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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Dave Harris

As evening falls on a cloudy September day, chilly office workers hurry home sparing little more than a glance for the lone musician setting up to begin his day's work. The musician is Dave Harris, a causeway artist I have featured briefly in an earlier post. I have always been a bit timid about attempting a more detailed post on him for fear of not doing justice to his amazing artistry. Dave is a one man band. This may not seem like much now when, with sound loops and synthesizers, artists can easily accompany themselves on a variety of instruments. But Dave is a true one man band in the traditional sense that he plays a number of instruments simultaneously. At various times during his performances he sings and plays the violin, harmonica, banjo, guitar, mandolin, drum, cymbal and fotdella, usually two or three and sometimes four at a time. You begin to understand why I fear to run out superlatives when I add that he plays all of these instruments superbly.

It's easy to be mesmerized when he picks up his fiddle and accompanies himself on the harmonica, but the mind boggles when you hear the steady thumping bass line he's adding with his right foot on the fotdella and the crisp cymbal accents from the "high hat" cymbal he's playing with his left foot at the same time.

In this photo can be seen (from the left) the fotdella (looks like a bloated guitar and doubles as a cd rack), the suitcase bass drum (that black suitcase with a poster on it), high hat cymbal, tambourine and other percussion instruments, a banjo (in the back), two violins and two steel bodied guitars. Dave's playing a 12 string guitar and wearing a harmonica rack.

His wide range of musical skills enables him to express his respect for and profound knowledge of traditional American music, especially the blues. He's a true scholar of this musical form with a collection of aged recordings numbering in the thousands. Sit down and listen to him for an hour and it's like a short course in the history of the blues. He always gives credit to the artist who wrote or originally sang the song and may throw in some background information as well. It's a rich experience and a privilege to sit and listen to this musician. Below is a photo I took earlier this month that conveys a little of the warmth and humanity that mark his performances. If you're ever in Victoria, make sure you set aside some time to see him play. Skip the famous gardens and castles if you must, but don't miss Dave Harris, a matchless entertainer.




Below is a video of Dave performing Goin' to Chicago.


And, Shake, Rattle and Roll
More Dave Harris to come....

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This really makes an interesting post. You obviously put some thought into it and did some extra work. It will be an inspiration to all who come and visit. Nice work.

Petrea Burchard said...

Nice shooting! Love the videos. I like the way you give us Dave, the instruments, the audience and the atmosphere. (Smoothly, too.) A thoughtful, heartfelt post.

Benjamin Madison said...

abraham lincoln - you're the king of interesting, thoughtful posts, so thank you for those kind words.

petrea, glad you enjoyed this post. I can't take credit for the videos - they were shot by other people and posted on YouTube. If there's any real credit for this post it should go to Dave Harris, a remarkable performer.

USelaine said...

You really give your heart to these causeway artists, and it comes through in your posts on them. I'm still waiting to see your promised caricature, or at least a look at your childhood one... 6^)

Thank you for your kind words in Pasadena.

Knoxville Girl said...

That close up shot is just wonderful - look at the light and colors - really captured the spirit of the artist. And a very well written post indeed.

Kris McCracken said...

I do like this post a lot. Dave looks like he could tell a tale in a song.

Tash said...

I really like the 1st photo. It's just missing a Good Year blimp. :)

I loved your B&W of the boy looking on that USelaine refered to. It's actually fantastic photo. Glad it escaped the trash bin. Last week I went & saw the photo show (100 years landscape & people photos in LA) at Huntington Library that Petrea & Pasadena Adjacent recommended. So I think 50 years from now, that photo of yours will be on display.

Benjamin Madison said...

Elaine, thanks for returning my words with interest. My caricature artist friend and I keep searching for a mutually opportune time.

Thanks KG, I worked more than usual on the text for this because Dave Harris is an unusually talented performer. There aren't many one man bands around any more and even when they were more common it would have been difficult to find one as multi-talented as Dave is.

Thanks Kris.

Tash, yes the first photo is a bit busy but I wanted to show Dave in the real surroundings where he performs - in the midst of crowds of people, vendors and vehicles, etc., who are often not paying any attention. Usually when I photograph street musicians I get right in close but I decided with Dave I wanted to come in from a distance so the first photo is from much further away than I would usually try to photograph anyone. You have to look for him. The second one is closer and it's like looking in the window of a musical instrument store when you see what's stacked up around him. The third one is much warmer in color and feeling, much more intimate and points more towards the sensitive artist than to the technical virtuoso. Well, that's a lot of words but it's why there's a lot of noise in the first photo....

Meg said...

We have a tower suspiciously similar to that one in the neighboring township of Motueka. Hummmmm....

Unknown said...

Hi i was wondering if i could put your photos of dave on the last fm page for dave harris, his page looks a bit sorry at the moment, some bald skinny guy has hijacked his photo

Cheers

Benjamin Madison said...

@Tony
Please contact Dave Harris if you want to do anything with his photos. At this point the answer is no, you cannot use these photos on last fm or elsewhere.

Unknown said...

Hi benjamin, last fm says that you need the owners permission to upload a photo, i take it that's you. I just wanted to upload the photo because i'd like to see his face displayed when i played his cd not the other guy that's on there. No worries if you dont want to share them, they are great photos.

Cheers