|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
A couple of pleasant 10 hole moments
A couple of pleasant 10 hole moments
Page:
1
Randy G. Blues
7 posts
Apr 21, 2009
5:45 PM
|
I work in the coffee industry as an independent contractor, mostly as a graphic artist and writer. This past weekend I attended the Specialty Coffee Association of America's (SCAA) annual exhibition in Atlanta. It is a wonderful gathering of folks from all over the world and I have made some good friends and met some of the most intelligent, tolerant, and interesting people I have ever met over the last six or so years I have attended.
There were no blues jams anywhere near where I was, and without a car I was not in the mood for travel, so to get some harp time in, on each morning's walk to the show from my hotel room, and each afternoon's walk back to my room I played the blues. A few bars of this, a few licks of that, and a few runs of the other. Some Juke, parts of Whammer Jammer, and whatever the mood told me to play in between. I particularly liked the looks from some of the older Black folks, looking at this white boy playing the blues. If they only knew I was Jewish! LOL
And I needed to play some blues to wash them out a bit, or at least dilute them. As I was driving to the airport to catch my flight my wife was driving to the vet to have our oldest dog put down. She began some serious internal bleeding during the night and was passing blood. She was nearly 13, a good age for a German Shepherd, but she was Daddy's girl and I will always feel bad that I couldn't be there for her when she needed me the most. Hard to type when you're crying....
Not only is it a great exercise and test of your breathing ability, it is fun to see the reaction on the faces of folks as you walk along the city streets. That is even more true if you like to walk as fast as I do. I usually pass all the folks using the moving sidewalks in the airports, and I don't use the moving sidewalks. In the Atlanta airport I passed a couple of young folks who were using the moving walkway, and the man said to the woman, "Look, he's beating you."
I said, "And I can do it playing the harmonica," and I pulled out a harp and started playing, and I did beat them to the end of the walkway!
I have read that folks are teaching harmonica in care homes to older folks, not only as a fun activity and a mental stimulus, but as breathing therapy. How very cool.
On the last morning of the show I was having a particularly good jam session with myself and I played all the way right up to the entrance door of the exhibition center. Unless the activity inside such a place is boisterous or loud I refrain from playing once inside.
As I rode the escalator up to the upper level, from behind me a voice, with a thick accent (either Italian of Spanish), said, "Why do you stop singing [playing]?" Probably a rough translation from his native tongue into English. And really, playing harp is a form of singing, no?
I replied, in a very friendly tone, "I don't like to bother people inside."
"You should not stop. It was very good."
"Thank you," I shyly, but sincerely replied.
He made my day. I think that comment was as satisfying as an auditorium filled with people applauding. At least to say, it sure felt like it to me at the time.
|
scstrickland
46 posts
Apr 21, 2009
6:16 PM
|
You should post this on the "memorable stories" thread
|
Patrick Barker
244 posts
Apr 21, 2009
7:08 PM
|
nice story- you've inspired me to break out in public more often
----------
"Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
|
Randy G. Blues
9 posts
Apr 21, 2009
7:39 PM
|
Thanks folks-
scstrickland; I just posted it in "Memorable Stories" and added a bit more... Thanks.
playing in public will change your whole attitude about music in general. Whether it is an open mic jam, or walking down the street, or busking in the park even if you don't make ten cents. it's sort of like streaking. Once you have it out there for the first time, the rest if fairly easy... if not breezy.
|
Post a Message
|
