RE: [Harp-L] Never Call Out Stevie Wonder at a Blues Jam

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

What a great story, I sure love those jam train-wreck stories because
they make me feel so not alone in the world. I have a million of them by
now. 

I usually play in the 'beginner' section where there are a few helpful
and nurturing 'real' musicians to help folks like me, who make sure to
stick to blues with the I-IV-V and clearly call out the key of the song
beforehand (gee, that's helpful). Then sometimes one of my buddies like
the US Rick Smith will kick me up there with the more experienced
hot-shots so I can 'learn' in a more dynamic and realistic environment
where you can't always count on getting the key and the song may not
have the standard chord progressions. 

Last time I played first set and our one jerry garcia type folkie dude
member called 4 songs that weren't blues but some mix of
folk/rock/whatever - stuff I never heard before and was completely lost
on how to play to. Train wreck after train wreck. Guess he 'forgot' it's
a blues jam (a problem we have sometimes like the one guy who came out a
few weeks straight and played hot-rod chuck berry songs because that's
all he know on the guitar - he just turned his ball cap backward and
wailed away until they gently reminded him after two weeks that he had
to learn some blues songs or at least more than two songs - he hasn't
been back but I hope he's in the 'shed working on it). 

I digress. So yeah, sometimes you have to have those trainwrecks, it's
the only time you learn, really. We have some folks who get pissed when
things go wrong and 'forget' that IT'S JUST A JAM - NOT A PERFORMANCE
and the audience never seems to mind, they're getting drunk and having
fun. Keep on keepin' on.

Bill Hines
Hershey, PA

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jonathan Metts
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 12:42 AM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Never Call Out Stevie Wonder at a Blues Jam

This was the valuable lesson I learned tonight.  I called out "Boogie
On, 
Reggae Woman", a funk in Ab with I-IV chords and a II-V turnaround.  I
sang 
the bass line for the rhythm section, and the keyboardist knew it 
beforehand.  I knew the lyrics fairly well and had a cheat sheet just in

case.  I had practiced the harp solo and had it down fairly well -- 4th
pos. 
on a G harp because I don't own an Ab harp to play in 1st like Stevie
did. 
(My version sounds reasonably close to the original because all those
blow 
bends are still there.  You just kind of move the solo down one hole on
the 
harp.)

For all that preparation, there were so many things wrong with the song
that 
I should have just called it off halfway through.  I forgot to write
down 
the chords for the chorus, so the band just played the head over and
over. 
That made my harp solo sound off-key, because it's based on the chorus,
and 
it probably was slightly off-key anyway because I'm a novice at 4th 
position.  The song has that I-IV progression twice, but I didn't tell
the 
band that, so the vocals didn't match up to the music half the time.
The 
drummer didn't know the song, and I didn't describe the percussion well 
enough beforehand, so there was way too much kick.  I put down my bullet
mic 
and played the harp solo into the vocal mic, which wasn't set up for
that, 
plus I'm not used to that style, so I couldn't really hear myself
playing. 
Also, we had no idea how to end the song after everyone begrudgingly
took a 
solo.

So there you have it.  Don't try to play Stevie unless you have a band
with 
rehearsals.  There are too many things that could go wrong, and in a
blues 
jam setting, the non-blues chord progressions don't go over so well.

Jonathan Metts 

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