Last season, Shelby Tweten made the top 42 on Idol and was the last person cut when they decided the top 24 (only clean clip I can find due to copyrights, etc):
She is moving out of MN for school this fall, but has some featured performances in the area beforehand. She was putting a band together for the events and looking for a fiddle or steel player. I FINALLY (after three years) talked a country act into letting me audition.
Well, one song into the audition I was "hired". We rehearse again tonight for a 90min show...mostly contemporary country with a few 90's country-pop tunes and a few upbeat blues tunes. She definitely has some pipes! I don't follow things like Idol, so had no clue what I was getting into, lol.
This is a VERY temporary gig as she is moving out of state and only lining up a handful of festival/fair type gigs. It is an 8 piece band, so I am hoping to make some connections in order to find something more permanent.
The keyboard player already had me do a set with his regular band this past weekend, so I got to meet some more musicians from the area (strangely enough, I have a ton of pro-level musician friends from the Cities and no like no one locally).
I've been dying to do a gig like this for a long time. I think my style of harmonica has a lot to offer modern country (which is just really Allman Brother-inspired rock music, IMHO), and the role of fiddle/steal parallels the traditional role of blues harp in bands.
I bring this up for two reasons. 1.) When given the chance, harmonica players can add a shit-ton to a band and cover a lot of ground (although people assume we all suck), and 2.) my background in theory and working with other musicians has made this a seamless transition.
I was given the set list while at work four hours before the audition. I heard the songs one time through each. I was able to talk to the keyboard player between tunes and keep up with a band who'd been working on these songs for weeks on the first pass. Had I played "from the gut" and not thought about playing with OTHER PEOPLE and how to get on the same page, it would have been messy.
With 7 other people lobbying for space to play throughout the tunes, I was able to add to the songs without having to take a lot of leads, overplay, or stumble through changes.
I got to sit in with two non-blues bands this weekend...both bands I'd never played with doing songs I'd never heard. I got invited up for several more tunes from both because I could keep up with the band beyond playing blues changes. One was a 5 piece rock band (they did do Ain't No Sunshine, which was about as blues as they got) and the other a three piece country-rock acoustic band.
People. The bar is set extremely low in expectations of the harmonica player. It doesn't take much effort to fit in with non-blues bands.
What a wonderful instrument we play,can fit in with any brand of music.I live in vegas,it is a boneyard of fine mus. every ilk.I get thrown to the lions in jams,and usually hold up well.I am not that good,but have heart and soul rythm,with a good ear for melodies.
Country,reggae,rock,jazz,gospel,blues,funk,audience lend me your ears.Glad to hear your playing ninja.
Very cool. I recognize the whole scenario. Absolutely this: "When given the chance, harmonica players can add a shit-ton to a band and cover a lot of ground". That's a point that's tough to articulate because it does require a big skill set (although not necessarily technical) and perhaps, as Jinx says, some balls. The set list 4-hours before hand is classic. You must be able to listen really well. I need to give more credence to this: "although people assume we all suck". I know that well but I may not be factoring enough as to how it hinders opportunities. You, 3 years to sit in with a country band? Dang. I get the point though. One tune, hired. It seems like the few times I actually sit in with a group the typical reaction is "where the hell did you come from". Yeah, I need to get out more.
Last Edited by on Jul 17, 2012 5:01 AM
Here's where some music theory knowledge and learning to have REALLY good listening skills come in. Given a list 4 hours before set time is a helluva a lot more time than if you were gonna be a full time studio session pro because most of the time, you won't even have 30 minutes and so here's where sight reading skills come in.
Don't be surprised if there are tons of moments where you aren't gonna be playing anything, and that's a problem with many harp players, often not knowing where to shut up completely. As much as a harp player can add to things, it's also a double edged sword because you can easily detract from everything as well and this is something most harp players can't seem to wrap their heads around and it is 100% true.
Have fun, but listen and most of all, observe EVERYTHING that's going on around you and always remember what a pro once told me, and that's there's no such thing as a detail too small or too unimportant to pay attention to. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Sorry for the hijack, Mike, but BBQ Bob said "Don't be surprised if there are tons of moments where you aren't gonna be playing anything."
I'm not playing out now, but when I did I found it helped a lot that I also play percussion, and brought a kit w/ congas and all the hand stuff like shakers. If harp didn't work on a tune the congas usually would.
Oddly enough, they just want harp. I offered to sing back ups play hand percussion or sit out songs and they want harp to replace steel...which is all over every pop country song.
I don't play too many solos, but am covering organ, steel, and fiddle parts just using one mic and amp sound. By going between low and standard harps while switching between octaves, chords, high end licks and trad harp sounds, I guess it works.
Seriously pop country has the same three slteeo and two fiddle riffs on every tune. Where they are placed is also very formulaic. The only hard part is the harmonies. Tunes are like I b7 b6 and stuff. Not diatonic always and lots of different sections. Really fun, but very un-harp.
The harp is kinda hard to hear. The sound guy pissed me off, and people actually went up to him mid set and told him to turn me up, lol. We were the first band of country night at a festival and set record attendance for our time slot. This was an early tune in the set, but we ended up playing for about 1,200 people. This was the last "big" gig I'll have for quite a while. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
@HarpNinja, whenever you're the first band on any show, club, festival, whatever, the first band on always has something screwed up by damned near every sound person no matter what, like it or not. I played a festival one time where the sound guy started out giving my upright bass player the right sound necessary, but as the set went on, he proceeded to totally screw it up big time trying to make it sound too much like an electric bass and he played with too many of his little "toys" on the board. It's not uncommon at any level, unfortunately. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
