[Harp-L] Raconteur: A POLITE WORD FOR LIAR

[Ronnie Schreiber]

Larry Adler was a great musician. After more than 60 revolutions around 
the sun, though, I've come to realize that many cultural heroes often 
have feet of clay when it comes to their personal lives. I've read too 
much about the Doors and Jim Morrison and his abysmal behavior to people 
in his life to be able to completely enjoy their music. I understand why 
the Israeli Philharmonic doesn't perform Wagner. I've  yet to hear 
someone who knew him personally say that Paul Butterfield was a nice 
person. Most say stuff like "he was a hard cat." Sonny Boy II 
appropriated John Williamson's stage name because he was running from 
the law.

Adler was quite self-promoting and, if you listen to the Gladwell 
podcast, he was unashamed about the fact that he preferred telling good 
stories to telling the actual truth. As such, I'm at least a little 
skeptical about Adler's account of and reasoning for expatriating 
himself from the United States. I see him as a hypocrite, the very 
definition of a limousine leftist. A lifelong man of the left, he lived 
well in Beverly Hills, then hobnobbed with British aristocracy after he 
moved to the UK. He wouldn't live or pay taxes here, for political 
reasons, yet was happy to make a very good living touring here. He was 
ungrateful for the country that gave him the opportunity to pursue his 
dreams. He was quick to claim victimhood for mistreatment as a Jew in 
Baltimore in his youth but he abandoned his parents' Judaism and 
wouldn't perform in Israel after the country moved away from socialism. 
Outside of his musical talent and ability to tell a yarn, I don't find 
much about him to admire.

He could play the chromatic harmonica masterfully, though.

Ronnie Schreiber
The Electric Harmonica Co.
Makers of the Harmonicaster