From: scott d Date: Sun, 6 Oct 1996 02:44:29 -0500 (CDT) Subject: A Close Encounter
Hi All, I've been browsing this news group for a while now, but this is my first post. I was motivated to write by something that happened last night (Friday) that I thought might be of interest to some folks here.
I work in Chicago, and was working late last night. I called home to check my messages, and there was one from a friend who owns a little barbecue joint in the city that sometimes features live blues music. He asked if I'd be interested in coming by and playing with the blues band that he was hastily throwing together to fill in for the band that cancelled out at the last minute (he plays guitar, btw). I didn't have my amp or 'good' harps with me at work, but he said he had a mic and amp there that I could use, and I had a few 'auxiliary' harps in the car, so I went over there as soon as I got out of work.
So we were playing and it was actually sounding pretty good I thought, but a another friend of mine who happened to be there came up to me and said he couldn't hear my harp very well. I was playing through a little no-name amp, and that was a slightly bigger amp also there that no one was using, so in between songs I decided to switch over to that one. As I was doing this, a tall skinny guy with a mustache comes up from the (small) audience and asks me what I'm doing, and says it sounds good from where he's sitting. I sort of blew this guy off a little, and basically just mumbled some BS about trying to get a better sound. He said that it sounded good already to him, and went back and sat down. So after we were playing again I was looking at this guy, and thinking "Where do I know this guy from?" A few songs later he gets up to leave, and as he's walking by stops briefly and mentions that he enjoyed my playing...and then it clicked where I recognized him from. It was Howard Levy.
So of course I said, "Hey, wait a minute, you wanna play a little?" After a *little* bit of encouraging, he finally relents and sits in for a few numbers, and then afterward sits back down and talks for a little while about harps and music, etc. He showed me a few of the customized Joe Filisko harps that he says are the only thing he uses anymore, and was generally a very nice guy. He's not really a blues player, but he IS a helluva harmonica player.
