[Harp-L] Eric Chafer -- was The Best shows I Ever Saw

["John Kerkhoven" <solo_danswer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was intrigued by Ben's account of "Les Chat Variés" and Eric Chafer (see
below).

Did a quick google search and landed -- no surprise, somehow -- on Planet
Harmonica. http://www.planetharmonica.com/EricChafer.htm

Worth checking out in case anyone is interested.

A note: I found the sound files opened up better in Firefox than in IE 6.

John


Ben Felten wrote:
8. Les Chats Variés - Condat sur Vienne (2001) : When I got down to Condat
in October 2001, I'd been doing Planet Harmonica for a couple of years and
considered myself knowledgeable on the French harmonica scene. I had vaguely
heard of Eric Chafer, knew he was using some sort of altered tuning but that
was it. When he and his guitarist pal Francis came on stage to open the 2001
Harmonicales festival, I honestly wasn't expecting much. After a minute of
Eric's playing, I was floored. The sound, the fluidity, the melodic lines,
the sheer musicality of it all was astounding. After a couple of songs on
harmonica, he apologised that their repertoire didn't feature harmonica on
every song and switched to acoustic bass. My jaw then dropped to the floor
alongside the rest of me. The rest of the music, the lyrics, the world of
Francis' songs was superb as well. I remember half an hour into the gig,
Brendan Power (who was supposed to be preparing since he was playing next)
coming to me in the dark and asking "who IS this guy ?" I couldn't tell him.
I met Eric later, and we became good friends (although he's impossible to
get hold of) but that first moment of finding such a luminous talent living,
as it were, in your backyard, was something I'd never experienced before...