I Had A Brush With Greatness

[Timbofood]

I forgot, I got to a "meet and greet" backstage with Lyle Lovett after chatting with one of the backup singers who gave me a pair of tickets for my first wedding anniversary!

[mrmando]

A few years ago I went upstairs to some mucketymuck hotel suite at Wintergrass ... I think I was invited up there by either Mike Marshall or one of my friends who's a Wintergrass board member. Among the people standing around talking, drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers, were some skinny red-haired kid with horn rims and an older, stoop-shouldered bearded guy, neither of whom I recognized. Later on I decided to go hear Tony Trischka's new band, and it turned out the red-haired kid was the guitarist/lead vocalist -- namely Michael Daves -- and the older guy was Tony himself!

Others ... I dunno ... Bruce Babbitt ... interviewed Jack LaLanne for a health magazine once ... when I lived in LA I bumped into people like T Bone Burnett, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter MacNicol.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I've played in front of Adam Steffey, David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Radim Zenkl, Don Julin - all at the Symposium. I've jammed with Jim Richter and Don Julin... I've jammed with Marla Fibish... I've jammed with Joe Foley... I jam semi-regularly with Bruce Harvie...

I wonder do they ever say they jammed with ME?

[journeybear]

... went down to Key West for a few days. I did have a brush with greatness there, when we went to an outdoor bar where Journeybear was playing with Rob Ernest. Had a great time, Rob and JB sat with us at our table during a break, and JB actually let me hold and strum his Gibson. I got to meet a lot of bluegrass greats on that trip, Thile, The McCourys, Tim O'Brien, Peter Rowan, Steep Canyon Rangers, etc, but the couple hours we spent listening to and visiting with JB and Rob was a true highlight ..

Too funny! I ain't all that, can't hardly seem to get recorded even after all these years ... But it was great meeting you. In fact, I've had very positive experiences with every Café member I've met. The most recent experience was getting Dave Reiner and his son Andy to sit in with my current band a couple of times when they were in town for their annual holidays visit. (Getting ten people on the "stage" at the Irish bar we play at every Friday night was an accomplishment in itself.) Andy is quite the young phenom on the fiddle, and the gig he played with the stripped-down version of the band at Blue Heaven was the best gig we've had, from a musicianship standpoint. BTW, if I recall correctly, he roomed with Sam Grisman when they were at Berklee, which gives me some sort of Dawg-near-miss.

I did almost bump into Grisman once at Winterhawk - literally. I was hanging around in the backstage area, wangling a bit of dinner, when suddenly some spry picking sprang up just a few feet behind me. Turned around and there he was, doing some impromptu jamming with some other folks. I somehow managed to maintain my cool and balance. A sweet if fuzzy memory ...

[Timbofood]

My band played a festival down in Jones MI. while we were warming up, Roland White came up behind us and joined in on a KY. Colonels song we were doing back then. That was cool!

[Blues Harp Tom]

I've taken Augusta workshops with Rich delGrosso, Steve James, Andra Faye and Seth Rosen, if that counts.

D.H.

I have attended Augusta Blues Week three times (for harmonica). I always tried to sit near Rich and Steve at meal times just to hear their stories! Great fun.

[nickster60]

I have a few I brushes with greatness. I had a brief chat with Itzhak Perlman in St Armand's Circle, Sarasota.
I got to chat with Marty Stuart at the Manatee County Fair, he has great band if you ever get the chance to see them.
Spoke with Donald Duck Dunn a few times he was a local resident.
I have had some brief conversations and was invited into AJ Foyts trailer during the Grand Prix of St Petersburg.
Met Dr J at Pats Steaks in Philly many years ago.
I use to work out at the same Gym as the wrestler Bob Backland when I lived in Ct many many years ago.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Time to changes this thread name to brushes with mediocrity... if not obscurity...

[mrmando]

I once traded some instruments with Eddie Sheehy.

[johnhgayjr]

Had a few over the years. Wound up on a shuttle bus with Del and a different shuttle with Alan O'Bryant. And got to meet a few of my mando heroes...

[nickster60]

Eddie
Just about everyone in music or sports has more notoriety and perceived greatness than the majority of the mandolinist in the world.
Sad but true.

