Friday Night Cage Match/Fondue Party/Evolving Conversation/Dancing About Architecture Vol.13

Pribek wrote,

It’s funny how things work out. I had to get out of here early this morning, had a couple of meetings then a gig tonight. So, I came up with this one this morning and set it up to publish automatically this evening. Little did I know that I would be playing a gig with a banjo player tonight.
Roy’s brother, Kevin came in and played the whole gig with us tonight. I played dobro the first set and acoustic after that. It was a blast. Kevin and Roy have the familial harmony singing thing going on and Kevin’s daughter got up and added the third family part to some stuff. Just good clean fun. And, you know, part of what made it such a gas was that I was out of my normal element.
So, this morning I would have been leaning toward Little Walter, Big Walter, James Cotton, Toots Theilman, Mark Wenner, Kim Wilson, Sonny Boy I, Sonny Boy II, Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musslewhite…
But now, I don’t know

The banjo that I played on the session I spoke of was a guitar banjo, by the way, J. But, it’s only cheating if the record gets released.

Link | June 14th, 2008 at 12:04 am

Pribek wrote,

John Popper-That guy’s playing wigs me out, makes me uncomfortable. It’s not just that he plays like he’s getting paid by the note, there is a further frantic element of his playing that just puts me on edge. Listening to Popper solo, for me, is like being stuck on a tour bus with a drummer on methamphetamine, babbling and tapping.

Sans&Axe-The harmonica, in theory, is a fine idea but, for some reason, a lot of dumb asses own them.

For instance, a harp player who doesn’t show up for a session. If you are a harp blower and, not one of guys already mentioned and, somebody has taken the trouble to arrange an opportunity for you to play, you got to show up. It’s just that simple.

The Marc Ford incident is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Here’s something I’ve noticed; if you call your band a blues band, the harp players will come out of the woodwork. It starts with one or two and if you let them sit in, pretty soon the place is thick with them. I think what they think is something like this; “Here’s a blues band, a blues band needs a harp, I shall dazzle them with my brilliance and procure a steady gig”. Or, something along those lines.

Now, if a guy showed up and he played liked Mark Wenner then, you know what-he would have a regular gig if he wanted it. But, 30+ years of doing this, not one of the harp sit ins has been of that caliber.

The last time I was in a “blues” band, I took on the task of “dealing” with the 3-10 harp guys that would show up on a given night. There were two guys that we all knew that could do a decent job and word must have got around that we were letting harp players sit in. Guys were showing up with briefcases full of harps, Pancho Villa gunbelts loaded with harps, special “harp” amps, green bullet microphones, a lot of them had funny hats-it was a mess because, most of them were just bad. And, if you let them all sit in, it would take more than half the show. Plus, guys would see this line of harp players lining up stage left and, they would go home and get their guitars. It was becoming a roving jam session.

So, I was the one that had to tell these harp players that they couldn’t come up and play. Nobody else in the band had the stones to do it so, I just started weeding them out. Then, the word starts going around-”Jack doesn’t like harp players, Jack is mean don’t talk to him, he doesn’t like harmonicas”. You know, like the “Soup Nazi” on Seinfeld? They stated calling me the “Harp Nazi”.

But, it did cool the situation out. These guys would still show up but, they would ask before dragging there stuff in. They would usually try to circumvent me and go through one of the other guys but, the other guys would always send them to me because, it was becoming sort of a game for them to watch me screen them.

Anyway, the whole thing kind of came to a head one night when one of the guys we did all know from the start, came in and wanted to play. He asked me, went to get his little Crate amp and we played a song or two, went fine; he didn’t have to ask me what key harp he needed to use for a song in G or anything. We were playing along and doing a nice shuffle, it’s the end of the night so, we’re doing the, introduce everybody, everybody take a solo and get yer ya ya’s out thing and, it comes time for this harp guy to take his. So, he wants to make the most of his big moment, he jumps on the dance floor and he’s just whanging away and I notice that there is a group of ladies that all looked shocked, they are pointing at the guy, holding their hands over their mouths some are laughing some look troubled. So, this guy, this harp guy, is out there striking a big pose and he’s wearing these jeans with holes all over them, sort of a fashion statement and, that’s fine but, this guy is going commando and his balls are hanging out of one of the holes and, this guy was some kind of freak of nature because they were hangin’ lowwww. I’m not going to go into more detail about that but, I ended up physically removing him from the club and permanently banning him from the stage in a very vocal manner thus, furthering my anti-harp reputation.

Of course, I’m not anti-harp, I’m anti-bad harp and anti-balls hanging out of pants.

A couple of other great harp players to add to my above list-Rod Piazza, Paul DeLay

Link | June 14th, 2008 at 9:47 am

Pribek wrote,

Yeah, Magic Dick should definitely be in the conversation even if the timing is somewhat unfortunate.
Don’t know Jason or Adam but, I will put them on the “Harp players to listen to list”.

Link | June 14th, 2008 at 11:41 am

Pribek wrote,

Axe, I’m sure the whole thing could have been handled in a better way.
But, nobody else was willing to do anything and, the fact is, at that time, I was pretty harsh about a lot of things.

And, this situation was getting out of hand. This gig was a house gig that we were playing four nights a week and, the club manager wasn’t happy with these guys sitting in. “I’m paying to have you guys playing, not them”. So, she backed my play, for sure.

Today, I would no doubt take a different approach but, I honestly can’t see myself in the same or similar circumstances.

Well turned castanets are always welcome.

Link | June 15th, 2008 at 7:56 am

Pribek wrote,

“Dimebag!”!!??, people are funny. Big difference between a guy with a harmonica getting on stage uninvited and a guy with a gun getting on stage uninvited.

I don’t think there is enough information on the video to say Marc Ford was too harsh. You don’t have any information about the events leading up to when this guy walked on stage or what was said. So, you have to give Ford the benefit of the doubt. While he’s up there, the stage is his place of business.

Link | June 16th, 2008 at 10:39 am