Musical chairs

Don Haupt: Anti-hero with a harmonica

I guess that I should start this by stating that I am a bit of a purist when it comes to music. In my personal opinion, there are entirely too many bands and musicians that are in it more for the money than for the sake of the music itself. The centerpiece of this review, however, does not fall into that group by any stretch of the imagination. I've seen Don play several times, and enjoyed each performance he has put on for a couple of reasons.

First, he is able to play a constant variance on the same theme, and with influences like Leo Kothke, it's not too terribly hard to see how this can be. Then throwing classics like the old Arlo Guthrie tune "Alice's Restaurant" (and if you don't sing the song when it comes around, people, it's no fun) alongside the almost mumbled deep-soled blues he loves, Mr. Haupt exhibits a whetted ear for what the crowd does and does not want.

Second, he definitely has an aura. By that I mean that he has an ability to draw people into what he has going on. I watched this guy conjure up a thunderstorm one night with the aid of a banjo. I kid you not; it was on the Imo's Pizza deck last summer. I had been itching to hear him play that banjo all night, and when he finally did, the wind started picking up and picnic umbrellas started going everywhere. It was pretty weird.

And to top it all off, he has style. He wears this black-hat-and-suit getup for every show; Don is a blues player, and takes that mentality with him when he plays. There is a show that gets put on, and as far as I'm concerned, ambience is 1/2 of the whole idea. Who wants to go see a band that just stands there, stares at their shoes, and just blandly play their instruments? He doesn't jump up then and do the splits while playing his guitar, which is slung behind his back, with his extra long tongue, but he does tap his foot and unquestionably has showmanship on his side. Then he gets the harmonica out and it's all over.

Now here's the point I was trying to make before about bad musicians. Don will play pretty much anywhere (one night he played for a plate of ribs with a side of coleslaw). As a matter of fact, he almost makes it a point to not play in the places where every other band is. Places like the Cape Arts Council (a place where he likes to just jam and kind of be background music) and the Yellow Moon Cafeacute; in Cobden IL are more the types of places he haunts. He has even been known to play out on the street with an open guitar case.

Don is one of those pot-of-coffee-and-two-packs-a-day types: an artist's artist. He's seen a lot and knows how to express it, and then wants to do just that. He may stir some waves with his ideas, but I think we all would if we said them out loud and didn't fib to fit the popular consensus. There's a lesson to be learned here, and it is, to quote a They Might Be Giants song, "I've often been told that you can only do what you know how to do well, and that's be you; be what your like; be like yourself." And so I'm having a wonderful time whistling in the dark... Don Haupt whistles in the dark.