PM
Carl funny you should say that. I absolutely love Ronnies playing. For my money he's the shit. His playing is simple and complex at the same time. The way he mixes TB and LP is awesome. But watching him ... with his jaw open .. watching Adam ... was freakin funny. Adam stole the show on that one.
As far as the mics. You can get plenty a dirty sound with a stick mic. Even the cleanest stick mic, like the sm57, can be run thru a hi z xfmr and driven pretty hard.
I like to play with all the different sounds still. But i have been finding that lately I've been toning the drive down a touch, boosting the mids, and using sonic stomp and reverb/delay to bring in some highs. But wtf do i know? I'm just playing around. I was a sound man tech for 7 years so i do have a little bit of an ear, but. ... anyways.
Yes, that's the point I was trying to make:) .....stick mics give you the versatility of playing clean AND dirty..
Vintage Bullet mics with super hot,old elements running through a super dirty amp give you nowhere to go, except that"same", muddy sound. So when many harp players show up at jams, they can't cut through the mix. They turn up their super hot mics and this results in feedback-central. Everyone rolls their eyes at yet another worthless harmonica player.
......to each their own I guess
Last Edited by CarlA on May 19, 2016 7:14 PM
nice. Made my day and inspired me to practice harder. Four great harp players, each with their own distinctive sound and style.
Especially cool how David Barret was able to teleport to different points in his solo.
I disagree with you Carl about tone. I love that fat smooth distortion. Very easy on the ears... harp can be a little piercing at times. ---------- Lucky Lester
I was very conscious of being up there with some very strong and self-assured players, and of therefore needing to throw down a little something extra. Really all I did was just take a couple more choruses than anybody else and do my best to raise the energy level an extra notch during those choruses. I haven't gone back to count, but my memory is that I took something like five or six choruses. I rarely blow at that length, so putting myself into that position was also a way of putting my ass on the line, so to speak. If you're going to go there, you need to bring something. Sometimes it doesn't work out--your imagination just doesn't give you anything--but in this case, I was pretty adrenalized, and so it worked out.
We had a hell of an array of players at the final Hill Country Harmonica jam in 2012, and I most definitely did not rule the roost there. In fact, I didn't even play, because I knew I'd get whomped! As Falstaff once said, discretion is the better part of honor--meaning, pick and choose your battles The players in order were Jimi Lee, Scott Albert Johnson, Brandon Bailey, Mitch Kashmar, Todd Parrott, Annie Raines, P T Gazell, Phil Wiggins, Jimi Lee, Deak Harp, and Billy Branch
Last Edited by kudzurunner on May 20, 2016 7:39 AM
You flippin' killed it brother. Your playing, tone, phrasing always shines through. I liked the OB you threw in there as well :) I respect every musician (might not necessarily listen to them), style, etc. But at the end of the day, from listening to that clip alone, you owned it. Nothing wrong with that. It just is what it is.
......BTW, just so you know, this video clip when I first heard it a while back revolutionized my playing style and choice of gear, which for me made a huge difference in not only my playing, but my overall confidence on the bandstand. I am still(and always will) be learning, but just want to thank you Adam :)
Impressed with Kumars swing and empathy with the band. He is a guy I hadnt really listened to and was very profesional. I bet he has watched Estrin a bunch
Barret hung on that one note forever and its the kinda thing that makes you hate harp players
I am surprised cause I usually like his playing
Just shows you every night on the bandstand is different
Part of me acknowledges that this is a master level solo. It sounds great and it sure demonstrates a wealth of creativity and technique. This was a 30 year vet throwing down and showing what he could do. (And it did sound great in person.)
On the other hand, part of me wonders if this was excessive. By Adam's admission (I haven't counted) he took "a couple more choruses than anybody else" and he thinks "five or six." Adam was sharing the stage with three other excellent harmonica players.
I think there's a place for long solos and I know that a guy should only take such a long solo if he has something worthwhile to say. Adam clearly had something worthwhile to say, but should he have left things unsaid so that another player might say them?
What do you think? ---------- Marc Graci YouTube Channel
Last Edited by Mirco on May 20, 2016 11:19 AM
With all due respect, the other players had their chance to "say something". Adam said it much better IMO and the crowd agreed, seeing he had the best crowd reaction.
