[Harp-L] weird but awesome night with James Harmon (& guests) in Sacramento

[Chris C <ccefalu@xxxxxxxxx>]

So, it had probably been about 15 years at least since I'd seen James Harmon live. Used to see him quite a bit in the late 80s up through the mid 90s, and always remembered digging his stuff. I remembered it as being good basic gutbucket blues with solid singing, harp playing and a good mix of original tunes and classic covers.

I'd kinda lost track of Harmon over the years so when I saw him playing at my favorite local Sac bar a couple nights ago (the Torch Club), I was psyched to go check out what he's up to these days. 


I can now say: if anyone has the chance to see Harmon right now, I highly recommend seizing the opportunity while you can. Like, do it NOW.:)


Put simply, Harmon's stage show has ascended to an entirely new level that more resembles some kind of abstract performance art than "blues" - and that's a GREAT thing. He rambled on and off the stage, let the backup band play several tunes in a row & then just when I was about to give up and bail, he'd wander out, grab the mic and just freestyle for 20 minutes straight. Not a ton of harp, but lots of wild improvisational rantings - some spoken and some sung. There were hilarious stories, free-associative soul singing, and lots of brilliant one-liners and asides. 

He looks like hell, and I don't know how many years of this he's got left, but the man puts on an amazing, unpredictable show that, although it occasionally resembles the final minutes of Raging Bull, is still one of the few authentic bits of artistry I've seen in a genre of music that has become almost completely predictable and lifeless.

My favorite part was when he leaned over, grabbed the mic and said "by the way, sorry if you came here expecting to hear a bunch of Muddy Waters tunes, or something like that."

At one point he called Rick Estrin up (who had been lurking by the bar with some friends all night) and basically just left him up there. Rick even jokingly called out "Um, James - where'd you go?" after a couple tunes, but he dutifully went on to give us about 30 minutes of mind-boggling harmonica instrumentals before James reappeared and joined him on stage. 

All in all, a truly unique musical experience. Highly recommended.