Looking for a good time in downtown Emerald City tomorrow afternoon? Why not enlist in prominent local musician Brad Wheeler's Harmonica Army II?You can read Brad's introductory letter here. More information is available on his Harmonica Army II website.
Charlie Trentelman also wrote a few words about this event in his Wasatch Ramber column, earlier this week.
Long-time readers will recall that we promoted the Harmonica Army I event last year on Weber County Forum. And your blogmeister also joined the Harmonica Army throng of 1200 or so lumpenmusicians who delivered their rendition of "The Saints" that last cool October 2006 afternoon. Unfortunately we failed to eclipse the standing record of 1800 wailing harmonicists, despite feverish enthusiasm and last minute pleas for reinforcements. Thus this spring encore performance, where a world record will be put under siege again.
Come one; come all. Enjoy the Emerald City festival atmosphere at Lindquist Field. Food and beverages will be available at the concession stands (including adult beverages, according to a reliable insider source.) As for music, there will be plenty of that. How many musical events do our readers attend, we ask, where attendees are actually invited to play with the band?
We'll meet you there on Saturday.
Rudi will be wearing his usual "white carnation."
Be sure to say "hello."
Update 5/13/07 9:05 a.m. MT: As several readers have already reported in the lower comments section, yesterday's Harmonica Army II world record assault went off without a hitch, (at least in the eyes of the harmonicist-attendees,) despite a decidedly non-record turnout of around 1,000. Although the old record still remains intact, this slight "glitch" didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the gathered crowd one danged bit. Yesterday's Harmonica Army Bivouac definitely had that old-tyme Emerald City "feel" to it -- that indescribable kind of spontaneous community camaraderie which used to exist in our city prior to the advent of the "G-word" -- a very strange point in Emerald City history when events in this old blue-collar town began to take on the "restrained" look and feel of Provo church picnics.
The Standard-Examiner's Molly Bennett provides a good write-up this morning, so there's no reason for your blogmeister to be long-winded with the facts.
We will say however that we spoke briefly with Brad Wheeler shortly after the event; and YES! There will be a mustering of troops next year for an Harmonica Army III event!
For those readers who crave graphic images, we offer a few random ones here, along with our confession that we had so much fun mingling and schmoozing with the folks in the stands, we dang near forgot about our pocket-camera. As you can see from these pics, our classy and sweet little Ogden Raptors ballpark makes a dandy backdrop for any public event. We were pleased, BTW, to meet and greet at least a dozen gentle Weber County Forum readers who stepped up and greeted us.
As compensation for our admitted lack of diligence in capturing a full album of still shots however, we link for our readers' pleasure this most-excellent Standard-Examiner video clip.
And speaking of the Ogden Raptors -- please don't forget their June 22nd home opener, in which connection we post this pre-season letter from Raptors Owner Dave Baggott, which we received (coincidentally) by email yesterday.
If you haven't yet taken in a Raptors game, we suggest you plan to do so this summer. It's the closest thing in Emerald City, convivial community atmosphere-wise, to a Brad Wheeler Harmonica Army Jazz Band Concert -- now that we think about it. Be careful though. You might get hooked like we did, and become dyed-in-the-wool Ogden Raptors fans.
