Re: [Harp-L] Cadillac Records Review - and playing thru the vocal

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Little Walter accompanying Muddy Waters was one of the exceptional people who could definitely play through the vocal and make it work. On some of those early recordings, you hear Muddy's voice, Muddy's slide guitar lines, and Walter's harmonica all weaving around each other perfectly without ever stepping one another or collliding - it's a thing of rare beauty. (Of course it helps that the only other things you hear are some skeletal drums and maybe some inobtrusive rhythm from Jimmy Rogers - no 3-guitar density or piano).

I don't know if what's in the trailer is at that level or not. If it is, then let it stand as the best example of how playing through the vocals *can work and *must work if it is to work at all.

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Fri, 12/5/08, michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Cadillac Records Review
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, December 5, 2008, 3:25 PM



I also have a little worry.  As some of us saw in the trailer, they
show a scene where during a song recording, Walter plays throughout
the song, even during Muddy's singing.  The engineer wants to stop the
take, because you cannot have a harp do that.  Chess hears the genius
and says to keep it going.  Will we now have a new group of harp
players who think they can play throughout the song?  Admittedly, you
CAN do that well, but most sound bad in my opinion.

Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com
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