From: "PM" Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 14:53:32 -0400 Subject: Augusta Recollections-(#1)-Phil Wiggin's Bachelor Party
Hello out there . . . I'm back from the mountains in West Virginia, have made up a little of the sleep I've missed, and thought I'd share some of the events of the past week . . .
I think I'll send a few separate posts, rather than one long one, to cover a few aspects of the Augusta Heritage Festival (Blues Week), in more digestible bites . . .
Phil Wiggins got married last night. On Thursday night, there was a most remarkable "bachelor" party of sorts . . . it was probably the most memorable "event" of the past week for me . . .
On guitar were John Cephas, Jim Schwall(of Seigal/Schwall fame), Dominic Turner on slide(from Australia-a monster player from those parts), and Richard Smith from Jacksonville-one of the coolest, smoothest guitarist/vocalists I've ever been around . . . on bass was "Robert"-last name unknown-but told me some great stories of meeting Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk-not too bad . . .
On harmonica(this was the order we were sitting and soloed) were Phil Wiggins, myself, Joe Filisko, Allen Holmes, The Iceman, Grant Dermody-a killer player from the Left Coast and teacher of one of the classes, and Henry Fineburg(mostly known as a keys man-but a member of the Howard Levy class of '91-and very sharp player).
We must have played practically non-stop for three hours . . . maybe one of the other guys will fill in some more details, "I'll" just leave the details to each of your imaginations . . .
I "will" say that playing with Phil is always a transformative experience. It seems like we get together at least once each year, and just go at it. The evening before we sat down and started playing, and I believe it was Harp-l'er Allen Adamson who came up to me later and said that we played for over two hours before we stopped(and that's without guitars-only harmonicas-Allen Holmes sat down at some point too) . . .
That(IMO)is one of the things that make the "Augusta" experience different . . . guys like Cephas and Wiggins will stay up with you half the night sitting on a stone wall-and will just play-and not only with the so-called "name" players. I had a half-dozen conversations with guys (or gals)who had what they called their "Augusta" moments, where they got to jam with Phil or Del Rey or sing with Gaye from the Uppity Blues Women . . .
