[Harp-L] Jason Ricci show in Jacksonville

[Gary Warren <gdubya@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My wife Juli and I went to see Jason at the Mojo Kitchen here in 
Jacksonville Florida
on Saturday.  Unfortunately attendance was down and the house wasn't full.
Probably due to a couple of factors, the Jazz Festival was in town 
and Buddy Guy
and Robert Cray were playing in St. Augustine.  Too bad the guitar guys didn't
make it up to sit in.  :-(  But believe me Shawn is no slouch at all.  He was
burnin' up the frets this night.

The guys did another rousing show and I noticed a few equipment 
things that were different
from the last time they played the same room.  First is that Jason has a new
pedal board, with a couple of new boxes.  Maybe when he has time, he can
review the new pedal board with a YouTube video or post what's up on harp-l.

The second thing is that he has a new amp in the mix.  It is a HarpGear and
you've probably already heard about it through previous post and 
links.  Since this
is the third time I've seen Jason and it's all been in the past several weeks,
I made note of the changes.  Does the new amp make his tone better?  Well,
maybe a little, but I suspect it is more nuance than MAJOR shift in his sound.
But does it sound good?  Heck yeah, it sounded great.

I was interested too since I'm an owner of a Sonny Jr. -- one of the 
original models (#100).
So I went up to take a look at the amp and it looks beautiful, with a 
great finish on
the tweed.  As it happens, Brian Purdy was there in the audience and we chatted
a bit about amps, pedals, harps, mics and all.  (Brian I'll post you 
offline to be
sure we get together since I now know you're not far down the road in Florida).
Jason's amp is the prototype HarpGear amp and it looks and sounds beautiful.
If I didn't already have an amp of similar size, I'd be looking at 
this one to be
in my top choice set.

At the end of the last set (yes, they took a break this night), Jason got Brian
on stage for a round on Good Morning Little School Girl.  Brian, you sounded
great through Jason's rig/your amp.  But I must say you had a lot more bottom
and growl in your harp than Jason does most of the time.   I guess this speaks
to the versatility of the amplification and the different styles of 
harp the two
of you play.

All another enjoyable evening.  Jason is truly a unique harp player that is
fun to watch.  And on this night he did a tribute to Kim Wilson, bringing
thoughts of that SPAH video where Kim just blows the doors off for an extended
time (which many of us have probably seen him do live as well).  Jason thanks
again.   Sorry Jacksonville didn't afford you a larger audience this time, but
those of us who were there sure appreciated your music alot.

GW

--
Gary Warren

"I take my woman on the beach, fellas, and set down in the sand
 and play."  Muddy Waters (Deep Down In Florida)