Videos hosted by Michael Erlewine

I came across some footage shot a few years ago of me actually playing blues after some 42 years of not playing anything. It's not a pretty sight, but by now you folks know that I have no shame. If it is something that I did, I can't resist telling you about it, and it looks like I'm going to do that here again too, although I did think seriously of just deep-sixing it. So how did this come about?

Well, probably because I hang out (peripherally) with a lot of young musicians, especially my daughter May and her husband Seth Bernard. Anyway, we got to talking' and before I knew it I had talked myself into thinking that I could arise from the dead (musically speaking) and just play again. That turned out to be wishful thinking on my part, but I thought it anyway. It's a reoccurring dream I have.

And this was to take place at the annual Harvest Gathering in Lake City, Michigan in late September, when perhaps 100 bands would converge for three intense days (and nights) of playing with and for each other on four stages. That was coming right up and I knew there was no way that I could get my chops back playing harmonica in just a few weeks, not after over four decades of doing nothing. Well, my family, on vary rare occasions, perhaps hears the lone wail of a harmonica coming from my office, but even that does not happen even once a year.

Yet I still look in the mirror trying to see myself as I was, and a part of me still wants to just get up and play music as I used to. If I really felt that way, I should have done it all along, but I was busy doing other things with music, more on the documentation side, sharing musical treasures with folks through the All-Music Guide, which I founded long ago.

So, most of you will want to ignore this post, but I know that some of my Facebook friends will take some of what I hope is not too wicked glee in seeing me expose my musical state so abundantly. My harmonica playing is limping along, but my singing would take some time to recover. The music is still there inside me, it just is harder for it to get out now.

Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWlm2BM_-tc