Gary Primich hung around a bit longer this time in Tallawhatchacallit, with a two day stint at the little blues blockhouse in the boonies he likes to inhabit here. So, Friday and Saturday nights I made enough excuses to take in both shows, and had two different crowds...well, at least you could say everyone there Friday seemed to come back Saturday with every friend they every had. Gary stuck pretty much to tunes from his last two CD's, but did play more harp than guitar than I remember last time I saw him. Of course, he doesn't even need to play guitar if he doesn't want to with Shorty Lenoir always to his right...I've had to confide to Shorty that even though I play harp, I'd come out to hear him play as much as to hear Gary...he's one really fine guitarist!!
His regular road drummer, Jeff, was back also, but my husband and I wondered who would be on bass, since each of three times before his band came this way, someone new was on the long neck guitar. Well, this time was no different except the bass was a double bass, played by a fellow named Lucky Tiger, who also played a bit on Gary's guitar. It was a rather happy combo with the instruments being nicely balanced. But there does seem to be a happy cohesion with this juke joint and Gary, maybe being located where the Delta Blues rub shoulders with jazz and jump, and just a stone's throw from Cajun country [Hi Glenn! What's the limit lately? I dig your Bog Web Page!! Which one is YOU?] Whatever it is, he seems to enjoy it and we do too...always a good time to get out, give an ear and shake a leg!
Tim Corbett asked: How does GARY Primisch do that funny thrill in the song' Wild Cat Tamer ' harp solo. ?
If you mean trill, and he does many that can thrill, I suppose you mean the alternating between notes [which Gary does at several points in the song,] and not the short burst of brrr-r-r-r sound he makes at one point. Hey, I wish I knew!! But a trill is done with a headshake or wriggling the harp enough to cause air to flow quickly over two [or more] alternat- ing holes. A Brr-r-r sound can be made on one hole with just buzzing or fluttering the tongue on a blow note. [Will somebody please tell me if this can be done on draw notes? The best I can get is with, pardon my expression, a "salivabrato" - self-explanatory, I think, or setting up a strong vibration at the back of the tongue with the soft palate.] But, the trill can be quite different depending on number of notes involved, blow or draw, intervals between the notes used [i.e., half or whole step] ...etc. And whether one or both notes are bent, and how much, which of course can alter the intervals, too. As a primarily pucker player, I hate to admit it, but learning trills seems easier U-blocking at first, because it's easy to isolate the notes you want to use, hold the tongue basically still and wiggle the harp back and forth ever so slightly...I also find using one hand to hold the harp at this point more useful.
Got off task there a bit...I wanted to let you all know a little of what Gary told me about his equipment, harps, etc., which ain't much to tell, cuz...sorry...I didn't think of what to ask till I got home...typical. I thought I had seen once last year a Green Bullet setting on his amp, but he tells me has not and doesn't use one. But I thought the shiny, chrome-like finished mic he was using all night with his harps looked new from last time, and he said it was one he'd had for a long time and was playing it again those nights. It's a JT-40 [not 30], of an older design and rather rare now. The grill seems to be smoother, without the raised areas of the JT-30, Blues Blaster, et al. Besides the #270 that he uses for chromatic stuff [cupping his hands around the mic and using his thumb on the button! Gasp! Sorry, Doug...you purist!!] he uses Filisko-Mutants [Joe would love that!] pretty exclusively, and often both nights used a specially altered MB 364. I had wondered if it was an SBS.
Now I can't decide what I'd rather get next?!!?!?.....MB 364? 365? SBS?
Maybe a Renaissance??? Think I better go back to work....
