Re: [Harp-L] Dave Payne and the Ohio championship

[David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----
From: Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2009 12:51:58 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Dave Payne (Seydel Rep)


I just heard a rumor that our own David Payne Sr. is the 2009 Ohio state harmonica champ.
What about it. Anyone know something about this?

smo-joe
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I know a little about how it went, I was there. I woke up with a congratulatory phone call this morning and I was a bit puzzled how anybody knew about it, but apparently Steve Williams, who was there, let the cat out of the bag on the Elk River Harmonicas forum.  It is true, I did win first place in the Ohio State Harmonica Championship yesterday.
It was held in the old courthouse building in Chester, built in 1823. I was sitting on the inside staircase that led up to the second floor listening to the other contestants, look down at the stairs and I'm like "wait a minute, these stairs are made out of American Chestnut. That's a great testament to that wood and 19th Century craftsmanship, people have been walking up and down those stairs for 189 years now and they are perfectly fine. I must have fed off some of that chestnut mojo, cause I avoided serious train wrecks in both songs. First was "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." My mouth seemed OK when I got up there, but as soon as I tried to move the harmonica to play the second note of the intro, my mouth was so dry, it was like a tongue frozen to a flagpole, so I had to force the harp during the hole song. I was able to summon up some moisture for the second song, a fast bluegrass instrumental I usually play about 90 beats a minute. But in my
 nervousness, I kicked it off at about 130 beats a minute (we have never, ever, played it that fast) and my guitar player, Greg Vincent of Big Possum Grin, was about a half beat behind me. I am freaking out at this point about five seconds in and I've got a decision to make, I can slow down to the guitar and risk a back and forth timing adjustment/train wreck, stop and start over (the safest) or trust myself that I could maintain my current time and have confidence in Greg's guitar abilities that he can catch me after I screwed up and kicked it off so fast. I decided to trust Greg and myself, so I closed my eyes went into a zone, blocked out the guitar and kept my own time.  
I learned afterwards, that right after the kickoff, Greg held back on the guitar and was doing more of a light snare thing on the guitar until he caught me right at the beginning of the second progression. 
Steve Williams, another contestant and a fine multi-instrument musician, said I managed to keep the same time throughout, I was worried about that, and that Greg had handled it perfectly. I was looking at the judges' feet, they were tapping together with the timing I had, so it must not have been that obvious.
 However, Steve added, "you had them on I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. You would have REALLY had to have screwed up the second song to have anything counted against you." 

So, I suppose there is a lesson there for me, and newbies as well, when you've played with somebody for years and developed this musicial bond, sometimes you can really trust each other. 



Dave
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www.elkriverharmonicas.com


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