Holy Harmonica Heaven! This is maybe the best blues performance I've ever seen captured on video- but I've seen Slim in person, I know there's a lot more out there! More Watermelon Slim footage on RU-vid!
this cat just killed it in Halifax with a harp switch feature on Call My Job - for a minute I thought it was Al Blake on stage, also from Okalahoma I recall now
I got to see him and another Kiwi guy playing with him friday night great harps player his resonator took a sickie that night so he had to plug in the electric gat but we got a great rendition of how that harp should be played. Thanks to a friend Craig I got to see him awesome
I assume he's Canadian, is he? He is after all, wearing a poppy, which I don't think Americans do - the British do, and I take it that Canadians do too. Also - look at him changing harps mid-solo. Which means he's effortlessly changing the "position" of playing, seamlessly. I think he's gone from second position to third. Either way, as a harp player I just want to go away and shoot myself. What's the point of carrying on? *despairs* Still, I sing better than him. Thank God for something...
2nd position, D harp, then 1st position, A harp, then later 2nd position on the LOW D harp, and back to regular D harp. Your voice may be clearer than mine, I'm betting you're better looking, lol. I will never forget this gig, because it was the very last The Workers played until our Reunion Tour 3 years later.
Where are you playing a low D??? You must have to rework the reeds to get them to sound if it's anywhere near the bottom and there's no point in playing anywhere else. I've got a lovely low F, which is a joy to play, but you'd be way down from there... But the A in 1st, and the low D in 2nd must be almost identical in range... What else are you getting from the A that makes it worth the change? As for the rest, I can "gravelly" with the best of them, perhaps I have a better articulation, but actually I am scrabbling about for any way to hold up my head! And you have that "grizzled", "used", sort of look that gets young girls into bed with old buggers like us... Fab sound - I couldn't get near you. For proof have a look at "The Ascensial Blues Band". Reverbnation, fb, Soundcloud, you know the stuff. Come back and critique me to your heart's content!
In fact, I am not actually Canadian, only Honorary. I have played and driven through 8 Provinces, played from Whistler to Halifax. I have had once-in-a-lifetime experiences one after another in your great land. I recorded my last record but two, Golden Boy, in Winnipeg. As to the poppy: I am a Vietnam veteran, son of a WWII veteran, grandson of a WWI veteran, grandson on the mother's side of a Spanish American War veteran, and on back. We have always served, though I will be the last Homans or Beecher that will ever take the oath and wear the uniform. One of the things I do each and every show I do is play "The Last Post" (Taps). I have made it a feature of my show ever since early 2005, when I learned that Canada had just lost its first combat death since Korea in our Afghanistan War. I was playing in Sackville, NB, and I began the custom that night. Mourning is an appropriate and essential part of the blues. I have encountered Veterans' Day Poppies in America, but frankly, you Canadians have more pride than we do. It shows in your work. I am proud to wear the Canadian poppy. J'aime le Canada tout entier, et je voudrais vachement revenir au Canada, pour voir tout mes amis, de cote a cote. Hier annee j'ai visite ma 27ieme pays, La Republique Czech. Sacre coronavirus! Peut-etre la prochaine annee... Singing is 80% a matter of being on key. I was a choir boy in the Anglican Church for my boyhood, and I got to hear a very wide range of music. Frank Sinatra was an influence, as well as Ray Charles. Ciao for now, eh? Watermelon Slim
