[Harp-L] Re: Funk harp redux



Apropos of the recent discussion here,ÂanotherÂboard put me ontoÂan interesting clip on YoutubeÂof Delbert McClinton sitting in with Paul Thorn on Paul's funk/rock tune "Ain't Love Strange" atÂ(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkOtvE6jTy8). Hope that URL works anyway: should at least put you in the neighborhood. It's a well-shot production with a lot of focus on Delbert on this song, so you can watch him figure out what works on a song he's probably heard & liked but not memorized, over a vocal mic with too many guitars onstage (one is Elvin Bishop, also sitting in).ÂÂThorn is a wacky cat deserving of wider recognition,Âalmost certainly the only active singer/songwriter ever to have gone eight rounds with Roberto Duran,Âand there areÂmore songs with Delbert on that evening posted. Really a fairly intimate view of an underrated harp icon making quick decisionsÂonstageÂabout what to play onÂsomebody else's unfamiliar songs. I think Thorn does a solo act more of the time and isn't quite comfortable with the guests on top of a full band: at least I would have let this particular tune groove on for a few more minutes and let the guests stretch out fully, because the crowd seems into it; but nonethelessÂthis songÂseems like prime instructional material for someone who wants to learn how to sit in on unfamiliar stuff, because you can see exactly how Delbert fits in among the other players and works at getting ahold of the groove andÂchord structure and melodic motifs of the song, and tries things out--drops them immediately if they don't work, develops them if they do. This is how it's done with traditional chops, which I guess has been the direction of Delbert's playing all along: putting them on different types of songs. The song picks up still more energy as the guests figure out what to do, and the misfires cease to matter: good lesson there about not worrying about mistakes onstage, moving on instead. Audiences will forget your mistakes a lot sooner if you don't remind the audience by repeating them :-).

Stephen Schneider
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