[Harp-L] Once upon a time . . .

[Trip Henderson]

Dan Lynch's Bar, NYC late 80's.  Me, Adam Gussow, Mason Casey, Lester
Schultz, Bob Bavido, a couple of others, aka the usual freereed bothers are
waiting our turn to sit in with the amazing Holmes Brothers who hosted the
regular Saturday afternoon Blues jam.  In walk some army fatigue wearing
scruffy college punks (with their parents Volvo keys in the cargo pockets
of their pants), and they announce that no they don't want to jam at the
jam, they want to play a couple of songs by themselves, ok, fine. Up they
go and play some non-blues music, we all shrug, then the singer pulls out a
harp and plays REALLY FAST. Then down they go, out the door, see you later.
The freereed brothers are speechless, finally someone says, "wow he was
fast", we all agree, "yep REALLY FAST", then more speechlessness, finally
someone says, "but no tone" like a pack of dogs we all chime in, "yes, NO
TONE!!!" having dismissed them with the ultimate harmonica player dis we
all blissfully settled back into our camaraderie.

A couple of months later I'm mountain biking in the hills of New Jersey and
I see scrawled on an old abandoned barn the name, Blues Traveler.

Its a good thing I'm not an A&R man.

-- 
*Trip Henderson*
https://soundcloud.com/trip-henderson