Re: [Harp-L] fame & Grammys

[spschndr@xxxxxxx]

I have found this whole discussion?inordinately?amusing because a low-profile Harp-L listmember played harmonica?on a record that was nominated for a Grammy this year . . . and won.

Namely me,?behind Pinetop Perkins on Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas, which won Best Traditional Blues.

When I picked up my local newspaper off the porch this morning, I went straight to the Grammy story, which every year talks about the big categories and then has a list of all the zillion other?categories.

Except this year, probably due to their recent?general newsprint cutbacks, they didn't list many minor?categories . . . and Best Traditional Blues was one of the ones they left out.? You have to go to their online site to see it.

People probably heard me laughing clear down the block.

I think I have about 14:58 of my fifteen minutes of fame left to use on something else.

It does make one's mother quite happy, though.? As for me, I don't even know if I get a statuette.? I would like that, preferably a melted Salvador Dali-style one that will drip over the edge of my mantel, because the whole thing has been surreal from my perspective.

The backstory is that some friends I've worked with, Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy,?were backing up Pinetop that night, and Sam Myers was supposed to play harp but had to go in the hospital.? So I got the call.? Two twelve-bar solos (one of which I absolutely can't stand to listen to), a very few miscellaneous fills, some turnarounds (one of which is a bar late) and a whole lot of laying out = a Grammy for playing harmonica.

What the other posters have said about luck is true.? There is a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time (and not screwing up too badly).? Don't even bother going to Pinetop's Myspace page to listen to the tunes, just go ahead and say, "Heck, I could do that," because you most assuredly could.? I just happened to.

I even had to ask the producers to correct the spelling of my last name on their website.? They were really nice about that and were also able to fix it on the liner notes because they were redoing the booklet due to the Grammy nomination.??Good guys who deserve kudos for conceiving the amazing event (Pinetop, Robert Lockwood Jr., Honeyboy Edwards, and Henry Townsend) and record, all for their Blue Shoe Project charity that does blues-in-schools work.? I honestly think it's a good record, especially for artists whose ages averaged out to about 92 at that point; how they programmed it, in particular.? Very little harp and that's all me, so ~don't~ buy it for that.

The one tip I can give harmonica players about winning a blues Grammy is to be sure you get nominated in a year when B. B. King doesn't have a record out--that's the most difficult part?:-).

Ya'll will excuse me now, I hope--my phone is just going crazy with job offers today . . . LOL.? My apologies to all those listmembers whose musical talent and skill makes them far more deserving of Grammy recognition than me.? I think what happened to me is a pretty good illustration of how random these matters can be.? I hope the fact that I didn't trumpet the nomination onlist indicates that I'm not bragging as much as I could be.

Hope AOL doesn't mess up the paragraphing, apologies if it does--Stephen Schneider






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