At the end of the day, musicians are here to entertain and give something of substance to their audience. Adam did that much IMO and the opinion of the target audience that night ;)
Last Edited by CarlA on May 20, 2016 11:48 AM
Thank you for posting this video! I wish I could have attended.
I have heard Ronnie, David, and Adam play on a number of occasions and I thoroughly enjoyed their playing in the video. Each played really well and each was consistent in playing within the individual style I associate with each. I enjoyed the horn fills, too.
Not having heard Aki Kumar much before, I had few stylistic expectations and was really taken by his solo, particularly around 9:40. I think it was his second 12 bars of the solo. I have not heard that combination of notes done over 12 bars on harp before and it worked really well. Not being familiar with his style, each 12 bars played was new to me.
Even though Aki Kumar used the PA for his solo, He used a bullet at the start of the song. My thought is that each player has cultivated a tone in themselves and by use of certain gear that suits their individual styles. They sound different from each other, and I enjoyed each performance a lot.
With regard to tone, of course you can't judge from a phone video (particularly through my cheesy netbook speakers), but what I heard is consistent with what I have heard live from the three I've seen play live. I could hear their "sound." I prefer to think of each of their "sounds" as being a personal expressive choice and not a matter of which tone is better.
For the sound I try for in my own playing, I prefer a stick mic, Shure 585SAV rather than the bullet brown sound, but I appreciate other harp/mic/amp sounds and other playing styles, too. This was a real demonstration of 4 pros doing their thing, and I loved it.
What I love about harp played well is the many different ways it can be played and different sounds it can use to give a different feel specific to the player. ----------
Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on May 20, 2016 12:14 PM
Thanks for commenting Adam. I didnt think for a second it was excessive. Although if it had been a flop maybe i would have thought differently. Lol.
Which brings me to my point. Its funny to hear that you still have some of the same limitations as say, a player of my caliper. Meaning that no matter how Good you are as a player, sometimes your brain just doesnt give up the goods. I find this happens to me quite a bit. But conversely i also have times when It just pours out of me.
I haven't played any jams yet., but I imagine the hardest part of being a working musician is having to play on command. Night after night.
How do you cope with Writers Block or Harp Brain Farts? Whatever you want to call it. I know when it happens, it happens. But are there any ways to keep it from happening so often? And what do you do when it does? Fall back on generic material? ----------
Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on May 20, 2016 2:25 PM
You can hear what you wanna hear. Ronnie Shellist played some beautiful shit in that clip. Listen to the tone he made. That was fantastic. Yes, he wasn't overly ostentatious. That's cool, he played appropriate for where the song was at. He was first up in a song that was gonna run 10 minutes. Dave played excellent comping throughout and you can't actually hear how he developed his solo as 2/3rd of his first 2 choruses are cut. But you can tell he is playing some great stuff if you know how he plays, because he understands dynamics...that last verse is crescendo and placed in context would have been cool, but seems weird since the rest of the story has been cut. By the time it gets to Adam, the song has come back down after the bass and drum feature, so yeah the time was ripe to blast it, and so he did...as Aki said...where is there left to go, have we got any notes left we haven't played yet?...and then he played them... To me, that is 4 players who understand how to work together to create a dynamic musical journey through a potentially bland number stretched to over 10 minutes. I would have liked to hear what David played. And Aki demonstrated the importance of how he works as the MC, the way he wrapped that up when there was possibly nothing left to say, by taking it in a slightly different direction. Bravo to all involved, especially Aki Kumar.
it is extremely difficult to be musical with four harmonica players on the bandstand at the same time. especially after a whole night of harmonica. like eating too much cotton candy at the fair.
some really good stuff there by all for sure.
adam did manage to blow the roof off the place i have to admit.
@doug: Re: Aki at 9:40, that was pure Gary Primich right there with the tricky 3-draw bends in 3rd position. I heard that lick from Gary multiple times, although I'm not sure it was ever captured on youtube. That's a good 'un, however, as the company man would say.
