Ok...I love seeing/hearing Charlie play but as for Miss Lauper? I think she is a great vocalist "but" I think she has her own voice and style. When it comes to singing blues it just doesn't cut it for me, there is still too much Cyndi Lauper in there if you know what I mean. That kind of little girl voice she has. And her dancing has always reminded me of Elaine from Seinfeld. lol. Props to Greg Heumann tho!! ---------- Tommy
No but I have read about it from an interview with Charlie Musselwhite. I'd be willing to give it a shot. Like I said, she definitely can sing. It's just that "Cyndi Lauper" kind of like little girl voice (to me) doesn't sound "blues." But admittedly that is only basing it on this video. I haven't heard anything else. I will chalk this one up to just not being able to do much with "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." lol.
But I won't reconsider her dancing. That is definitely painful to watch!
well i never thought i'd see a dulcimer on a blues stage. that's one helluva backup band and i loved Cyndi from the first mtv video i saw of her way back when. what i saw last year was not impressive since one clip was her leaving Musselwhite out in the cold on one of her pop songs. i thought that was rude.
it's true her voice is kind of high for blues but this vid here shows that if she stays calm and low, it come off pretty good. Greg, that mic sounds *almost* as good as the one you did for me! kudos. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
now let me get this straight......so many of you guys complained about cristal's voice when she tried to sing the blues because it is to low and "she don't sound like a chick"....now you grip about cyndi because her voice is to high to sing the blues..
just so you know most of the complaints about her singing the blues was on an earlier post with another vid. but still.
let's ring the new year in with the same old crap.
Last Edited by on Jan 02, 2012 7:59 AM
Well, I for one didn't say anything about her voice being high. I have no problem with that. For me it's just that "Cyndi Lauper" thing. I always wondered years ago (not anymore) if her voice was a put on. Speaking voice included. She has that strange combination of sounding like a child with a heavy NY accent. That "child" voice comes out in her singing as does her NY accent. ---------- Tommy
@Atty - I've talked to Charlie several times about Cyndi. He told me she is wonderful to work with, very professional. She doesn't suffer fools well and has a strong work ethic. And funny - He told me at one rehearsal the keyboard player was noodling while she was talking to a different part of the band - she yelled over to him "Hey, Tchaikovsky - knock it off". Charlie doesn't blow smoke so I trust what he says.
Here's another vid from the same night, went up today:
Greg, please enlighten me. How did you get the Jools Holland show? I lived in the UK for 25 years and always watched his New Years shows if I wasn't gigging. I was a big fan of Later with Jools Holland and The Word before that. Have you ever seen the clip of Andy Fairweather-Low with The Chris Barber Band? That's some pretty smokin' blues right there. ---------- LSC
All you need is a UK proxy IP address and you can watch it on BBC iPlayer for the next few days. They do a catch up service for 7 days after the show was aired.
I'm sure you'll be able to find a free one, but if you're only looking to watch this show, here's a service that has a free 1 month trial.
You can still catch 'Lemmy' The Movie, which is a must for any rock 'historian'
Fact: Lemmy was sacked from the phsycedelic band Hawkwind because he used the wrong drugs, but got his own back by sleeping with the other band members ladies, and having success with Motorhead.
BBC iPlayer is very good
Last Edited by on Jan 03, 2012 2:19 AM
BMA makes it's debut on British television! Superb!
Yeah, I was very dubious about Cyndi teaming up with Charlie when I first heard about it too. I actually learned of her blues album's existence while I was hunting a ringback tone for my cell, and the only harmonica result was Lauper and Musselwhite doing "Down Don't Bother Me." I looked more of the album up on YouTube, and discovered that her voice, while very treble-driven, is just smoky and throaty enough that it belts out blues very nicely.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. When contemporary mainstream performers release blues albums or perform blues live, I feel that it rejuvenates the blues by forcing it back into the view of America's youth. Lauper, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Jonny Lang, John Mellencamp, and particularly Eric Clapton...they've all given new life to the blues at one point or another by hooking young ears back onto it.
I really wish more performers would do the same. Rob Thomas, Chris Daughtry, and Michael Buble to name a few... ---------- Hawkeye Kane
...I feel that it rejuvenates the blues by forcing it back into the view of America's youth. Lauper, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Jonny Lang, John Mellencamp, and particularly Eric Clapton...they've all given new life to the blues...
Ahhh, Joss Stone....fantastic!
I guess as far as Cyndi goes like anything else I amounts to personal opinion. But c'mon now...she really does have to stop trying to dance!!! lol
Love Charlie Musselwhite. And props to Cyndi for promoting the Blues. That's the important thing. ---------- Tommy
"...forcing it back into the view of America's youth"
I don't know how much of America's youth is paying attention to what a bunch of middle-aged musicians are doing. YouTube may have more influence because it's so easy to trace the roots of something being done by a contemporary.
