Adam B Harris

Playing and performing music is one of those things that you can keep on going with long after you've stopped doing other stuff. Provided you are not brain fried or too arthritic there are still many performance opportunities. Recently I had the pleasure of playing with Sid, an 89 year old violinist from Perth.

This picture was taken at a beaut cafe that is at Woodbridge House, out the back of my old high school Governor Stirling in Guildford. I was booked to play harp for a wedding and reception. Many of you know that I don't usually take on weddings but it was a sane mature aged couple (no bridezilla things going on here) that I met up at Mundaring while playing at the Artisan Bakery Cafe there. Given that most people are kind of down on weddings the second (or third etc) time around, I found their attitude to be refreshing and figured that if they were that keen then I could take the time to learn their tunes and do the long drive down the hill for the day.

Sid is the father of the bride. He has played violin in various ensembles and is still active today as a player. His pet like is gypsy music - you know like all that hungarian stuff where they do a million notes per second. At one stage Wendy (the bride) asked me if I could do some of that for the reception. Well, I listened to a few things and asked around on the Harp Column Forum if anybody knew anything suitable to play and had a tinker around with modifying some klezmer tunes but in the end found it was a bit beyond me. I like to think I can do most things, but that kind of music isn't really what the harp was designed for. No matter, the couple had plenty of ideas of things that they wanted to hear and I tried to accomodate them as much as possible.

Anyway, getting back to Sid. At the eleventh hour, the groom phoned me up and asked if Sid could get up and do a spot with me. I was quite delighted, as I had already planned on bringing my violin with me and seeing if I could coax him into playing something with me. It was suggested that we play a tune called "He", which is a hymn that I had been asked to play during the registry signing (boy doesn't it take forever to sign things - I'd forgotten all about that). Trouble is, I had learnt the song in Bb, not a friendly key for violinists at all. Nevertheless, on the day Sid took this in his stride and without complaint and we performed an unrehearsed version of He. Sid followed this up with an impromptu version of "Flight of the Bumble Bee". I let him fly solo here, as I had no intention of playing THAT unrehearsed.

I got the impression that Sid is very humble about his playing and his acheivements and his attitude was on the apologetic side as if he felt that he was impinging on my gig. Well I have to say, it was my pleasure to have played with him, as I aspire not to retire!

It was a great day. The cafe owner/manager and staff were professional to deal with (and speaking as a musician that has played many many venues, not all are). I highly recommend them.

I'm greatful to Wendy and John for giving me the opportunity to play at their wedding and for emailing this photo (I was worried that nobody had the presence of mind to take one) to help me share the story.

Decided to take the scenic route to York on saturday and in the process nearly ran over dugite, goanna and goanna. Didn't bother stopping for pics cause I figured they would have vamoused by the time I was out there. Then after a quiet day in York I got lost on the way back. Decided to go through Grass Valley and investigate back roads. I sort of thought I knew where I was going but ended up going in a big circle.
 This is somebodies wheat out the back of Grass Valley somewhere. Not very big. Probably not a lot of rain out there this year, just like everywhere else. They will have to pull it up soon (they have some fancy farmer word for doing that which escapes me at the moment).
Kept going around in a circle and ending up here. Kind of a mobius strip of land in the middle of nowhere if you like.
On sunday I paid an off schedule visit to the Artisan Bakery Cafe in Mundaring and played for a couple of hours. Figured it would be busy there because it was market day, but the Dome that has been built down the road has put a serious dent in their business.

Ended up in Bakers Hill as advertised and played what was left of the morning/early afternoon. Met a guy called Ryan and his very hot girlfriend. Ryan plays sax with a ska band in Perth. I let him play with my harp. He didn't let me play with his very hot girlfriend. Oh well, that happens I suppose.

Monday, back out at Bakers again, usual crowd, Rita and Eddie et al. A guy came through who has been touring around the countryside in this:


Not a great photo, but behind the drivers seat is another seat and behind that he is pulling a little trailer. He bought his pie without sauce and pulled sauce out of a little compartment in the trailer.

Now why didn't I think of that?

Hi All,

I always have lots of adventures when I am out playing, regardless of the type of gig, some unusual usually happens (oxymoron?). This is the first in a series of blogs I've decided to write. I'm going to carry a camera with me and just try and capture things as they are happenning and report.

Last week I did two gigs for the State Liberal Party. Unfortunately, I couldn't really take photos because there were heaps of security guys with dark glasses and earpieces, talking into their sleeves, that kind of thing. On the first night I wasn't really sure to that I was in the right place because I got to the venue and there was nobody to be seen bar a black cat. Then, I saw this in the carpark:



All those matching Commonwealth cars were a dead giveaway, they had to be close.

And sure enough they weren't far away. It turned out they were all very nice, civilized people. For some reason I thought it would be more debauch with skulling races and people yelling and swearing. Nothing like that at all. They must just save all that for the television cameras when they are in session.

The Minister for Transport and the Member for Jandakot bought CD's. So somebody must have been listening.

I ran into a few of them on the saturday when I was doing my street gig in York. It seemed like they enjoyed their trip up to the country.

It was a quiet saturday, but I was accosted by a drunk woman as I was packing up and loading my stuff in the car (she wasn't with the Liberal Party). I wanted to get a photo of her, but was worried that she wouldn't stay still long enough.

On Sunday, I was out at Baker's Hill. Not much traffic out there, despite the nice day. Then a visit from this dugite:

Only a little foot long one it turns, out but it was lightening quick a probably quite deadly. The tough looking motorcycle club that had pulled up at the time were pretty wary of it. Eventually a sensible person (not me), got hold of a broom and relocated it.

On monday I was out at Baker's again and ran into the Constable Care Crew. They go around to various schools doing a puppet show and were on a country stint. Wish I had have taken photos of that. I've never really had a camera before, so I am not used to taking pictures of everything that I should do.

With time....