Re: [Harp-L] Jason Ricci Parkersburg, WV concert photos and story

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Rupert. Couldn't be that normal, or they wouldn't have hired me. I know Jason is a god to the harp community, but it was good to get him some exposure to the normal public. I wrote an advance story that ran the day of the show, I was amazed at how many people there showed up cause they read it in the paper and had never heard of him before. BUT, they all walked out of there absolutely amazed at what he could do. I had a little trouble listening to the show, cause people kept tapping me on the shoulder going on and on about how what he did was impossible on the harp, how one could slam down so many consecutive Red Bulls and live, it was musical overload. It was like their heads were about to explode. I'm sure they went back telling all their friends, they had to cause they couldn't keep their mouths shut even during the show. There's probably a whole lot of people in Pburg who will never be able to look at Saturn again without that line from
 "Rocket No. 9" coming to mind... "Crazy ass Saturn." That's good for Jason, good for me and good for the harp.

We played it up pretty big in the print version of the paper. I don't know how many hits the Web site version of the story got, but the online photo album of Jason did O.K. I suppose the more hits it all gets, the easier it will be for me justifying a story to my editor next time he comes around. I had to present a pretty big case on Jason's behalf to cover it, since I was the only one in the newsroom who had heard of him. 

> Here is the story about the Jason Ricci concert in Parkersburg:
>
> http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/501348.html?nav=5056
>
> Here are the photos
> http://cu.newsandsentinel.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=301854
>

Jason was awesome, got to talk to him for quite a while. He's an amazing guy on and off stage, very willing to share what he knows about the harp. He's from Portland, Maine, living in Nashville, so I asked him if there was any truth to the Jimmie Rodgers' first line in "Brakeman's Blues" ... "Portland Maine is just the same as sunny Tennessee." Jason said "hell no, Portland is too $#&*@ cold!" 

Dave
__________
Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com