Subject: [Harp-L] An Amazing Performance

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Rick Davis writes:
 
"but here is the really amazing part. His harp
amp was a Fender Frontman  15R. That's right... He won the day with a cheap
little solid state amp that  is bundled with a Squire Strat in a $200 
"Guitar
Starter Kit" at Wal-Mart. It  isn't even the new model of the Frontman 15
that sells for $79.99. It's a  late-90s version that sold for even less."
 
It is? THAT is what you think is the 'really amazing part'?   ???!!!
What am I missing?  
 
I must be terribly naive. See...here I'm thinking that 
'The really amazing part' is that he achieved something extraordinary...  
played well enough to garner major applause and kudos from an audience of his 
 peers. 
 
Yet you single out the cheapness of his gear as 'The' most important  
factor, mention his playing as 'pretty' amazing before you launch into this  
discussion of his Amps. 
 
Who cares?  There's something surely wrong then about how I think of  
playing harmonica if the Amp is THE most important feature rather than the  
player and his instrument, and if your ideas of harmonica playing (major rants  
about what Charlie Musselwhite should or should not carry on board a plane 
come  to mind) are what people care about most today.
 
If I'd been there I wouldn't have spared a thought towards what he played  
through... wouldn't have noticed at all, in fact. All I'D have heard was his 
 actual playing, and the effect it had on me and the audience, and whether 
or not  I liked/enjoyed what I heard.
 
Frankly I could give a hoot if someone plays through the PA  system or sans 
any amplification of any kind.  Can he/she deliver 'the  goods'? - is far 
more important.....  IS he/she a player?.... Does  he/she move me?...are far 
more important factors in what I think of as a  great performance...JUST as 
I would that of any other instrumentalist. 
 
I've never once looked at or cared what Amps Peter White plays through when 
 I go to his many concerts/shows. ALL I care about is listening to his 
wonderful  guitar playing (and I honestly don't care what guitar he uses).
 
Perhaps you who focus your entire lives on what someone  plays 'through'  
are forgetting the simple reality and  needs of the audience. The rest of us 
really don't care what gear  is onstage. We're there to hear the  performer 
not the gear, so adding  that paragraph at the end of the 'review' - which 
certainly seems  to have been your entire raison d'etre for writing the 
review in  the first place, was superfluous and did nothing but take away from 
his  achievement, no matter how you slice and dice it.  
 
Umm...what was the name of the player again?  Oh right. Clay  Kirkland.
 
Elizabeth