Platinum Bids Farewell to Kevin Harry + The Quartet at Greenbriar Mall

Kevin has left the band before;  this time may well be his last hurrah.  He has worked hard to achieve some new lofty goals, currently performing at Gwinnett County's Aurora Theatre production of Les Misérables.  He has left Platinum, but he will always be a significant visual presence, deftly announcing, singing, dancing, and entertaining as no other can.  His dancing in particular has raised the bar for any front person.  Soul Man always won over the most fickle crowd.  On this night, at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead, Virginia wisely chose to feature him on one of his greatest features, John Hiatt's Have a Little Faith in Me.  I watched from out front and it was a strong performance, heartfelt with that magic touch of drama that Kevin can seemingly summon up at will.  He is destined for many great stages and I imagine he will always be welcome should he once again have a change of heart.

Stay current with Kevin Harry and all of his performance stories: Kevin Harry's Blog

I had been working on playing the guitar part to Fleetwood Mac's Landslide.  I was, and am still, hoping to play it along with Derek as 2 guitars playing it more or less in unison.  It's a great "Travis picking" exercise with a nice little pause in each bar.  I've learned that the little pause provides a much-needed rest; this tune is a real endurance test on the picking hand in particular.  It doesn't make it easier that I'm using my 12-string.  The 12-string gives it that eerie studio-quality sound that Lindsey nailed on the 1st Fleetwood Mac album on which he and this song were featured.  The major challenge, and I learned it rather well on the gig, was to synch my finger picking with that of Derek.  At sound check, it went well.  I fumbled a little bit; still getting this pattern under my fingers.  I practiced a bit in the green room.  On the show, I couldn't hear Derek as well.  Should have had DJ put him in Glen's monitor; I don't have one.  It was hard to hear and play and I was very nervous.  Good stuff.  I don't play guitar as much as I used to, obviously, but it is nice to revisit some of those techniques.  I never remember having so much trouble with the open D/F# fingering.  In particular, moving from open G to that chord.  This is all capoed at the third fret, as the song is in Eb and we are playing open C.  I never used to use a capo, that's for sure.  What a great tool the capo is, but bassists certainly don't use one!  Below are some pics taken with Virginia's phone - mine are at the bottom.  Lighthearted all around.  All the best to Kevin!

It was a double header, with 4 of us playing some jazz and oldies at Greenbriar Mall.  Can't say I had ever been there before.  It's in SW Atlanta, and the economy has not exactly helped it a whole lot.  It does still offer a Macy's and some other boutique shops.  We were hired to play a 1 hour set in the middle of the day to supplement a DJ and some other youthful entertainment.  I felt a might bit out of place, more musically than socially.  To Glen's credit, he never makes me feel too bad about knowing certain tunes.  He asked me if I could play EWF's Can't Hide Love.  I couldn't.  I remember sort of learning it years ago for Martay, but we never did it.  Well, I sort of learned it again, but as this blog is being typed more than a month after the fact, I guess I have forgotten it again.  Shame!  The bass is really interesting, with it's neo-chromatic walk-up and the obligatory shortened notes accentuating the slow-burn funk groove.  I gotta relearn and really commit it to memory.  We ended up playing Lonnie's Lament, Easy, & Purple Rain, among others.  It worked out well, and I received a few nice compliments after the show as I made my way to the bathroom and back before loading up and heading up to Buckhead.