Re: [Harp-L] Re: Shakin' Steve and contemporary blues harp...Should beShakin' Smith



"Michael Fugazzi" <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>, said the following:

<Good thing music isn't a contest.  HAVE FUN!>

That's true. I agree wholeheartedly.

However, in the context of people making a living off their so-called
musical talents, it can, at times, BECOME a kind of "contest",
unfortunately. That's probably why my parents (professional opera singers)
never pushed me into becoming a professional musician, but rather, an
electrician, a civil service worker, etc. They knew that I was a little too
easy-going for the competitive thing. I don't necessarily like the idea of
"cutting heads".

But then, even that can be fun, at times, given the right situation. Most of
the time, however, there has to be "winners", and "losers", just like on
"The Apprentice",,someone's gotta be "fired",,hence the term, "battle" of
the bands.

But I hate when all of this cubby-holing and exclusionary categorization
comes out, calling people "blues", or "not blues", etc. Heck, we've all got
"the blues" in one way or another. It just takes adversity, and who's
excluded from that?

I've played harp since I was sixteen or so, and am now at the
"double-nickel". I enjoy it, and whip it out whenever I feel the
compulsion,,on the job, on the street, sitting down with my coffee,,
I'm kinda glad I don't compete for space, but find my own,,but then, I'm not
playing for money, but for fun. I'm a retired electrician, looking for fun.

The few times I've stepped up to the mike,,I've tried to keep it that
way,,fun. Every time it began to seem like "work", my mouth dried up, and
nothing came out right. No one's ever complained, unless I stepped on their
"guitar solo",,<g>.

Thanks to harp-l, by the way, I'm sounding reliably better over the past few
years.

Well,,back to sorting out "who's blues",,or whatever it is.

Bob Laughlin

By the way,,as an aside,,the French have an expression,,I hope someone who
knows French will correct me if I'm wrong. "J'ai le cafard" (jay-le-cafar).
It literally means "I have the cockroach". But as an IDIOM (no,,I'm not one
of those), it means, "I have the blues", or "I am depressed".
See,,they compare the "blues" to a dark, evil-looking little bug. So,,I
guess I "have the cockroach", eh? N'est-ce-pas?












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