[JimRichter]

I had the good fortune to jam with the incomparable Eddie Sheehy

[bryankimsey]

I went to South Plains College back in the early days and several now-famous people were next door to me or bathroom mates or what not. I've interviewed tons of people for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. And then at Kaufman Kamp and such, you can brush with anyone there- I played guitar with Roland White, for instance (and tried to just "play guitar" and not get star-struck). And so forth and so on. BUT there is one time that I distinctly remember because of the unexpectedness of it and that was Kerrville in '82. I'd driven over from Las Cruces NM for the festival and was jamming off to the side of the stage when I heard this great mandolin chop in my right ear. I looked over and there's Mark O'Connor standing at my elbow. I wasn't expecting him to be there and so it kind of jolted me but he just winked and nodded and we kept on playing. Turns out he was there to win the Mandolin Championship the next day.

Another time, in Denver, I got on the elevator and someone said "Hold that for us!" It was Ralph Stanley and Ralph II. In spite of having interviewed practically all my guitar heroes for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine (I mean, Tony Rice kind of sealed the deal), I couldn't think of a thing to say to the Ralphs and had to settle with holding the door open for them.

[evanreilly]

[jim simpson]

I guess my biggest thrill was opening for Bill Monroe plus the photo op. Bill joined us on a gospel song during our set. Dawg was gracious. Tim was in town (fellow Wheeling hometown boy), John Duffy was a big man.

[Larry Simonson]

Nearly 40 years ago I was playing 'Golden Slippers ' on the fiddle in a jam at a BG festival in Maine when a mandolin player walked in and said "Play that one again". I later learned it was Frank Wakefield.

[journeybear]

Speaking of Tim O', some people who have a local access TV show were filming my band a couple of weeks ago, and one of the producers said she is friends with Tim, and he stays at her place when he comes down for a visit. And she lives just two blocks from me. So I hope she lets me know when he comes into town and wants to do a little pickin'.

[JimRichter]

Some cooler moments:
-Performed a set on stage w/ Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch doing Neil Young & Dylan tunes
-Opening for one my Strat heroes, Anson Funderburgh
-Being heckled by one of the big men of classic Chicago blues, Dave Meyers, while he was on stage at Antones (I was a little too inebriated)
-hanging around Clarence Gatemouth Brown for an evening
-having David Grisman email me to buy something I had on the classifieds
-when I was a wee lad of 22, I played in a country-rock band near Cincinnati. We played a well known country music bar (at that time) in Cincy one Saturday evening. The manager asked our band, while on break, to let Scotty Anderson and his band play. If you know of Scotty Anderson, he's one of the powerhouses of the country/Atkins/chickin pickin school of guitar. He played my Strat and left me in awe. Needless to say, it was hard to go on after that.

[nickster60]

I also hung out with Clarence Gatemouth Brown very interesting guy. He also smoked some pretty interesting stuff in that pipe.

[AlanN]

Had a few over the years. Wound up on a shuttle bus with Del and a different shuttle with Alan O'Bryant. And got to meet a few of my mando heroes...

John,

Was Roland squatting?

[AlanN]

One of my gyros...

[Patrick Hull]

My favorite "brush with celebrity" story involves the son of a good friend. The lad was, shall we say, a bit sheltered. He also was, at a young age, a pilot who did some commercial work. One day he had flown some folks to Atlanta, and was waiting around in the pilot's lounge when he struck up a conversation with a fellow pilot. Turns out the other fellow owned his own very nice jet and the youngster wants to see it, so he gets the tour, and realizes this is a wealthy guy with a very nice plane. So the young man says, "Should I know you?" To which the other pilot says, "Well, probably, I'm Jimmy Buffett." True story, and that's the way to handle a brush with a big celebrity.

[johnhgayjr]

John,

Was Roland squatting?

I'm about 6'3" and I'm guessing Roland is about 5'6" -- maybe?? Nicest guy you'd ever wanna meet.

[Laird]

Bought Carmen Appice a beer in Daytona Beach back in the early 80s. He had a puffy mane of purple hair and tight red pants. Hard to imagine him looking like that when he recorded with Jeff Beck. Or maybe not.

[JimRichter]

you are correct sir.