It’s amazing what I can achieve with a full night’s sleep on my shoulders. I’ve been spending most my time writing these dreadful mopey songs, and I thought it was because of something real deep but it’s just so hard to be positive without a full night of sleep. With a full night of sleep my fast-working brain decided we should really consider adding a new player to the band to help us write some fresh new beats.
We put posters up all round the town square but the joke’s on everyone who shows up: we didn’t say on the fliers what instrument we wanted.
We held the auditions in the local high school’s theater and set up a plastic table in front of the stage, auditioning the folks as if it was a high school play.
Three people showed up. The first one thought our band needed another guitar. We told her ‘no’ before she could even strum the first note: obviously she hadn’t listened to a single one of our songs because we’ve just about got guitars pouring out our ears.
Then a little boy - must of been nine - stumbled onstage and muttered nervously into the microphone that he was a well-renowned harmonica-player. When the three of us told him (a little rudely perhaps) we’d never heard of him before, he merely shrugged his shoulders and brought the harmonica to his lips. It was gorgeous. He played In A Sentimental Mood as if it was a slow funeral march, the last note swelling and ringing out in the room long after he’d bowed awkwardly and stumbled off-stage again, leaving us absolutely stunned.
Third time was not the charm because we really didn’t need a new bass player so we politely kicked the third guy out.
Well, obviously, we decided we just had to invite this nine-year-old harmonica superstar to join us. So we marched up to him and his parents - who had accompanied him to the audition - that he was In, and we all agreed that practices would be held before his hot bedtime of 7:30 pm.
Our first practice is tomorrow and to tell you the whole truth the band is very nervous about playing with such a good musician. It’s kind of dumb to be intimidated by a kid, but you didn’t hear him play. It was truly tremendous.
We’ll let you know how it goes.