Roger Clyne Released the album "Sonoran Hope and Madness" in February 2002, I was lucky enough to see him and His band "The Arizona Peacemakers" shortly there after. This would be my second time seeing them live at the same venue, "Davies Uptown Rambler's Club" in Kansas City Missouri.
The way I see it I owe Roger for a couple of things. The first one is for his music, and that it basically taught me to play guitar and sing at the same time. I told him that much and he laughed and said "that's cause my songs are easy!" I think he meant that more as a dig to himself than to me, but you can take it how you'd wish. For that I feel I've been pretty generous, and that I've paid my debt and then some by buying albums, spreading the word and keeping the music alive.
My other debt, and the real reason I was thinking about writing this, is not as easy to pay off. Nope, it's worse, it's a 10 commandment violation, and no, I never coveted his wife. I stole his Harmonica, which I believe is commandment number 5. It was a shitty thing to do and I will use the excuse that I was wasted. Really wasted. I could prove how wasted I was that night if I could somehow conjure pictures of the beast I ended up making out with at the close of the set, but that would be far to unpleasant for all of us, and I need not admit all my sins in one blog.
The set was over, I was excited, I saw it sitting on a monitor and I grabbed it. Horrid Behavior. This is an indie band, not a major label band. It's okay to steal from major label bands. Thou Shall Not Steal from Indie Bands is the third Commandment, I broke 2 in one shot.
My point is this, I owe Roger a Lee Oskar F# Harmonica, and I've decided next opportunity to pay it back with a brand new one. And the other thing I decided was that if I stole it I had better learn to play it. I sort of did at first, I would play it and I learned a few songs, but since then I've sort of slacked, until last week. Last week I found it and one other at my house, and I decided to take it up again. But when do I have time you ask? On the way to and from work. It only takes one hand to drive, and the was I see it, one hand to hold the harmonica. Sure I can't do any of those fancy blue's traveler type things, but I can play a few things. In fact, here's what I've figured out thus far.
"The Red River Valley"
"Good Night Ladies"
"Wasting Away" by the Brian Jonestown Massacre
"Mary Had A Little Lamb" - which doesn't really count because it's part of good night ladies
"Swing Low Sweet Chariot"
and I'm so close to learning "Pink Flamingos" by Electric Six.
I should also note, that this very month in 2002, I was hard at work on an album for my solo project, S no S, the album, "May April". On that cd there was a small snippet of Roger Clyne's Harmonica, played poorly by yours truly. The Song was called "A taunting re-occurrence"... And it is.
Again, Roger, I'm sorry.
1 comment:
"Red River Valley" was one of the demo songs on Pan, a computer music program I had on my very first computer back in grade school. The file name was "redriver" .something and I always had the hardest time trying to think of what a redriver was, as opposed to a driver, and even though I kept figuring it out, I kept forgetting too.
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