[Harp-L] Alan Wilson

[dmf273@xxxxxxxxx]

Just to chime in here, Alan Wilson is absolutely my favorite harp player of  
all time, bar none, living or dead. He's not speedy, he's not flashy, he  
rarely (maybe never) goes up above hole #7 in 2nd position, he doesn't  
overblow, heck I'm not even sure I've ever heard him do a blow bend! But  
none of that matters to me. What matters is that his musical ideas are full  
of beauty, wisdom and impeccable taste. What matters to me is that every  
single time I listen to one of his recordings, even if I've heard it 10,000  
times before (and I have), it never fails to make me feel good and I'd be  
happy to hear it again, right then, for the 10,001st time.

Now to add a little substance to my tribute - there's been a couple  
mentions of "Parthenogenosis" from the "Living the Blues" lp, and  
specifically the "Five Owls" section. I must have listened to "Five Owls"  
10,000 times and tried to play it myself almost as many times, before I  
realized that's another tune where he uses the "Blind Owl" altered tuning  
with the raised draw 6 - the same altered tuning he used for "On the Road  
Again". He doesn't really draw attention to it until near the end of the  
song when one of the overdubbed harps wails on it. Check it out!