Hey harp-o-files. Just want to briefly comment on 3 pertinent items that I recently added to my personal collection. (The usual disclaimers are claimed. I have no biz interests in any of the below.) If this sort of thing is frowned upon by harp-l mgmt. someone please let me know, but until then....
1. [CD] I'd never heard of Lee McBee until I joined harp-l. Like countless other items here on the L this turned out to be a great tip. The CD "I Like the Way You Work It!" (Blacktop 1999) by Mike Morgan and the Crawl featuring Lee McBee (harp and vocals) is a solid recording with a good mix of all original tunes on it. McBee plays harp on about half of them - his playing is tough, soulful and spare. Nothing fancy, just good straight up blues harp, always in control and never more than needed to make each cut work. Lee sings on most of the tracks and his vocals match or exceed his harp work. Nice guitar by Mike Morgan too, and the band maintains an in-the-pocket groove from first track to last.
2. [Magazine] I know many of you are familiar with this publication, some may not be, but I haven't seen it mentioned much on harp-l and I just wanted to say something about the American Harmonica Newsletter. This down home little gem is well worth the small subscription price. The most recent issue (Sept.'99) is just jammed with good stuff, including: cover story on Pierre Lacocque of Mississippi Heat; an article by Joe Filisko on how to recreate his tongue-block trainer out of a plastic milk bottle handle; 10 pages of photos from SPAH '99 including a shot of a room full of ornery looking harp-l'ers; an article entitled 'Pleading the 5th' by Tom Townsley with as good a dissertation on 5th position blues diatonic playing as I've ever seen, and much much more. Harp-l members are frequent contributors to AHN.
3. [Specialty Item] Last but not least, a few words about the Harmonica John Harp Vest. After 20+ years of stupidly fumbling around for the right harp I finally decided to get organized (duh). First I tried the Hohner harp belt. Verdict: forget it. It's so hard to get the harps back in the pockets that I'd rather go back to fumbling - I wound up giving it to my dog so she could carry around a day's supply of milk bones. I thought about the bandolero thing, but naah, too close to my Sicilian roots. So then I remembered HJ's brief (and humble) h-l statement some months back about his harp vest and I decided to fire him off an email. After a few quick questions asked and answered I zipped John a check for $75.00 (bargain) and within 10 days the vest was at my door. Viola! what a beautifully designed mix of form and function. Custom made for your measurements with adjustments at the neck and back to fine tune the fit. 12 harps easily accessible and put-back-able, right there on your chest. And speaking of "what to wear" on stage, it looks pretty darn sheik too, I must say. Arrange those tin tacos in the circle of 5ths you will never again fumble for the right key harp at the right time. A touch of pure genius. Now, if HJ would only come out with some holsters for my CX12's....hey, John!
