Re: Marine Band 364 Bends

[Eric FRANCOEUR <franceur@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Todd Huss writes:
 
> Might also add that I saw Junior Wells and had the pleasure of speaking 
> with him briefly on Monday night at a show he did in a small club here in 
> Burlington Vermont. He seemed to hardly pick up his harp the whole night 
> though. AT first the show started out great with some nice subtle harp 
> playing. Then after the first set was done he took a 45 minute break. Got 
> back on stage and started to play his harp which he had in his hands 
> upside down. He was expecting a 2 draw but instead got a 9 draw. He took 
> it in style though but seemed to stay away from his harp for a while 
> after that. Then when he finally went back to it his band was trying to 
> help him find the right key harp but ended up messing up the order of all 
> his harps so he couldn't find the right harp and ended up playing Messin 
> with the Kid without any harp leaving out that great harp solo he does on 
> it. Near the end of the show they got his harps straight again and he 
> wrapped up the show very well. All in all it was a good show, however, I 
> was dissapointed by the small amount of harp playing I heard that night. 
> 								-Todd

Well, that pretty sums up Junior's show I saw in Montreal the previous
night, except for the fact that he played even less harp (a total of
about twelve bars for the whole evening, not counting those he played 
in the wrong key) and could not remember half the lyrics to most of the song,
relying heavily instead on "groaning" and "hissing". The disturbing thing is
that according to Tony Glover ("Blues Harp Songbook"), Junior Wells is 59
years old now. The man I saw on stage Sunday night looked, and acted,
at least 70. Either Glover made a mistake or Junior Wells has got serious
health problems. In the end, the band (and the crowd) saved the show.


Eric Francoeur
Binkley.cs.mcgill.ca