[Harp-L] I'm Gonna Listen to 'Em

["Richard Bush" <rcush@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you're gonna play blues, then by golly you better be listening to harp 
players.  Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonny Boy I & ll, Sonny Terry, George 
Smith, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Sam Myers, Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, 
Howlin' Wolf, Billy Boy Arnold, etc...all play blues with unique styles, 
tone and phrasing that'd take more lifetimes than I'm allowed to master. 
I'll keep listening to 'em, thank you.  My mistake is I haven't listen hard 
enough.

Then, I'll continue listening to the guys that really listened to those 
guys, figured them out, and added what they mastered with their own flair 
and ideas, such as Kim Wilson, Gary Smith, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, Jason 
Ricci, Adam Gussow, Sugar Ray Norcia, Ian Collard, Mitch Kasmar, Jerry 
Portnoy, Paul Oscher,  etc...

Then, I'll continue buying instructional material from guys that have REALLY 
listened and figured out what I haven't, so I can get further down the road. 
I ain't listening to sax, piano or guitar licks when there are still a 
million and two licks from those cats listed above that I haven't gotten 
around to yet.  And, if some of those guys copped from sax, piano or guitar 
players, then I steal what they've come up with, because life is too darned 
short and I'm getting closer to the shorter end of it each and every year. 
And by the way, few of them sound like one another--and I'll doubt that I'll 
ever sound like any of 'em, but I'll have a blast working at it.  And 
listening, REALLY listening.

See ya--
Rick