[Harp-L] SPAH 2004

["Tim Moyer - Working Man's Harps" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxx>]

Back from SPAH yesterday, and the haze of sleep deprivation and harmonica
sensory overload is just starting to lift, so I thought I'd pen a few
thoughts.  As always, I return with a conflicting sense of inspiration and
despair.  Inspired by all the great playing I witnessed, and despair at the
burgeoning list of things that I do not know how to do, or do not do well,
that now seem essential.  

Also true to prior SPAHs, my fondest experiences were not in the formal
sessions.  Friday was the capper for me, with two hallway jams that were to
die for.  The first involved P.T. Gazell (who is back in force these days),
jamming to country rock tunes by Johnny Paycheck and others, along with my
friends from the Dallas club, Jerl and Berl Welch and Joe Degilia on
guitar.  P.T. called me over, saying, "Here's something you can play on",
though for the life of me I don't know what he was thinking.  Thirty
minutes later we had sucked in great passers-by like Rob Paparozzi, Cara
Stevens, Michael Peloquin and Jason Ricci, and were wailing on some
swinging country tune.  Doug Tate even took a verse.  Damn, I would have
loved to see the jazz stylings seminar, but I couldn't walk away from a jam
like that.  

A few hours later, having witnessed an outdoor bench jam that included
again Jason Ricci and Michael Peloquin, this time joined by Allen Holmes
and Madcat Ruth vamping in 3rd position, I parked it inside next to my
close personal friend Buzz Krantz, and we were joined by the long-suffering
John Costa on guitar.  Between belting out verses Buzz turned to me and
said, "Oops, this is a Steve Guyger tune".  I thought, "So", until he
pointed over his shoulder to Steve standing and watching.  Cool to the
core, Guyger whips out his A harp and joins in, and soon the entire lobby
was bluesing out, Guyger trading licks with Ronnie Shellist, and joined by
Cara Stevens, Buzz, Beth Konen, and probably more great players that I just
can't recall through the sleep-deprived haze.  

Then there was the unofficial entertainment outside the ballroom during the
gala raffle drawing: Richard Sleigh and Jim Conway absolutely ripped up
some Irish tunes, with Jim playing the meanest pennywhistle I've ever
personally witnessed.  Then he switched to harmonica and went through
another melancholy Irish piece accompanied by the honeymooning Mikael
Backman (where's that umlat on my keyboard?).  Those guys could be upstaged
only by the Allen and Dennis "Are These My Hands?" show.  

Lots of great times just hanging with lots of great folks, got to put some
faces with some names I've known for a long time, including Ken "Mojo Red",
Tom Albanese (VERY tasty playing from the Chicago contingent -- do they
have a good teacher up there or something?), and I even identified the
enigmatic "fjm" (though I tried not to blow his cover: write me, man).  As
always, I can't believe that I actually got to hang with these guys, and
I'm just as blown away by the names I'm leaving out.  I think at the
Saturday night blues jam I actually spent more time saying goodbye to
everyone than playing, and at 4am I was still remembering people I missed.  

I'm sure the memories will become more cohesive after a few more days of
regular sleep, but for now it's just a sleepy smile in my brain.  I'm glad
it's over (at my age you can't live on beer and no sleep forever -- believe
me, I've tried), but I can't wait to do this again.  

-tim

Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/