Listening In preview - Buddy Greene

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: A new season of Listening In begins this week. Coming up next, an excerpt from tomorrow’s episode.  

This time Warren Smith talks with musician and songwriter Buddy Greene. He’s best known for his musical mastery on the harmonica. One of his most memorable performances on the “pocket piano” happened at Carnegie Hall.

WARREN SMITH: Tell me how that came to pass. It’s just absolutely first rate and I just, you know, really appreciate that, and I want to thank you for that. But you and Bill kind of had a little schtick go in that set that up as well.

BUDDY GREENE: Well, you know it was really a fluke. It wasn’t even supposed to happen. I was not scheduled to have a spot on the video program, but Bill and I were standing there during a break. Looking at the empty Carnegie Hall and I just was telling Bill, you know, “Thank you so much for having me at this thing is, this is just the coolest thing to be at Carnegie Hall” and he said, “yeah, this is great.” And he looked at me and said, “Hey, you want to do something on the show?” And I said, “Are you kidding? Of course!” 

And so that was basically it. We didn’t rehearse it. We didn’t do anything. In fact, I think, actually, by the time he called me up there, I thought he had maybe forgotten about it. I just thought it wasn’t going to happen. So when he turned around and you know, waved his finger, be like “come on” and it was just one of those moments where I didn’t feel nervous and I can’t explain that except maybe just the grace of God, because there I was standing on one of the most, you know, hallowed stages in the world. And I was perfectly at ease, having a great time with Bill. So, the whole thing’s just worked out great. 

And then it’s something that got posted on YouTube a couple of years later not by me. Somebody just sent it to me one time and it already had about 100,000 views or something at that point. And you’re right, now I think over the years, I don’t how many million hits there are on it now. I have so many harmonica players who say, if somebody sends me that video one more time, I’m gonna shoot you…[LAUGHTER OUT]

BASHAM: That’s Buddy Greene talking to Warren Smith. To hear the complete conversation, look for Listening In tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts.

(Photo/Buddy Greene)

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