First, a word of thanks to all the entrants. You made it hard for me! The overall level of competition was high and the top half-dozen entries were especially good.
Now, to the heart of the matter. After much deliberation--including playing the top half-dozen entries at least a dozen times each--I've come up with the winners.
There is a tie for first place. Each first place winner will receive the full compensation promised to the first place winner: a $100 cash prize, free entry to Hill Country Harmonica, and autographed copies of KICK AND STOMP and SOUTHBOUND. Much as I might have liked to, I could not in good conscience rank either of the top two entries decisively ahead of the other. So I'm biting the bullet and throwing down more cash.
There's a second place prize, a third place prize, and two honorable mentions. The honorable mentions might be called "best interpretive version." They deviate in one or more ways from strict construction of the rules--which prescribed that the entrant must track my solo as closely as possible--but they were each so good, each in its own way, that some acknowledgment seemed necessary. Prize for Honorable Mention will consist of a signed copy of one of my albums, whichever the entrant prefers.
For the record: the two first-place winners struck me as having the best combination of accurate note-copying, sound, and energy. When I closed my eyes and listened to them, they came closest to the fiercely disciplined passion, power, creativity, and swinging finesse of the original. (The original solo was improvised, not copied, of course, but Rome wasn't improvised in a day.)
The second place entry did almost as well in all three categories, and indeed there were moments during the judging process when I actually thought that this entry WAS the winning entry. But repeat listenings convinced me that what I was hearing was one small notch below the two winners. This player--whose very first video upload was this entry--has a remarkable future indeed.
The third place entry arguably had THE most accurate version of the solo, considered purely as a series of notes, and a strong replication in the tone category, and here, too, I was tempted at one point in the judging process to say "THIS is surely the winning entry." But I was finally persuaded to a third place placement by the fact that this soloist doesn't excecute the solo with the fierce passion, the ragingly euphoric throttleskeezery, of the original. Such a remarkably accurate pair of ears, though, must be rewarded. This is superior record copying.
Finally, the two Honorable mentions: The first of these is in some ways the most musical of ALL the entries receiving awards. The solo has a voice--not quite my voice, but a voice of its own--and it has a clear and vivid unity of purpose. This entrant doesn't quite get all of my licks, but the licks he substitutes are awfully good. This guy is a player. As for the second honorable mention: He slows the whole thing down, throws a huge subterranean echo on it, and makes it his own, too. Surely such daring deserves notice, and a reward, and it shall be so.
Here are the winners. Below this list, I'm posting the original solo and the winning entries in order. Thanks again to all who participated. We WILL do this again.
NOTE TO WINNERS: Please contact me by email (asgussow@aol.com) and give me your contact info (PayPal address in the case of the cash winners, addresses in all cases) to claim your prize(s).
Congrats to all and especially to the joint winners Jodan & Ridge! It must have been a tough choice and I kept changing my mind with the top 4 and had surrealdeal ahead for a while. It was also impressive that the joint winners got their entries in pretty quick. Well done! ---------- Grey Owl YouTube Grey Owl Abstract Photos
Yeah! Congratulations to all. Excellent. I'm sure jodanchuhan won't mind me saying this but he decided to do a rough and ready acoustic version with his phone so it just goes to show we don't need all the latest recording gear to enter these challenges. There's no excuses next time. ----------
Last Edited by on Mar 12, 2012 9:26 AM
Congratulations to all of you. you're videos really shined! This was a fun ride from the get go and I'm looking foward to the next 'throwdown'. Now, I'm off to the woodshed to learn OB techniques :) Peace
Foot-stompin' applause! You had a tough job, Adam - you done good. Fun to throw my harp in with such great players - VERY inspirational! Thank you everyone!
Thanks Adam for "the ragingly euphoric throttleskeezery of the original"... I'm a lazy guy and I need to practice a little bit more. It was great fun to do that and I'm going to take my harps to the next level now...
Well this has improved my Monday. Congratulations to all! Great competition and competitors and thanks for all the comments. It's extremely generous of Adam to give away two prizes like this so huge thanks for that as well as the maddening challenge of the whole thing!
Ok...I'll take that as a "kick in my *ss". Now i know why I need to leave my comfortable apartment and my comfortable thoughts and really start to play harmonica... ---------- Youtube
Honored--and surprised--to get an Honorable Mention among such strong players. (I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!)
As for my arrangement being 'daring,' well, that stemmed from having the freedom of knowing I had zero chance of winning! (For *lots* of reasons: I can't do overblows, I don't have an E harp, Ridge & Throttleskeezer & Jondanchudan & Patrick & Danny had already posted entries I couldn't compete with, etc.)
Thanks, Adam, for holding the competition--I liked listening to everyone's submissions, and learned a lot!
Congrats to all of the winners. I'm still working on the first 15 seconds. If I get a couple of free weekends, I'll keep plugging away. Might get a version posted by 4th of July. Awesome concept Adam. ---------- Twitter ~ BossoBrewingCo
Congrats to all the participants. I just spoke to Ridge, and he made a great point about lots of people practicing outside of their comfort zones. I think that's a very positive thing. ---------- 12gagedan's YouTube Channel
Kudos to you guys! Great work. ---------- Ricky B http://bushdogblues.blogspot.com RIVER BOTTOM BLUES--crime novel for blues fans at Amazon, Barking Rain Press & the blog
