Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers recently returned to Boston after competing in the International Blues Competition in Memphis. The band got as far as the semi-finals, and, although they didn’t make it into the finals, they still value their experience and their memories of Memphis.
Winning the Boston Blues challenge months earlier was a huge high. Harpe was surprised, though. The other bands were electric and heavier sounding. “How can we beat them with our little old Delta blues,” she said she had asked herself at the time.
“I think it was really close.” After that victory, Harpe and her Delta Swingers received support from the Boston Blues Society who had hosted the Boston contest. Fundraising efforts featuring Harpe and many other notable local players made it possible for this band from Jamaica Plain to go to Memphis. As time went by, Harpe and her boys became more sure of themselves.
Aside from Harpe who sings and plays acoustic guitar, her band features bass player Jim Countryman, harmonica player Richard “Rosy” Rosenblatt, and drummer/vocalist Bob Nisi. Heading down to Memphis, Harpe and her band mates got themselves psyched up and confident, and Harpe kept saying, ’We’re gonna win! We‘re gonna win.’”
Harp and her band mates befriended down there a blues band from Israel. Harpe had read an article about these Israelis players, and, at the end of the article they too were saying they’re going to win.
“We realized there were a hundred and thirty bands out there going, ‘We’re gonna win!” After their first night, Harpe and her Delta swingers were at a jam at an old theater called The New Daisy when they found out they had won. Competition officials were making the rounds to each venue to announce the winners at that stage of the game.
“When they got to our venue, we thought something was up because the guy who was MCing every night came running out, and they said he’s going to do the announcement for this one.”
The announcer had gotten more excited about Harpe’s band each night when they were playing the first two quarter finals. He came up to make the announcement, and after he had announced they won, Harpe and her band mates got very excited and started screaming with glee. Yet, they didn’t get any further than the semi-final. Harpe said that her band mate, Richard “Rosy” Rosenblatt,” had just recently received their copy of the judges scores.
“From what Rosy said, it sounded like one of the judges wasn’t as into what we were doing,” she said, “but everybody else loved us.” One of the other judges came up to Harpe excitedly and gushed. Harpe wasn’t sure if a judge was even supposed to offer such a glowing personal opinion.
Competition was really tight during the semi-finals. The club was crowded with people wearing their best outfits. Harpe felt she had finally hit the big times when she saw that an official from Alligator Records was one of the judges. Other bands were asking her to stay around to check out their sets.
In these Memphis contests, the talent caliber of any given band usually stands no chance against the personal preferences of the judges. Harpe feels that her band has a unique approach to blues in that they‘re a Delta influenced band and that most players playing that brand of blues usually play it in a solo or duo format.
“I think we were probably something unique and out of the ordinary, definitely. But there were a lot of people doing Delta stuff that were like duo or solo. I think it was a little of both. I think we were something different because there were a lot of Chicago style blues bands.”
Harpe didn’t have time to socialize with judges, but the few she talked to liked her band a lot. After watching bands play for six to seven hours a day, the judges may have thought Harpe and her Delta swingers were a breath of fresh air.
“It’s pretty respectable to have gotten to the semi finals,” she said. “My friends from the Israeli band didn’t even make it to the semi finals. So, that’s hard. You go all the way down there and don’t even go to the semi finals.”
Harpe said the experience was well worth the time and effort she and her band mates put into it. “The blues scene isn’t really that big around the world. They all really came together. A lot of different people came down to see us.”
Harpe got a chance to meet people who book festivals in Europe and internationally. “We couldn’t have done that anywhere else,” she said.
With their competition cut short by the judges, Harpe had time for sight-seeing. She and her band mates checked out the Stax museum, Sun recording studio, an awards show, and drummer Nisi went to Graceland.
Sitting in on Bob Margolin’s blues jam at Rum Boogie on Beale Street on Saturday night was the most memorable experience. After getting through the first song without incident, Harpe broke her acoustic guitar and her to play the second tune, “Virtual Booty Blues” with Margolin’s electric. The scene will appear in a video to be posted on the band’s website and social networking sites. Other footage will also appear as the band brought a videographer with them to Memphis so their entire journey would take place in front of a camera.
The next step for Harpe and the Delta Swingers will take place this Monday when they land in Austin, Texas to play at a venue near the South By Southwest Conference and Festival. The band want to play festivals this summer and they also hope to tour.
The Memphis line-up of Harpe’s blues band is still together and their future goal is to make a full length.
Harpe’s Afro-pop band LoveWhip is still intact and it will play together again in April as a larger band than the three piece it has been in recent years.
right on w/your assesmetn Erin.
Lot’s O fish the barrel down there at least you made semis!
Congrats & good luck
oh yeah & Hubba Hubba on promo pic fer Lovewhip
Arthur
Cindy Daley and myself went down there with Erin in the Solo/ Duo category. Memphis was a blast and we got to hang out a lot. Erin was across the street @ The Red Rooster, we were @ Lil Anthony’s. VEry cool time and althougn we didn’t progress to the semis, we had a blast. The Israli Band was very cool, sort of a Robin Trower sound, but they cracked us up one nite looking for restaurtants in Memphis that DIDN”T serve pork? Also they were rolling their own fags, which was a good source of rolling papers for us! We also just got our scores and one judge obviously didn’t appreciate a lil differnt take. How do you perform 5 blues songs and get a 5 on ‘Blues Content’? One judge gave us all 9’s and 10’s so it’s a mishmash. There was nuthin but top notch talent and there were no losers in Memphis last Feb! ;)-