I Can’t Comprehend What He’s Doing

The reason Sal gave for not asking me to fill in while in New Orleans was concern I was too busy, and he's right. Last Halloween, we made an offer on a house in Springfield, Massachusetts, which was accepted, and closed on November 30th. On December 1st, our Jersey City home went on the market. We received 11 offers over the next seven days, and accepted one. We moved on January 21st, and closed on the 30th. We are still living with boxes, but have made a lot of progress. I couldn't help taking up The Burning Wood challenge.

I lived in Jersey City for 29 years. I like to say the only thing left on my bucket list was getting out of town. Most of the friends I originally met had already left, including former bandmates. D Lux, Friends Of Harry co-founder (which later morphed into Chariot!, Foglizard, and The Smoove Sailors), moved to Holyoke in the early '00's. Visiting over the years, we got to know the region, and that's how we ended up in nearby Springfield, founded by William Pynchon, ancestor of Thomas, home of The Basketball Hall of Fame, Milton Bradley, birthplace of Doctor Seuss, and other trivia points.

photo courtesy of Zillo

Packing up The Crack Palace (my studio) was difficult, I felt I'd waited all my life for it. The new house had potential and a nice big room on the third floor (left dormer). It needed paint, had lights, but no electrical outlets. The electrician hired for the job had a hard time of it, but eventually overcame all the obstacles presented by a 114 year old house, and two weeks ago I was able to start setting up the gear. I'm thrilled with the result. It's indeed a bigger, nicer room.

First peek at The New Crack Palace

Enough about me. A few days ago I saw a video by YouTube guitarist Rhett Shull about Sal's friend Charlie Hunter, from which I stole the title for this post. 

While I'm familiar with Charlie's work, and have several of his CD's (still boxed, and waiting for shelves I'll build in a couple weeks), I've never seen him play, and that's what we're looking at today. 

This is one of the clips Rhett shared, and if you close your eyes, it sounds like there is a bass player, a rhythm guitar, and a lead, but watching him handle all three roles at once, with such wit and taste, is indeed hard to comprehend. It's also fun watching his face express where it all comes from. Charlie is also the bandleader, and near the end you can see him pat the top of his head, which is a signal to the other players, to go back to the top, and from there they improvise the finish. This is what music is all about.

I wouldn't even open my guitar case in his presence.

See you tomorrow,

-BBJ