Re: [Harp-L] Miller is a 12-Year-Old Harp Monster

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Guys,

 

I caught your discussion on this Miller kid and on his possibility of being
a great white hope, of sorts, for our humble instrument.  I wanted to add my
two cents worth here.  

 

Forget it.  It's never going to happen; not with Jason Ricci, not with
Howard Levee (sp.?) or anyone else (though I have to say that if I'm wrong,
nothing would make me happier).  The way popular music and entertainment are
marketed in the modern world is so totally different than it was in the
past.  The way blues, roots music in general, and any other form of sub
genera find their way to the public's ear is just really different.  There's
more great blues harp out there for us to dig than there has ever been
before.  There's more great music in general than ever before but finding it
requires just that - the act of finding it.  There are people who are
passive consumers of pop music and they gobble up what ever is presented to
them on the tube and on commercial radio.  What ever it is they will take it
provided it's fed to them with this accompanying information:  This is cool,
this is insanely popular, you will be considered cool for liking this,
everybody else is buying it, you already like it so buy it, you like it
because we told you that you like it.  

 

I see the whole thing as being like cheese (I may even had read this on this
list way back some time ago).  There are people out there who make really
wonderful cheese.  They have brought the art of cheese to a point where it
has never been before.  They are true artisans.  They make Roquefort, gouda,
or camembert or what ever, that is so good it can bring a cheese lover to
tears.  You can find this stuff in specialty stores, Whole Foods maybe, or
you can order over the internet of from the back of gourmet magazines.  

 

Velveeta out-sells them all!

 

JayLo is kind of like Velveeta this way.  Velveeta is made with cheap
ingredients that can be purchased from many sources.  Production can be set
up anywhere; just stick to the formula and you'll end up with the ever
popular Velveeta.  Pair it with youth and sex and it's a sure thing.  Ever
notice how these popular performers are presented?  There's always a lot of
flashy lights and sexy costumes, a lot of dancers doing the same steps all
around the principal.  They are a product that is "produced" so that they
can be paired with other products and presented to people who consume this
sort of thing in a fairly passive state.  

 

What people like Jason Ricci, Kim Wilson, and who ever you care to mention,
do is so much more individualistic and done on so much smaller and more
intimate a scale that it can't be used like a JayLo can.  

 

This is just my humble opinion, of course.  But I maintain that the coolest
stuff out there is almost never on the TV.  As hip as stuff may appear on
TV, it's really the squarest stuff in the world.  It's all Velveeta.  

 

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh