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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > First Time With a Blues Band!
First Time With a Blues Band!
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HandicappedHarpist
36 posts
Oct 18, 2019
8:03 PM
Thursday night, I got to do something I’d never had the opportunity to do before. I actually got to play with a Blues Band! I play harmonica at my church, and some of the songs we do can be classified as Blues, but not very many. The worship team I play with cannot truly be called a Blues band.

But I recently heard about a local Rock/Blues band that hosts a jam session every Thursday night. Bring your instrument(s), and your amp (if you use one). Put your name on the list, and they’ll call you on stage to play with them.

I played with them during two sets. And for a guy with cerebral palsy, I did rather well. Well enough that they liked what I did, and they want me to come back, whenever my schedule will allow it.

It was fun. Thought I’d share the joy.

HH
Todd Parrott
1506 posts
Oct 18, 2019
11:36 PM
Hey, that's very cool! I'm happy for you! Did you perhaps capture any video footage? Either way, it sounds like you had a great time.
jbone
3028 posts
Oct 19, 2019
12:57 AM
HH, Bravo! It's been many moons since my first open mic. I cut my teeth as a guest on many stages early on.
So do you recall any songs the band did? Did you get some solo work?

There's nothing like going out live with people you've never met to get the juices flowing.
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.

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nacoran
10182 posts
Oct 19, 2019
11:20 AM
Congrats!

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snowman
500 posts
Oct 20, 2019
11:38 AM
good for u----keep going for it----what songs did u play?
It takes a lot of courage to break out of our comfort zone---but when u do-- what a rush---well worth it

way to go
groyster1
3457 posts
Oct 20, 2019
3:50 PM
@HH...…...you can play any type of music on a harp......its true most of us are blues enthusiast but keep playing gospel too...….harp sounds on gospel are awesome......give a listen to terry mcmillian
HandicappedHarpist
37 posts
Oct 23, 2019
11:01 PM
Sorry I haven't been back since creating the post. But to respond to your positive feedback:
jbone & Snowman, one song I remember we did was the Stones' "Gloria." And yes, I did do some solo work.
Todd Parrott, no. I didn’t get any video footage. But my wife got a couple of nice photos.
groyster1, I do love me some Terry McMillan. His version of “Amazing Grace” is to die for. In fact, I am going back tomorrow night and hope to do something similar to what he does—based on it anyway. And, of course, Buddy Greene is another absolutely fantastic gospel harpist.

Perhaps the greatest thing I got out of the night was some new friendships; not just with the band, but with a couple other guys who were also there to jam. And somehow, I impressed one of them with my knowledge of which harmonica to play, based on the key of the song we were doing. He was there playing guitar, but also does some harp work. He noticed that one of the songs I played on was in Am. He was impressed that I knew to use my G harp. Don’t know why that impressed him, but it did. Cool thing is that now he and I are friends on Facebook and have already spent quite a bit of time talking Blues & Blues Harmonica. Fun times.

Thanks for the encouragement, y’all. I appreciate it.

HH
jbone
3035 posts
Oct 24, 2019
7:57 PM
HH, really and truly, open mic/jams was where I began my journey for real. Never having had any formal music training, I just knew in my teens I wanted to play harp. It was passed to me by my Gramps and took a long time to begin to develop as a desire, even longer to start pursuing it in any concrete way. Learning issues and addiction held me back for many years.

A big turning point for me was going to jams regularly and building friendships and finding mentors at jams. I made progress over a few years and was invited into bands and duos, and co-founded some myself. Began to write lyrics and try them out at jams. So that format was a place I got to conduct some rites of passage.

It's really cool to read that you are making those kinds of connections.
An old guy in Denton Texas sort of adopted me and I played harp for him any time I could. Pops Carter. He taught me two things: Always be a student, and play every time out like it's your last.
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.

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