[Harp-L] Trial by Fire

[michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

What seemed to be a chance encounter turned into a positive thing.  A
few months ago, I was going stir crazy at home and asked my wife for a
night out.  (We have a newborn baby and if I didn't gig 3 times a week
for part of of my living I would never get out of the house.)

I went to a small club where a lot of my friends play music and sure
enough caught two playing a duo, accordion and banjo playing gypsy
music.  We talked afterwards about the bass harmonica and how I
thought it would work with what they were doing.  Months later and a
few more conversations, they agreed to have me rehearse with them.
Actually, the banjo player and I wrote down the chord charts for 3 to
5 songs a week and never really played together at all.  Two weeks
went by and I started gigging with them.  That was two weeks ago.
Because it was South by Southwest, a music fest with a ridiculous
amount of opportunities to play, I did 6 gigs with them in the last
two weeks.

Prior to this, I had ran a practice harmonica band with me on bass
harp and practiced bass harp alone in my room and at SPAH, playing on
multiple recordings but more as color, not as a bass role.  I do play
one song in my rock band, again as color.

But in this situation, I was the bass player.  I had to learn the
progressions and hold down the rhythm.  I made quite a few mistakes,
but played on.  By the last gig, I was rocking.  I had to find a way
to amplify the bass harp (Richard Smith Harmonix system attached to a
59 bassman reissue mic'ed to the PA), it took a few tries before we
started getting a great sound.

We played to around 300 people in a couple of weeks and by the end,
people were dancing and clapping along.  Of course, many people had
never seen a bass harmonica and certainly never in this style of
music.

I had fun and feel like I am doing something artistically interesting,
two of my main reasons for playing music.  Success!
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com