Guy's ...it was great...last night we had Jimi Lee - Adam - Brandon Bailey - Sonny Boy Terry- Deak Harp- and Jason Ricci.....on stage together JAMMING !!!
I have tons of photos and vids to upload...but I've got to get home first.....stuck in the Little Rock Airport. ----------
You're welcome. Big fun all around. Among other things, the Sunday early-evening jam offered a pretty good representation of several generations of blues-playing overblowers:
Weird little snippets of the weekend are beginning to crop up. Here's some video from the crossroads meetup outside Oxford. For all the talk of how tubes are superior to solid state, these little 20-year old Mouses (with fresh batteries) are doing a pretty good job. When you're using the harp mic to sing through, they might even be superior to tubes for that dual purpose; they're slightly tighter in a useful way:
It was fantastic! I came into Clarksdale from Illinois early Thursday evening and caught part of the jam at the Commissary with the New Orleans harmonica group, who are a great bunch of harmonica maniacs. I jammed on a couple songs.
Then I went to the show at Red's on Thursday night with Adam and Deak doing their one man band performances, and they were great. This was my first experience of a juke joint as oppose4d to the bars and taverns I have played in. Then the Deak Harp band played, with George Stackhouse playing some. It was all really good, and when Deak had me up to play a couple at the juke joint, I felt honored. I enjoyed my one night at the Shack Up Inn.
The next day I drove to Oxford, and had a late lunch at Rooster's. Then I went to Foxfire Ranch and checked in and set up my tent. By the time I finished setting up the tent in the afternoon sun, I was so overheated that I skipped the crossroads meeting and went to buy bottled water, sunscreen, and insect repellant at an air conditioned store.
Then I went to the jam at Rooster's. Deak played some great stuff, and then the jam took off. It was great! My GPS got me back to Foxfire around 1:30am without incident.
HCH II started Saturday morning. I won't list all the details, but the classes, the teachers, the jamming, and the performances were great. The food and hospitality were wonderful. The attendees were a great bunch of people.
There was late night jamming and sleep deprivation, and brief thunderstorms that broke up the heat, but enabled us to experience a light helping of mud, and kept the humidity suitably high during the heat of the day.
Everyone was totally immersed in harmonica, and there was discussion and jamming everywhere. Plenty to eat, plenty to drink, and constant music with harmonica. The performances were wonderful. There will probably be video of all except Sugar Blue.
Doug, it was great talking and jamming with you! That was a fun time, indeed.
Deak's a kick, for sure. Great player, and a nice guy. His Bassman is fun to play thru, too. It sounds exactly the way all Bassmans should-not muddy, plenty of bottom end, responsive and punchy.
After Friday, I had some personal crap go down Saturday morning via cell phone that kinda gutted me, so I wasn't near as social as normal(sorry for anyone who talked to me and noticed that!)but it was still a blast. All the jamming kept my mind off of unpleasantries back home that ended up being no biggie anyway.
The food was scrumpdillyishus at Foxfire! Good eats were also found at JB's in Holly Springs-best blackberry cobbler this southern boy EVER had. Oh, and the diner in Oxford's Courthouse Square-was it called Ajax? Man, those butterbeans, greens, corn bread and chicken fried steak rocked. ---------- Todd
Last Edited by on May 25, 2011 5:19 AM
Plenty can and will be said about all the pros and 'name' players at the event, and rightly so, but one thing that stood out to me, and Adam and I briefly discussed, was how good the overall level of playing amongst campers was. This is true. We've got some killer players in our midst-many, I'm sure, who have made a lot of progress since last years' HCH. ---------- Todd
I agree Todd. Lots of great players among the campers...you and the Nawlins gang included!
When Deak's eyes get big, look out...his grooves are killer.
Johnny Sansone is a player that always makes me stop and listen...great feel for the blues. Loved his gig.
Satan and Adam played a great set. Adam is a pro, but it is obvious he still woodsheds. Really good stuff especially on the high end of the harp.
I had forgot what a talent Jimi Lee is. He jammed on some great swing blues.
Charlie Sayles may not be well known but he is quite the entertainer. He may not even be aware of customs, overblows, SPAH, amps, mics, etc. He plays with the intent of pleasing the crowd. Heck..he is a busker!
I spent a little time with Brandon and A-Pac (I called Alex that and he dug it..lol) Both are great players and fine young men. I look forward to following their careers.
IMHO...Jason blew the roof off the joint at his performance. Unreal!
Duane(harpdude61)impressed the heck outta me as well-the dude is already a great player, and he got to demonstrate it a few times on different stages. Wish we coulda hung out more, but there's always next time! Maybe you(and others) can do the Clarksdale thing with us if we have a repeat. I absolutely loved Hopson Commissary. Anyone who missed the jam at this cool and historic spot missed a good one.
Charlie Sayles was definitely a sleeper hit. Not a technical player at all, but a real deal guy who engaged the crowd and also had just about every harp in the place playing along with him or the players singing-he's a GREAT entertainer. Adam's interview with him was hilarious too. ---------- Todd
Last Edited by on May 25, 2011 7:18 AM
Paul those are great pictures....makes me want to do the lottery for next year. We on the other side of the Atlantic,need to organise a Euro version of this.
There are some hills near where I live...... ---------- Oisin
1. Jimi Lee: Sometimes I forget just how accomplished and musically interesting this guy is.
2. Meeting Adam Gussow in person and seeing him play live. His youtube catalog gives a pretty good sense of him as a person and a player, but in person is much better still.
3. Seeing Satan and Adam perform
4. Meeting Deak Harp and watching him play. As a West-Coast/Chicago style guy myself, it's great when someone really does it well.
5. Meeting the young up-coming players (not just Brandon and Alex, but some others with scary potential, too).
6. The power of Johnny Sansone onstage
7. It was pretty mind-blowing, flattering, and ego-inflating to have people come up to me and thank me for my videos. I didn't count the number of times, but it happened all throughout the weekend, and it was awesome.
My Lowlights:
1. Fatigue: I missed some stuff for sleep, but I start to get loopy with less than 6-hrs/night.
2.Any time Charlie Sayles went above hole 6. (disagree all you want, but it was painful to me)
I'm struggling to think of lowlights because there weren't many. It was worth every penny and every minute.
