I played this here for HB in 2011, some people said it sounded like old cartoon music. Seven years later, I found an old cartoon with the same groove, took out the original music, and replaced it with mine.
In 1982, I got onstage with some friends and played the very, very simple harp part to Neil Young's "Oh Lonesome Me." I really didn't like being a center of attention like that and I decided playing onstage was not for me. But....
There is a legendary blues jam every Saturday in Riverdale, Maryland, just outside of DC. I finally went and expected only to listen, but I brought some harps just in case. There were about 15 guitarists, four harp players, and it was very easy to just join in. I was rusty, but very well received. We jammed all the great blues tunes for a few hours, then two jazz guys came, which changed the focus and left me out in the cold. I did try to play the jazz tunes, but I always need to practice a jazz tune a lot before I can take a stab at it. So I started out feeling really good about my playing and then got humbled in a heartbeat. But that's okay, I met a lot of great guys and one nice lady. I badly need to buy new harps, but once I do, I will return.
The jam is part of The Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. It used to take place at Mr. Edward's barbershop. He died in 1998. He was a good bluesman in the Piedmont style and became friends with Mississippi John Hirt.
I emailed briefly with Peter Holliman, he is well, he gave permission to repost a couple of his BTs I still had on my hard drive. He will be on HB's Best of Singers and Songwriters youtube vid whenever I finally get around to making it. Along with the Lips brothers, Harp and Floppy.
I thought this was a well known moniker, but I googled it and nothing came up. Our Father of St. Louis is Chuck Berry, at least I heard him called when I was a teenager. I didn't do a tribute to him in March when he died, so here it is. I have a friend from high school, a bass player, who backed him up once. CB was notoriously cheap, would rarely hire a touring band, he would just find musicians in each town. He was 75 and asked my friend to tune his guitar for him. Chuck told them to play the same thing on each song, just changed the key and tempo. Made it nice and easy. And he didn't switch keys in the middle of the song, as he had a reputation for doing.
I'm finally thinking about doing a Best of HB Singers and Songwriters vid for youtube as I promised a while back. If anyone has been keeping old STs of the jam and has some songs that they feel should be on it, let me know. Definitely gotta have Lips and Floppy on this one, assuming they approve.
For the last four jams, I went into it thinking I'd pretty much run out of ideas for making backing tracks with Band in a Box. But once I sat down to do it, I came up with some new stuff, or at least some variation on familiar themes. This time, I really did run out of ideas and what we ended up with is More of the Same. Blue Boy was a huge breath of fresh air last jam because he supplied some backing tracks that were different and they were well received. But he seems to have disappeared, so I don't know if we'll have his contributions again. I think he got most of his BTs from Wikiloops. I looked at the site briefly, I'm not sure if it's free or not, or much work is involved in getting a track jam-ready. If anyone else is feeling energetic and wants to have a go at it, that would be fine with me. There's also the Fritts tracks, there are over 70 of them and I think all the debate about usage is ancient history. They have been very popular in the past, and I would say they are a step up from what I'm doing, depending on one's interest.
One thing I can do is change keys and tempos easily if people request it. I know it's easy to change key in many DAWs, but three semi-tones is usually about the limit. Band in the Box has no limit on transposition. There are some limits on tempo change, but I can usually work around those, too. In short, I'm always open for requests, don't be afraid to ask, even if you think you're the only person who will be interested.
Any input appreciated. The Fritts link is below, as well as wikiloops.
Anyone heard of this guy? I just heard him today, don't know how I missed him. He OD'd in 2008 at age 29. It took me a little while to get used to his singing but I loved the guitar from note one.
They're putting the Harp Break, Delay and Tone+ pedals into one box. I think it will also have DI box features (I've never been clear on what that is, except that it's helpful for playing live). It will only have a high-z input, if you use a low-z mic you'll still need your adapter. No word on the price, but if you bought these separately, it would be around $500, I think.
Greg Heumann also has a new mic, the Bulletini, which uses his own custom element. If you have trouble cupping a Green Bullet (I do), this may help. $189, IIRC.
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