[Harp-L] Various Jam Experiences, Anything in Paris?

[Bill Hines <billhines4@xxxxxxxxx>]

I wanted to catch up and acknowledge the jams I've been at recently, and 
the fine harp-l friends who have helped me out, for the benefit of 
future harpistic travelers.

First, in Singapore, I had a great time as usual at the Sunday night 
Crazy Elephant jam. Kelvin Ng from harp-l met me there and got me all 
set up with the usual band full of locals and ex-pats. It was a real 
blast and a good set of big fun. Following that, Kelvin got up for his 
set and played some excellent harp and also led the set with vocals. 
Nice voice there Kelvin! I was really blown away by Kelvin's playing and 
enjoyed his set immensely.

I had also tried to meet up with Louis Lam (also on harp-l) but my work 
schedule kept interfering. They send you to these exotic places and in 
return schedule you to work pretty much night and day to justify the 
trip expenses. I was sorry not to get to meet Louis, but hopefully next 
time. Singapore is a fabulous place, no doubt about that. It's amazing 
how much talent there is around the world, in these small isolated 
places, you always seem to run across someone that is at such a high 
level of play.

I played this week at the Bayou Club in Hillsborough, NC and found it to 
be a very harp friendly jam. A guy named Butch ran it and started things 
off with his vocals and harp, blowing through his Deluxe Reverb. Butch 
seemed to be primarily a guitarist/vocalist/front man but also played 
some might fine harp as well. I was called up second set. As with 
Singapore, I wanted to play through my RP350 but both places prefered 
that for minimal setup that I play through the rig that was already set 
up. So I plugged my green bullet into that. A woman was called up to do 
vocals, we did a nice first tune, I had to keep coaxing the key out of 
her and she didnt' seem sure, then calls the second tune in F#. WTF?? 
Since traveling I only had the 7 primary harps, no B harp. I tried 
various others (Bb, etc) in 2nd and 3rd positions (with mic off of 
course) but nothing sounded right, so I gave her the signal that I was 
standing down for this tune. Then we wrapped up the set with a number in 
C, so I cracked out the F harp (not a favorite, but at least I had it, 
didn't bring my low f either). Another harp player followed me in the 
3rd set, so a very harp friendly environment. I also liked this jam 
because they jumped right into the signup list, as opposed to 'house 
band' jams where the house band hogs up half the night before calling 
anyone up, and usually then only onsies-twosies to 'sit in' with the band.

Next stop is Paris, leaving tomorrow for the coming week. Anything of 
note happening there jams or otherwise harmonically related this 
Saturday through Fri?

Bill