[Harp-L] jams cotton @ orphan annies

[Garry Hodgson <garry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

caught a great show last night.  james cotton was playing at orphan
annies, a local bar, backed by my friends the bob lanza blues band.
bob's harp player, dave "snakeman" runyan, is an old friend of cotton's,
and shared vocal duties with bob, as cotton doesn't sing anymore.

bob's band started the night with a short set; they were hot, as usual,
and got the crowd fired up.  then cotton joined in, sitting on a chair
with a big smile on his face like he was having the time of his life.
there was great interaction with the crowd; cotton would play some
wicked lick, then laugh and grin at the crowd's reaction.  and the
interplay between cotton's harp and bob's guitar was just terrific,
as if they played together all the time instead of just once before.
midway through the second set rocky lawrence came up, and sang and
played acoustic guitar with cotton on harp.  very cool.  

all in all it was a great night.  it was kind of surreal, seeing this living legend
sitting there just a few feet away, on the same stage this newbie plays on
every other saturday night.  i got to meet him backstage and chat a bit,
though it was difficult to hear with all the crowd noise.

for the gear heads on the list:  he played through a regular vocal mic,
not even his own, straight into the PA.  and he sounded great.  another
confirmation that sound comes from the player, not the gear.  of course,
when you're 72, and have been playing since you were 10 or so, you've got
plenty of time to develop that sound...

sadly, i wasn't allowed to record the show.  but if anyone's interested in
some great blues, you can check out bob's latest show on the archive at:
http://www.archive.org/details/blbb2006-10-28.flac16

----
Garry Hodgson, Senior Software Geek, AT&T CSO

But I'm not giving in an inch to fear
'Cause I promised myself this year
I feel like I owe it...to someone.