I recently was the designated harp player for a project at our local 2 year guitar festival held at Krannert Center in Urbana, IL. The project was to honor Bob Dylan's poetry and his award. Two of the singers played their own harp and one brought another harp/guitar accompanist. Harp was not played on all the songs.
Here is a video of one song of the 5 on which I played harp. It is not Dylan style rack harp; different approaches to singing and playing on these songs were encouraged. For the impatient, harp solo is at 3:10, though I played harp on each verse some. I used a cupped Ultimate 58 directly to the PA, the sound man rolling off some highs, maybe a little more than I would have chosen.
This is Dylan's "On the Road Again," NOT the Willie song by the same name or the Canned Heat song "Going Up the Country."
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Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Sep 26, 2017 1:22 PM
Here is another video from the show with two songs in one video. The intro song of the night was performed by the backing band, Surreal Deal. It has no harp and is not on the Dylan album featured in this project, but they did a good version of it.
The second song in this video was the first song of the night taken from the "Bringing It All Back Home" album. It was performed by Kenna Mae Reiss (at around 8:20) and has some of my harp on it. The sound man had my channel down at the intro vamp, but brought it up after I signaled. Live music...
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Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Oct 10, 2017 12:56 PM
I fast forwarded to the 8:20 mark. Doug, I enjoyed your harp playing.
For some reason, I kept thinking that Kenna Mae Reiss should call herself the "Barefoot Librarian"...
Last Edited by Blind Melon on Oct 11, 2017 10:06 AM
Kenna is a very strong vocalist and for this event at Krannert Center she dressed a bit differently than at regular gigs. You can't see due to the angle, but part of her hair is dyed blue.
Thanks for the sentiment, though. I really enjoyed being part of this project.
I was flattered by the invitation of the curator to be the harp player available to the vocalists in this project, all of whom have earned their own local followings through hard work and talent. I was pleased that five of the singers asked me to accompany their singing in the project. The band "The Surreal Deal" is also well known for excellent musicianship with very established local players.
The role of an accompanist in this setting was a fun challenge... especially when a whole band was already available to provide backing with solid guitar and piano soloists, and especially when the music was focused on Dylan's lyrics! It is a very different task than fronting a band or playing Chicago blues with a band. It calls for some restraint and to play at specific points during songs in the arrangement provided by the singer.
The song in which I departed from standard harp comping and soloing was the song I posted in my other thread on the Ellnora/Dylan Project, "Gates of Eden." It was my last song to post on the forum. I was given the freedom to interpret the song as I wished, just asked for backing, and it was performed as a duo, not with the full band. I chose to play long notes, chords, and octaves behind the vocals rather than brief fills between verses. After finally getting to hear the recording of "Gates of Eden" I found that I really liked what I chose to play on that song.
I didn't see this project as a chance to display harp acrobatics to draw focus to harp by going wild or playing all the time. I saw it as a challenge to fit in with the band and singers and support the songs.
I believe that I provided a competent harmonica performance, integrating the sound of harmonica into the music mix, and that I showed appropriate restraint in doing so.
