Re: [Harp-L] Re: Good Old Days of SPAH & Good New Days of SPAH

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

By "madman" I didn't mean you, Joe. The group I was with interpreted the reports to mean the character you had so kindly escorted to Beale Street.

Danny Welton was behaving, er, unusually throughout SPAH 1994. One of the examples that I witnessed: I arrived late at a seminar he was giving on "how to make it in the music business" and the tension in the room was palpable. He was talking about everything but the music business and one of the attendees asked him rather angrily when he was going to do so. Welton then dismissed the topic by saying something to the effect of, "None of you will ever make it in the music business, so I'm not going to bother." Then he singled out an Asian man in the audience and said something like "no offense but the Japanese make lousy harmonicas. Great cars, but lousy harmonicas" Then he lauded Hohner harmonicas but linked that statement to some sort of Nazi/concentration camp/shower-gas chamber joke, which he declared was OK  for him to say "because I'm Jewish." At this point fisticuffs might have ensued, but the hour was up and everyone departed the room like hornets
 streaming out of a nest.

When it came time for him to perform, tension was high again. During rehearsal he'd gotten into an altercation with the backing musicians and one or more of them had stormed off and refused to play the gig. Replacements were found who didn't have the opportunity to rehearse. And yet his set went well - no weirdness, and he played beautifully. Many heaved a sigh of relief. And then he started in on his tirade . . . 

--- On Thu, 8/7/08, Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Good Old Days of SPAH & Good New Days of SPAH
To: winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2008, 9:45 AM

On Aug 7, 2008, at 3:08 AM, Winslow Yerxa wrote:

> Actually, Buzz and I never got within 20 feet of the stage. I think  
> Welton saw us coming and decided that discretion was the better  
> part of being a total jerk and  vamoosed

I was approached by Norm Dobson and asked if I would keep an eye on  
Mr. Welton because they (spah) were afraid that he hadn't been taking  
his medicine and had already almost gotten into altercations with  
Pete Pedersen and Jerry Murad. Now Paul Metris has an artificial leg  
and can't run, so I said I would do it. Also, I was only 50 and still  
in good shape.

At the Peabody Hotel, on the night in question, the wife and I were  
sitting at the table closest to the side stage access door and after  
playing what ('I' thought) a really nice set, Mr. Welton started to  
cap and rag on the organization and various stars. Some older player  
(Lou Delin?) from the audience yelled at him to "Aw shut up and play.  
no one want's to hear your B******t."

Mr Welton picked up the mike stand as if he was going to throw it  
down into the audience.  A couple people jumped up, he dropped the  
stand and exited stage right and I caught him as he was descending  
the backstage stairs. I ushered him to the dressing room where his  
girlfriend was already waiting. He changed, Bob calmed him down and  
handed him his check. I walked the two of them down the back service  
stairs and a block down to Beale, and left them at the Rum Boogie Cafe.

> (I didn't know about the Leone connection, though later that night  
> on Beale Street we heard tales of a madman trying to crash all the  
> stages and insisting he was the best harmonica player in the world).

Not me, I am the best harmonica player in the 3400 block of Aladdin  
Av., Punta Gorda Fla.

> A few months later Kim Field told me that Welton claimed to be   
> studying the video of the incident (though SPAH never officially  
> released any video from that evening, despite a mindblowing duet  
> between Don Les and Uwe Penzoldt, the 11-year old German kid who  
> was channeling Don in a telepathic musical seance) so that he could  
> figure out who those guys were and deliver them a suitable  
> comeuppance. Ahhh, happy days . . .
>
> --- On Wed, 8/6/08, Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Aug 6, 2008, at 11:53 PM, Buddha wrote:
> > but things got better as the
> > years progressed. I think Memphis was one of the best conventions  
> and
> > I think that was the tipping point for the "blues players"
to
> finally
> > be accepted. Danny Walton was there that year and went crazy during
> > his set. Winslow and Buzz were the ones that kicked him off the  
> stage
> > and I think that's we cemented our approval.
>
> I was acting master at arms because Paul Metris doesn't move too
> fast, and I made sure Welton stayed in his dressing room and then
> left the building. I had to miss Charley Musselwhite. Then I walked
> Mr Danny Welton and his girl friend down to Beale St. and turned them
> loose.
>
> !DSPAM:5614,489aa0fa30501405646436!