Sagittarius
When I was around 10 or 11 years old, my school did aptitude testing on all the kids. My scores were very high in music. At the same time, I was taking keyboard and organ lessons, and I was terrible at it. I think that had to do with the fact that I didn't like practicing and I wanted to be outside playing baseball. I also played the trumpet in high school, but I thought it was kind of nerdy, so I gave that up too.
Later on, in my early twenties, I sort of accidentally fell into playing the harmonica. A friend of a close friend of mine came down to Windsor from Toronto, and this guy played a real Chicago-blues style harmonica, which I gravitated to. So I just started to mess around a bit and ask him a bunch of questions.
For the first time I had found something that I really loved. I couldn't find a harmonica teacher; they were pretty rare, especially back then. But it seemed I could just listen to my records and figure things out. I didn't go out and play professionally until I was in my mid to late-twenties, so I guess you could say I was a later bloomer and came to music in a strange way.
To this day, I still sort of feel like I'm always catching up. When other musicians would talk about chord progressions, the bridge or the chorus, I always felt like I had to learn the stuff that everyone else already knew.
As far as the harmonica goes, I feel confident about it, even if it's not a capital 'C' confident.
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Being a Northern NY boy, I
By Seth God of Chaos, September 12, 2007 at 17:51Being a Northern NY boy, I guess I'm pretty much the counterpart to Mr. Hoppe in spirit. I've always felt I was more Canadian than American; perhaps due to Kingston being closer than my state capital of Albany. I still pull out my Holy Trilogy to shock and awe so-called music buffs: Wide Mouth Mason, Big Sugar, and The Tea Party. Having grown up on the stuff circulating through Canada and the re-emergence of rock radio in the States, nothing's really sounded as fresh or as innovative since. There are a few gems to be had these days, but there's a lot of rough before you get to any diamond. "Heated" still has a special purpose in my life, my brother and I start and end pretty much every long roadtrip we take listening to that. Probly not much draw for blues bands in South Dakota, but if you'd like to drop in with the Witnesses, Kelly, I can sure guarantee there'll be one guy up front making noise. Shame the Canadian labels were the ones who got squeezed. They've mostly blown the American talent out of the water, musically speaking. It's a sad day when guys like Big Sugar get dropped so someone can sign Good Charlotte. I mean, c'mon...
It was good to hear from Mr.
By Drew Richardson, July 25, 2007 at 14:04It was good to hear from Mr. Chill. I was at my first Big Sugar show in Waterloo, Iowa in 1995 at the Electric Park Ballroom. I was a college student at UNI. This would have been the tour for 500 lbs. They played about four songs, and in the middle of the song the drummer stood up, collapsed, and knocked over half his drum kit. Mr. Chill ran to him right away. Gordie was playing so loud that he didn't even notice. He played a little while longer and then noticed he was the only one playing. A half hour later they took the drummer out on a stretcher. He was dead. He looked like he was in his early 20s and had a mohawk. His name was Walter, and he was much better than the drummer that played on the album. It was very sad.
It was 12 years ago, and I can't be certain everything happened exactly the way I remember it. I bought 500 lbs immediately after that show. A lot of my friends heard it and bought it too. They never really became known very well in the states. Too bad. Instead we get Rush and Nickelback. That's not fair!