I'm still working the kinks out of my OMB percussion rig. It's recently become clear to me that the snare drum I'm banging with my right foot is a little too loud; the upbeat is messing with the listener's sense of the downbeat. So I'm going to replace the felt pedal-head with something less forceful.
But I've also been experimenting with breaking time in Stevie Ray's "Pride and Joy." The general public really seems to like that; a video I uploaded two weeks ago in which I did that song as a slow blues has accrued 10,000 hits. So when I hit the stage at the Blues Rules festival, I'd already decided that I was going to try something new onstage: taking a strong amped-up midtempo shuffle and breaking it down halfway through.
The result was interesting from where I sat onstage. Within seconds after I broke it down and moved from my harp mic to the vocal mic, the festival grounds were silent. Everybody just stopped dead. You can't tell that from this video, but that's what happened: I had everybody's full attention. There are two ways to get that attention, it turns out. One way is to go nuts. Bluesbeaten Redshaw did that in his final song and it was magnificent. He walked right down off the stage and played his diddley bow in the midst of his audience.
The other way to compel attention is to do the reverse: get really quiet and low down. We harp players sometimes forget that. We one-man bands are especially likely to forget that, since we're prone to feeling as though, with only one guy onstage, we have to be putting out maximum wattage all the time:
It's worth making this sort of experiment onstage. Part of the performer's discipline is paying attention to the audience's experience. That's why performance videos are useful to performers--if you're willing to learn from them. You can see what the audience is seeing. You can see if what you THOUGHT you were putting across is actually coming across.
Last Edited by on May 30, 2012 6:42 PM
A real locomotive feel to the drums, nice. The vocals are developing a nice Slim Harpo edge which I like. The time switch up worked well, nice job Adam.
I love your stuff Adam, and I think this 'locomotive' feel suits this song, but have always quietly thought it was a tad too much sometimes with some of your other work. It's just another dynamic to weave into the overall sound........... ;~} ---------- One of Rubes's bands, DadsinSpace-MySpace Old Man Rubes at Reverbnation
Adam: Would you share what your replacing the felt-pedal head with. I'm trying to decide if I want to use a drummers brush rather than the felt head. Any help and info appreciated. ---------- And I Thank You !! KCz Backwoodz Bluz
Something I have a super hard time doing is trying to play extended harmonica without breaks. Part of Adam's style is not leaving much space (technically, as a feeling of space if often created by rhythmic playing). You can hear this in his Satan and Adam work as well as his solo work.
Check out Kick and Stomp or the above clip, for example. He has always been in rolls where he needs to fill out the sound 99% of the time. It is partly a stamina thing and partly an ability thing. I just have never had to do that, so I never learned how, lol.
A super cool thing about the new rig, Adam, is you fill more space sans guitar and bass. You also have a lot more control over dynamics, which, IMO, is usually the thing missing from the OMB format. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
Personally, I play in bursts and am not a strong vamp player. Even when jamming to Chicago blues, I have a hard time inserting the chordal vamps between phrases. But most of my experience is playing in a band...and my OMB experience is creating the illusion of a OMB.
In both Satan and Adam and his OMB approach, the harp is carrying the music rhythmically and filling out the sound. Adam's ability to do that - and essentially create the illusion of space - is an important part of his OMB sound. If you check out the crossroads vids where he is playing and having to leave space (or even the latter half of the above vid) you can hear a dramatic difference.
Most bands are going to be at least drums, bass, and guitar behind harmonica. So even when leaving space, there is something filling out the sound. A lot of Adam's approach is replicating those expectations with just drums and harp. I can't think of players who do it like Adam does. He doesn't noodle behind the groove, he balances rhythm guitar and lead guitar solos and fills at the same time.
Think of it in terms of what is going on around him in the OP. He is playing a large stage at a festival outdoors. Chances are, most the music that day is going to be with multiple instruments in a full band format. To compete with that, and the expectations of listeners, you have to be deceptive to an extent. You hear that with beatboxers and solo guitar and piano players all the time. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
Last Edited by on May 31, 2012 8:21 AM
