Bob Dylan etc...

["Eric Wesoff" <wesoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear gentle listmembers,

I am a long-time-lurking intermediate diatonic player who enjoys this
list, favors the blues, but am open-eared to most music and harmonica
styles from the blues to jazz to psychedelia to electronica to folk to
anything else honest and good.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have had the good fortune to
have taken a few lessons from Winslow Yerxa, Dave Barrett, and Will
Scarlett.  Wonderful players and teachers all.

That introduction being made - I feel compelled to weigh-in on the
oft-contentious Dylan thread.  I have seen him play live a number of
times in recent years with a crack touring band that has included
smoking guitarist - Charlie Sexton.  Dylan tends to play the harmonica
in a few songs per show.

His harmonica playing is usually soulful, played from the heart, serves
the song and the band, and furthers his artistic vision.  He usually has
the audience hanging on his every note and he usually forms a solo in a
way that is oddly structured, totally idiosyncratic, and probably
baffling to most harmonica-heads.  IMHO - the solos are often brilliant
and beautiful and the equal in terms of artistry of any harmonica
virtuoso esteemed by this list.  

>From what I can tell, he doesn't care what the comb material is, doesn't
overblow, doesn't play in 6th position, and has no strong opinion on
Popper.  

Dylan doesn't need my defense - but I guess my point is - good music and
good art doesn't always require technical wizardry or advanced
technique.  It does require honesty and integrity and the ability to
serve the music and the song.  And Dylan does that about 150 nights a
year.

Sincerely,

Eric Wesoff