I would agree that YouTube has been very infuential in the spread of blues these days. But as I'm trying to point out, it's not just middle-aged musicians playing blues to the masses anymore. Take Jonny Lang for example. The boy has always been a bluesman since he hit the bigtime in '95, to the point of him being included in the guest lineup of Blues Brothers 2000. Young artists like him, while few in number, are very popular amongst the young listeners today. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
@greg you ought to consider putting a logo on the pointy end of your mics so we recognise them [like we can recognise a Lee Oskar harp from 100 paces by the little black squares]
wanted to post this before but wasn't getting a captcha code :^( ---------- "Come on Brackett let's get changed"
Ahh, but you do recognize them. That means you're part of a cool, elite inside group of well educated swingin' badass harmonica players. There are 2 or 3 other wood mic makers in the world - their work looks pretty different from mine. I usually sign the mics but in a much less conspicuous place, down near the connector. And if you don't want that you don't have to have it. ---------- /Greg
Hotrod flashback. I remember way back when Mellencamp "Johnny Cougar" then pulls up beside my recently restored 62 Comet with a hot small block at a stop light on east third st. in Bloomington. He was driving new black 911. I here the 911 to my right, look over and he's giving me the thumbs up. I smiled and motioned toward the next light as in ya wanna race? He smiled and shook his head no. For a while he built a pretty decent collection of classics but they sat too much. He got tired of having the guys a Pete's Marathon on third street take out the stale gas and get them running again so he sold a bunch of them off.
When I heard Jason moved to B-town I figured he'd end up at Mellencamps studio. Too bad that never happened.
WOW! About when did this happen? My father-in-law once worked with Mellencamp when he was first starting out. He worked the tech department in the studios Cougar first used in Bloomington. My father-in-law is from Terre Haute and has been involved with electronic work all over the Midwest over many years now. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
The story I heard is that Cyndi Lauper didn't get along with Jerry Portnoy AT ALL, when Portnoy filled in for Charlie Musselwhite on a couple of dates, to the point where Portnoy left the tour entirely. I guess Charlie was easy-going and didn't let her histrionics bother him. Or maybe Mr. Portnoy brought out the worst in her. Whatever the case, that's why there are different people in the world, and different personalities.
Or maybe the source of friction was stylistic. Portnoy is a very traditional style player. Charlie is much more original and creative and therefore probably more musically flexible in his approach. Hard for me to imagine Portnoy vamping on "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".
Hawkeye, I grew up in Spencer, right between B-town and Haute on 46. When he first started I couldn't stand his music. At that time I was into CCR, Led Zep, ZZ top, Crosby Stills and Nash etc. He was a punk from Seymour and I really couldn't get my mind around his early shit. I remember when I worked at this same day photo lab and he came in to pick up some photo's. He wrote a check and I asked for his ID, he was offended. Hell I didn't know who John Mellencamp was but I knew who Johnny Coupgar was. His music matured and I think that's when he dropped the Cougar thing. He started making some serious money with his music. He built a studio on east third just east of town heading towards Nashville. That's probably where your father inlaw worked. I remember one of my budddy's mother was an interior decorator and she went to his house for a remodel project. I think he had two kids at the time but he had there rooms scaled to there size; isn't that wild? Like his music or not he knew what a good prouction was. He found the best musicians. The time I referred to was probably 1985? I think I built the car in 84. He later moved his studio to, well I can't remember the road now but it's further east on 46 towards Nashville near Belmont. He then convinced the local government to allow him to construct a home on Lake Monroe. He purchased land on the west side of 446 that went all the way down to the lake. No one was/is allowed to build a residence on that reservoir but that hill leading down to the lake had some erosion so he said he would install riprap "large rocks about the size of your head" along that shoreline and maintain it if they would let him build on the hillside and clear the tree's for a view. They agreed. He later told the city it was too much to keep up with and asked to get out of his part of the deal. I don't know if they let him out of that or not but the fact is if you have enough money you can do whatever you want. The govermant loves money. But you know, he has contributed a great amount to the community dollar wise, particulary IU.
You know, Portnoy was with Ronnie Earl's band for a while and the recordings were great. But I recall reading that he and Ronnie Earl didn't get along, so he wasn't with that band for very long. Without being there or talking with someone who has first hand knowledge, it's not possible to know the source of the problem.
Greg's mics are already recognizable. I shared that first video on FB. A guitar playing friend of mine immediately asked "Is that one of those wooden body mics?". Of course he recognized the fine craftsmanship he's seen in my BlowsMeAway wood bullet that Greg made a few months ago.
Last Edited by on Jan 05, 2012 12:39 PM
That's the first I've heard of David Lee being born in Indiana. I looked it up and found this;
David Lee Roth was born in Bloomington Indiana in 1954. A few years later, his father Nathan, a doctor, moved the family to sunny California. So I guess he left around the age of 3.
