[Harp-L] fame & Grammys

["Steve Merola" <srmerola@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stephen
Congratulations on your Grammy win!!! That's great news!!!
Steve Merola





On Feb 11, 2008 4:27 PM, <spschndr@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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
>
>