Re:Inspirational non-harmonica CD's and Eva Cassidy

[mlpratt@xxxxxxx]

This is a reply to two posts.  Iceman brings up inspirational non-harp CDs.  
Others have asked about Eva Cassidy.  For me, Eva was an inspirational singer 
and a phenomenal talent whoes life was cut short by skin cancer.  She was on 
the brink of being discoverd by more than the usual Washington DC following.  
She actually achieved considerable post-humous fame in England when Songbird 
went to #1.  Her CD "The Other Side" with Chuck Brown was inspirational from a 
couple of stand points.  First, it was one of the seminal CDs for the creation 
of my band, Park House Jam.  We learned every Eva song we could.  As pointed 
out, the songs range from blues, to jazz, to folk, to pop.  One thing that held 
her back from "stardom" was that she couldn't fit into a box.  The major labels 
didn't know what to do with her.  Well, we knew what to do with her music.  
Play it, work it, create off of it.  There is no harp on her CDs, so I had to 
come up with my parts.  One song I really liked was the old Louis Jordan 
tune "Let the Good Times Roll."  Its a male/female duet I get to sing with 
Marianne Matheny, our illustrious fem singer.  Chuck Brown does a scat thing on 
one verse, so I played his scat on a harp.  You might find it on an early Harp-
l compilation.  

Other inspirational non-harp CD's for me are Junior Walker (Hot Cha, Cleo's 
Mood and Cleo's Back, Tune-up) and King Curtis's "Soul Serenade"

Best Regards to All,

Larry Boy Pratt