[Harp-L] Re: Subject: JJ Milteau's YouTube videos...'Rockin'/Charlie McCoy




On Mar 29, 2008, at 12:52 PM, EGS1217@xxxxxxx wrote:
Charlie McCoy uses a Bb and F to play it.

Ok, then he IS across the scale for those 8 chugs. (Or maybe, there's more to it than that?). I should have asked him but was too busy on other subjects. I use harps only 2 notes apart. I'm probably on a draw when he is on a blow.


. However, do 8 years of formal Latin studies count? ;)

I hope to SMILE they do. You could always write me a prescription. lol

I'm so envious (and admiring) of you getting to play with him. He's a genuinely nice and 'real' guy. I was thrilled to get a front-row seat at SPAH for his performance three years ago (Kansas City)...his Shenandoah (which he dedicated to a recently departed friend) brought me to tears.

Shenandoah is one of the few pieces he does straight. I suggested a few others. He will be doing 'The Nearness of You' on his next album..straight...I think?.

This must have been an incredible day you spent together.....I'm only one of many here who would love to hear about it?

Wasn't much TO it. A bunch of us got together in Ft. Myers (where he has a condo), and we had a dream of an afternoon. Lotza great stories.


We did some duets. 'I really don't want to know', a fast Texas Swing version of 'You don't have to call me darlin...darlin', and more.

We talked about the country tuning, and how in 76 he was confronted by a fellow who asked him how he did Danny Boy and reasoned that Charlie used a harp with the 5 draw raised. But that's not how Charley was playing it (back then). He was using a D and an A (for the bridge). I have always played it with only one harp...C...crossed/ smokey tuned. The tune is originally in Eb, and I have also used a Ab but it's a little low in pitch for me. Besides the Ab is harder for me to bend.

I took that tuning to Nashville in 75 and played 'Frosty the Snowman' with it with Ernest Tubb on the Ryman Christmas show. I showed it to an older chromo player named Jim or John something. Rydell or Raydell or something like that. That old guy was really good as I remember.

Now there ARE tunes that you DO need more than one harp (discounting modulations). DYKWIM to miss New Orleans requires 3 harps (because of the double keyed bridge). So, I use a C. Eb, and D in that order. 'As time goes by' requires a second harp 4 steps up. That's the problem with diatonics for most people( from planet Earth )


Next week, Charley is going home to Nashville and then on to France in June. During spah he will be in Belgium & Holland.


smokey-joe
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> Elizabeth





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