[Harp-L] Brendan Power

[Tony Eyers <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Around 10 years ago I struggling with fiddle tunes on harmonica, and 
wondering whether they could even be done. Then someone at a festival 
mentioned Brendan Power. Some time after that, late one night at work, I 
found him on the Internet, along with a clip form his album "New Irish 
Harmonica". We take Internet music and video for granted now, but it was 
only getting started then. I remember the opening bars of "Drunken 
Landlady", crackly, almost from another planet, but amazingly clear at 
the same time. I knew then that the music could be played, and I'm 
forever grateful to Brendan for this.

About a year later, I met Brendan at Jim Conway's place (Jim is a very 
well known Australian harmonica player and mentor). Jim mentioned that I 
played some of Brendan's stuff, and we were soon  ripping through the 
Drunken Landlady set, which I since learnt. Its a rare thing for your 
favorite tracks to take life in this way.

Brendan is a harmonica player's harmonica player. He loves meeting other 
players, discussing harmonicas, playing stuff and getting involved. He 
fits in with whoever is there, and adapts what he plays to let others 
feel comfortable. His harmonica case is a masterpiece of compact 
engineering. He would be great value at SPAH.

PS During one of our afternoons together, Brendan saw me bashing at a 
guitar (pretty much all I do with the instrument). The following night 
he had a pickup gig at a local venue, I was there. He asked if I could 
accompany him, playing guitar on his tune "Seargent Major Minor". I said 
sure, grabbed the chart, ran to my car, got my guitar (which I rarely 
carry), and stumbled through it a few times. Back inside, we had a run 
through back stage. Brendan gave me a look, and asked if I was up to it. 
At this point, I couldn't back down. We went on stage, and played it. I 
got hopelessly lost in the B part, but somehow managed to keep going. 
Brendan was very complementary after we were done.

That was my first time on stage with a guitar.

Tony Eyers
Australia
www.harmonicatunes.com