TC Carr played in St. Pete last night to open and close the Satan and Adam reunion show. He is a total badass. One of the best living harp players, with a distinctive style and great chops. We had a jam towards the end and it would be fair to say that he got the better of me. If I'd known just how good he was, I'd have been practicing hard for a week to sharpen up. He definitely cut me, and I have no embarrassment about saying that. He pulled me slightly off my game. Great singer and performer. Remember that thread about double threats?: great harp players who are also great blues singers. TC Carr is on that list.
I may be able to get some video and will post it here if I do.
I had the pleasure of being in St. Pate last night and it was an awesome show. Adam and TC are really amazing players in their own individual ways. Unfortunately I could not stay till the end and missed the jam. Something worth mentioning again is that as great as YouTube is, it’s a very poor tool to evaluate a players performance. I have been watching too many YouTube videos and not enough live performances by top shelf players. I forgot how much power a great harp player can generate.
And of curse it is always a privilege to watch Satan and Adam do their thing.
KHz, No mang, I wasn't having a go at you in any way. just saying...without wanting to detract any praise from Adam's solo...there's some statements above about gear and owning the stage or such...that might lead one to focus on the AG solo as the nugget in this video...I listened to the RS solo...it's in a lower register than the climactic AG solo, so it's a bit more effort required to hear it through the recording and processing and tiny speakers but it's discernible that he has got some beautiful tone there...as AK said "I can assure you it's not easy to do what he does" Can't say much about David's solo because most of it has been cut but AK played some choice stuff at the end. Really cool. And RS behaviour while AG playing...I have no doubt he appreciated The playing...but also...when you're on the stage you are performing all the time, whether you're in the spot or not...in this clip I see professional players at work. When someone is cutting sick like AG in this clip...what you gonna do? Stand there like a doofus? A bit of whooping like RS does, in the right places, adds to the energy and leads the audience on.."check it out"...stagecraft...it is important part of the show...
I wasnt talking about the whooping, but for a min he had this look on his face that just caught me a different way i guess. I thought it was cool. Just seemed like a genuine apreciation of the solo. While also maybe a tiny bit of "come on man dont show us up like that." Lol. But either way all those guys are killer.
But yea surely the whole thing was great. I really liked Akis MC skills. Giving everybody they're props. He s just a natural showman it seems. Aswell as a phenomenal player.
Shellist is one of my favorite players so enough said there.
Dave .. this wasn't one of the better examples of his playing, but everybody knows he s got skill. ----------
Well, maybe this should be posted for the thread regarding what to do when your amp breaks. Aki not only handed off his mic to DB, he just blew thru the vocal mic with great style. He is one cool cat and I really enjoy him in this clip.
RS is playing a low key harp, correct? And DB is playing his solo in 3rd position?
4 individual stylists, each with something unique to say. This clip worked better than 90% of other group o' harmonica players together on stage that I've seen.
Now, for a different view on the proceedings...
It's obvious all 4 are very accomplished and are pros. However, at this level, I would hope they would become more aware of how they appear on stage to the audience.
Aki has the right idea - nice stage clothes. Jeans, every day shirts, etc. look like the player just came up out of the audience to play.
It's not such a hard stretch to hope the visual of a performance should be in the mind of the player.
Why not go for class visual across the stage?
Also, here is a great example of how to be on stage and "not play". Aki also has the right idea. He grooves visually and pays close attention to whoever is soloing.
Ronnie has a kinda of "stage void" with his non-stage presence. It sucks a little bit of the energy away rather than adding to it. Dave also looks too low key and somewhat disinterested.
Also, harmonica players, when "not playing", too often stand with their harmonica held close up to their face as if they will start playing at any given moment. Why not just drop the hand w/harmonica and mic to your side, ignore them and move to the music?
Also, there is always that compulsion to start comping behind the singer that should be resisted - especially with so many harmonica players on stage. If one harp starts comping, the others should lay out until there is a time to do those horn punches together in unison or harmony.
A great clip to study for so many different things - stage presence included. ---------- The Iceman
On a barely related note: David plays a sweet little transitional lick at 3:43-3:45 that is basically just an exercise in interval jumping. I have heard him use it (or at least variations thereof) in a few other examples of his playing, and I can never quite nail it down... Yet here it is to haunt me again...
---------- Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.
Last Edited by TBird on May 24, 2016 7:40 PM
