Re: Honking patrons

[haandruss@xxxxxxx (Harvey A. Andruss, III)]

>I've seen harp players(good ones and wannabe's) playing all through songs
>at blues jams. 

On the other side:

Recently when traveling on business in SF area, a friend of mine and I
happened upon a hole-in-the-wall/blues bar sort of place on Grant and Green
called "The Lost and Found".  A local band was playing Fab T Bird covers;
name began with P.  I kind of forgot about it until all these posts.

We were way off to the side, in the back, near the bar, and my friend says,
"you could play better 'n these guys," to which I admit I did produce the
only harp I had on me, a Bb Golden Melody (wasn't planning to do any
playing, but you always have one with you, right?) and I did a very
low-profile, 5 second (max) hunt for the key (A, 6th position, oops...),
blues warble thing and  put it back (*NOT* really 'playing along', mind
you). My friend let's out a mild cackle, the bartender, who wasn't too far
from us comes over, asks the proverbial, "You play harp?", to which this
advanced beginner replies "I try". She smiles and says that the band let's
people up, so I should ask the guitarist, etc. The band and everyone else
in the bar didn't even know. 

Well to make a short story, shorter (the place is emptying out at 11 pm  -
they needed something). At the break the guitarist disappears to talk to
somebody he knows real well, the bass player comes back, I give him the old
"you guys sound great, you wanna humor a harp player on a song?"  The guy
looks at me, looks at my friend, pauses, then says "no" and walks away. 
Not "Thanks, but no thanks" or "Thanks for coming tonight, but we just got
this band together and are having a few problems as you can see"  (the
Keyboard was a one-hander, the bass player and the drummer were asking each
other which song to do that they both knew).  The guitarist had come around
before with the pitcher and we each made a decent submission.

With that my friend lets out a "You guys can barely play with yourselves"
and we exited stage left.

Whip me, cain me, shoot me.  I wouldn't see those guys again...B(

Regards,                  haandruss@xxxxxxx                  
Harv                      *Opinions my own*