...where you sorta suck at what you are familiar with, and kick out the jams on new material...?
I've been sitting in with this band in the Twin Cities called the Strawdogs. They are not a blues band (although they do a few blues tunes), but I know the band leader (John Eric Thiede) and he is kind enough to let me sit in on a couple of the blues/R&B numbers that they do perform. Now they can't imagine the tunes without my honking and stomping, and I've been invited to play on their next CD. They even started *paying me to play a few weeks ago.
So anyway, I got a message on my voice mail from Eric last Thursday telling me to be prepared to play a lot more on Saturday night, as the sax player (who is very good, btw) would be unavailable for the gig. Eric had layed some tunes down on my midi setup, and I have their current CD (john perkins john perkins), so I got a couple of hours in of practice before my big chance to shine on Saturday.
I'm used to playing second position on major key blues numbers (that's pretty much *all they play at the jams I've been going to around town), and although I've been working on (and getting more comfortable in) third position minor key stuff, I've never done it public before. Anyway, I put together a little list of the tunes I worked on, putting two stars next to the ones I felt good about, one star on the ones I thought I could fake, and no stars by the numbers I'd rather not try in front of people yet...
Saturday rolls around much too quickly; I go to the club and find Eric and hand him my little list. He calls me up in the middle of the first set on one of the numbers I've played before with them, a little blues tune in F called "Black Grackle Stomp." The blow notes just weren't happening for me--didn't make a fool of myself as far as the audience was concerned, but I just wasn't wailing. Then I stumbled through one of the new ones, kind of a Louis Armstrong/New Orleans thing called "Empty out My Bucket" in C minor. I'm thinking this is gonna be a long night...one of the advantages of sitting in with the band is free beer, so I took advantage of the fringe benefit during the break, and started dancing to the band and talking to some friends after they start the second set without me.
Eric calls me up on a tune that wasn't on my list, a little two-chord two-step in Eb called Liza Jane. With an Eb harp in hand, I get up to blow some straight harp and start rocking in a somewhat primitive manner, but the crowd likes it, and the band is starting to relax sans sax for the first time, and I stay up on stage to blow a bunch of C minor tunes in third position on the Bb harp.
All of sudden it's working, and I'm in the pocket on tunes I've never played before...the band is cooking, the full house is dancing and screaming. It's all real loosey-goosey and fun. Then they go back to one of the tunes I've played with them before, back to major key (G) so I can play my favorite thang, which is C crossharp. This is a re-worked cover of a Tom Jones (!) tune called "Witch Queen of New Orleans." Now my confidence is soaring, and so was my harping--I've never had so much fun on stage. I get off the stage to much applause and screaming (which is always nice but no big deal personally; as others have observed, people in bars love the sound of amplified harp as long as you're in the right key and basically rhythmical)...
The icing on the cake came after the house lights went up--the trumpet player thanks me for helping out "You really came through, and we *really needed your ass up there tonight." I collect my money (which is also gratifying in a mercenary kind of way), and leave the car radio off on the drive home so as not to disturb the music in my head. The littered streets and neon and hookers and prowling squadcars of the post-bar-close urban landscape don't look so menacingly ugly, or perhaps they do, but I don't care this evening (er, make that morning)...life is good. Sometimes trial by fire is the only way to go I guess.
