scottb
37 posts
Jun 04, 2009
9:03 PM
|
I had a good day for harp today!
First, I got off work today at 1 PM and got to spend an hour or so out on the deck blowing some acoustic harp. Beautiful day here in NW Arkansas. I was about as on my game as I can be so I was pleased. But that's just the beginnig...
After playing, I remembered that I had some stuff to drop off to RJ Mischo's. Fortunatley for me, he moved to my town a couple years ago and I've been lucky enough to meet him. My wife says I'm stalking him, but call it what you will. He's a helluva guy, a helluva harp player, a great source of advice about harp and an endless stream of great stories blues related and otherwise.
So I swing by his place and we chat about this and that and one thing leads to another and suddenly we're listeing to the initial mix of his recently recorded album. Kid Andersen (of Rick Estrin and Nightcats since replacing Little Charlie) and Rusty Zinn on guitars. Great stuff! Some great grooves there! A different kind of "modern blues harmonica." Still traditional Chicago and West Coast technique and tone but applied in a different and new way. Similar to his He Came To Play album but a step further.
So that's quite a treat for me to get to hear that probably at least 6 months before everyone else. But that wasn't all...
As I'm leaving he says he's leaving soon for a nearly two month stint in South Europe and would I like to borrow an Astatic for a while. Well...yeah! I would. So we go inside and he cracks open this case covered with 2 or 3 layers of stickers from all over the world that used to be his harp case, now it holds his mics that he doesn't gig with. I'm sitting there drooling at this case full of Crown Royal bags, like a kid looking at wrapped presents at Christmas. Eyes wide, heart pounding knowing that each one contains something special. He started into them, here's a chromed JT30, there's one that's got a short in the volume control, here's a brown bullet, there's a green bullet with a great element he like to swap into a JT30 body. Each one with a history.
So I leave with not one but two mics. One, a JT30 from the late 70s with his initials scrawled in the side. The first JT30 he ever owned. Bought it new on the advice of Lynnwood Slim who instructed him to go down to such and such electronics store and get one. He paid less than $30!
The other a Shure PE53V.
Both are sweet sounding mics that I get to play with for 2 months!
Lastly, I downloaded the new Rick Estrin and the Nightcats album from iTunes.
A good harp day indeed!
Last Edited by on Jun 05, 2009 5:00 AM
|
