Re: [Harp-L] An evening with Watermelon Slim

["Bob Laughlin" <rlaughlin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I love this guy's unpretentious but outrageously infectious enthusiasm. I
love the heart he puts into the music.

BL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Payne" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Harp L Harp L" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 6:19 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] An evening with Watermelon Slim


> Watermelon Slim put on an awesome show in Marietta, Ohio Saturday.
Awesome. He was using the house's sound, they had wireless, he took full
advantage of it, he walked around in the crowd while he played harp and sang
to people. You might be seeing more of that of shows, he said he loved being
able to do that and he was looking at going wireless himself.
>
> I hadn't seen him in a couple years. I got to hang out with him some
before and quite a while after the show.  It was awesome to see him again.
I'd rather sit down and talk to him than just about any human being on
earth, cause not only is he a wonderful guy and a great bluesman, he's a
very deep, educated individual. We sat around talking, in our Appalachian
drawls (his is NC, mine WV) about harps, fishing, baseball, moonshine
whiskey, God, our own mortalities, history, Hemmingway and Shakespeare. He's
going to Denmark this week, so we talked some about Europe, I told him to
make sure he checks out the Museum Erotica museum of sex (a must-see) in
Copenhagen, etc.
>
> We were talking about Shakespeare's "King Henry V"  and he says out of the
blue: "Would you like to hear a sonnet I wrote on the occasion of the death
of the Queen Mother?"
> Of course, I said "hell yeah!" He recited his sonnet from memory, it
traced the Queen Mother's life from the days she and England stood alone
against Hitler to her death and England's mourning, etc. It reminded me of
that sonnet Shakespeare wrote about Queen Elizabeth's death (my googling
says it was Sonnet CVII), only, and I don't say this lightly, I think
Watermelon's sonnet was a mite better.
>
> He finished his sonnet, looked off to the side and said "I specialize in
iambic pentameter."
>  I will remember Watermelon saying that, in a voice that sounded half Sir
Lawrence Olivier and half Gabby Hayes, until the day I die.
>
>
> I put up some pics I took and a video of a Watermelon harp solo. You might
have to click the play button on the media bar to get it started.
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com/watermelon
>
> I also came across this video on You Tube of Watermelon that is very good:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqxj1yjXWS0
>
>
> Dave Payne
> _________________
> Dave Payne
> Elk River Harmonicas
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com
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