Northeast Blues Harmonica Showcase
Black Eyed Sally’s Southern Kitchen and Bar
Hartford
Nov. 29, 2025
The best laid plans, as they say.
This was initially going to be a review of the Northeast Blues Harmonica Showcase, which features five of the most renowned harmonica players in our region. Instead, I’m going to tell you about the night I had.
It all begins with being broke. Thanksgiving week can be a tough week to do reviews, so I’d already planned to do an event the weekend after Turkey Day. It takes money to make money, though, and working only one day out of the week left me light in the wallet. I managed to save enough for the ticket to the harmonica showcase. Tickets were listed as $15, and I had $23 in my checking account when Saturday evening arrived.
I had no money for an Uber; the bus was my chariot for the evening. I walked about ten minutes from my house to the corner of Park Street and Main Street. Despite the evening chill, the city was bustling and the holiday spirit was in the air. The city had turned Bernard Park into a lit-up winter wonderland. With my Santa hat on, I was in a festive mood.
As I stood at the bus stop, a young woman walked by and said hello. At first I didn’t hear her, but I quickly turned and politely said hello back as she passed. She stopped, and turned back and approached me. I could see the youthfulness in her face; she couldn’t have been older than 25. She said, “I know this is weird, but are you looking to have a little fun tonight?”
I politely declined her offer. After she walked off I couldn’t help but chuckle. I hadn’t left the house in almost a week to avoid spending money, and the first thing that happened once I was out the door was an offer to spend some money.
The bus ride was uneventful, and I reached my bank at 7:50. Perfect timing for the 8 p.m. show. I withdrew my last $20, leaving $3.09 to keep my account technically open. Downtown Hartford was much colder than the outskirts, as the towering office buildings turned the already noticeable breeze into near gale force winds as they whistled through the concrete corridors. The brisk walk to avoid the chill succeeded in warming me up, and by the time I reached the venue at 7:54 I was sweating a little.
The venue was packed, and the hostess informed me that the harmonica showcase was standing room only. That’s fine, I told her, as I was there as a media person and I’d be standing up taking pictures and video all night anyway. I took the crisp $20 bill out of my wallet and handed it to her.
“Actually, it’s $25 at the door,” she said apologetically. My heart sank. There was no way to take the last $3 out of my checking account, and even if I did I would still be $2. Had I gotten dressed and left the house for nothing? “But if you buy the ticket online now, it’ll still only be $20.”
That was more than the $15 listed on the website, but I had the $20…in my hand. I thanked her and slid out the door as a group entered. I walked back up Asylum Avenue, huffing and puffing under the weight of a hoodie and a coat as my newly 40-year-old body tried to deal with the slight incline of walking uphill. I made it back to the bank, and deposited the $20.
Now came the hard part: using my cell phone to make an online purchase. For context, this is what my cellphone looks like. PSA: Always keep your phone in its case.
Usually I can swipe around, minimize apps and turn my phone this way and that way enough to use it, but secured websites (such as those where you make online purchases) have a feature that blanks out the tab if you move it. I sat in the ATM for 15 minutes trying to find some way to read my screen and complete the transaction. Finally, after struggling with PayPal and relying on autofill to type for me, I hit submit. And waited. And waited. Finally, the screen changed.
“There’s been an error while processing this transaction.”
I literally threw my hands up in exasperation. I was defeated. There would be no harmonicas for me that evening. I trudged back down Main Street and got on the bus to head back home. As we turned onto my street, I felt a buzz in my pocket. I opened up the email I’d just received.
But how? I’d received the error message saying the transaction had failed. How did the transaction go through? And why did it take so long to alert me? I ran upstairs to my apartment and hopped on the computer. Sure enough, when I logged into my bank account, it said $3.09. I checked the bus schedule, but by this time of night the schedule had changed from a bus every twenty minutes to one every hour. I wouldn’t make it back to downtown until 10 p.m.. By then the show would basically be over.
What a night. Somehow I managed to go to the show, spend some money and not hear a single harmonica. I’m not angry or anything, because the entire ordeal was more of a humorously incredulous kind of perfect storm than something to truly be upset about. Writing reviews has been an amazing experience that has afforded me with flexibility, autonomy and some of the most memorable experiences of my life. But momma did say there’d be days like this.
NEXT
We’ll see what December brings!
