Nice Compliments that you have had

Subject: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Shy_but_proud
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 06:37 AM

I don't often post as a guest but am on this.

I've had two compliments recently that I have really appreciated from people

The first was to be referred to by a person whose music and playing I respect a lot as "a musician". We were speaking about people we mutually know and he said "but you are a musician and however much they practice they never will be"

The second was somebody I hardly know (and who very rarely even speaks to anyone) who turned to me recently when I sang a song and said "I've never heard you sing a song that isn't interesting"

Both made my week

What compliments have you had that really meant a lot to you?

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 06:40 AM

I was once told I play the melodeon like a musical instrument.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 06:55 AM

I was complimented on my playing of an air by a very famous Irish, Anglo player.
one of the best compliments was from Ronnie Drew[I was busking at the time]a fiver[not a bunch of fives].

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: kendall
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 07:32 AM

Eric Bogle told me that I sang his song, "The Band played waltzing Matilda" the way he wanted it sung.

Utah Phillips said he would never sing "Phoebe Snow" again after hearing me sing it. That's why he chose my version on his new 4 CD collection he calls his song book.

I sang Lorena for Pete Seeger and his comment was, "I never realized how lovely that song was, thanks for giving it back".

My Brother, my most vocal critic, said recently, while looking at a tape of Beginner's Luck, "That is one hell of a good recording."

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: greg stephens
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 07:37 AM

Capn Birdseye: you did well with the fiver off Ronnie Drew. I only got 50p off Sharon Shannon when busking in Edinburgh.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: treewind
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 07:40 AM

One of the most memorable I've had, from a very good musician that I'd worked with, was that I had 'big ears'. He was a beautiful example of that himself, acutely aware that, for the practitioner, music is more about listening than playing. Playing with people like that is absolutely magical: it's as you were communicating by telepathy and what you are playing together becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Leadfingers
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 07:52 AM

The best compliment I have had is to be asked to do paid gigs with people I respect as musicians !

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: melodeonboy
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 07:53 AM

A few weeks ago, after my folk band, Ruff 'n' Reddy, had just finished playing at the Tudor Barn Folk Club in Eltham, a bloke came up to me and described us as "very unpo-faced". Now that's a compliment!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 07:55 AM

I don't like to boast, but I've been told that I have a great face for radio!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 08:24 AM

I once sang a song to Ken Loveless and he didn't criticise it. How many can say the same?

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: john f weldon
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 08:28 AM

Boy, you've opened the door to a lot of egos. Well here's one of my favourites, cut and pasted from an e-mail. It's author, a philosophy prof who shows my film "To Be" to his students.

"I unashamedly tell them that I think it is absolute genius, and that its creator is a god."

Hoo boy, was I hard to live with after that. Just call me Thor.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: john f weldon
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 08:38 AM

For balance I must add this comment on one of my films on youTube:

"u aggot! u anker! eat it and die, u ballz is no more good facker!!!!!"

I'm not sure what it means either.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 09:06 AM

My wife divorced her first husband because his playing drove her nuts. She's been married to me for twenty years now.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 09:10 AM

I was told that I was gorgeous.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: meself
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 11:57 AM

"My girlfriend really likes your hat. She wants to know where you got it."

(From the male half of a Japanese couple who had been paying very close attention to me while I was busking ... )

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 12:21 PM

I still remember the first open mike I played in the States, somewhere in Massachusetts, must have been 1997-98, and the MC came up to me afterwards and said, "Hey, that was awesome".

I was totally blown away by this, it was only later during my sojourn in the US that I realised that "awesome", far from being the huge compliment that I had imagined, was simply US-speak for "reasonably good".

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 12:27 PM

I was told once: You sure know a lot of interesting people.

I'll take that.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: dwditty
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 12:32 PM

I have been told that I sound like an old black guy.

dw

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Frank_Finn
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 12:35 PM

March 2006 Sunday 2:00pm in a bar in Clonmany , Co. Donegal during the Inishowen Singing Weekend. Slightly hungover and drinking just water I sang "Carndaisy". After I finished Mick Quinn from Mullaghban shook my hand and said "A good song , well sung"
That was enough for me.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: bankley
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 12:53 PM

I was once told that I smell like an old man.... (of no particular colour)

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 01:32 PM

A couple of people have told me they really like that song I did the other time they saw me - unfortunately they weren't able to remember which one...

As a songwriter, there's one phrase that always hits the spot (and I have had it said to me a few times):

"Did you write that?"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Alice
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 01:42 PM

My nicest musical compliment came from Jean Ritchie.
"It is always good to hear the old songs sung again; it is
even better to hear them sung without artifice and
modern-day trappings; it is almost unbelievable, in this day
and age, to hear them sung as Alice Flynn sings them - a
simple telling of the story in a fine clear voice, conveying
respect for the music and at the same time superbly
entertaining her listeners." ~Jean Ritchie
THANK YOU, JEAN!

Alice

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 01:44 PM

1: When Bob Webb, a performer I had admired for years, asked me to join with him to create firstly Roberts and Webb and now (with Ian Murfitt) 'Lost In The Mist'.

2: When Les Barker told me how much he liked 'All This Was Fields' (a rough equivalent, for all you musos, would be Bob Dylan telling you he liked one of your songs).

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: fat B****rd
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 01:45 PM

I got some new glasses this week. My 3 year old grandaughter said Iwas now 'beautiful granddad' and her 4 year old sister said I was now a 'cool dude'

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: kendall
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 02:02 PM

All I did was repeat what I was told. Ego had nothing to do with it.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: bankley
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 02:30 PM

once after jamming all night with Stephen Stills... he said, "Ya wannna do another line?"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Ythanside
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 02:44 PM

An old guy stopped me to say that my rendition of the song I'd just performed had been his grandfather's favourite party piece, and that he'd not heard it sung so well for almost fifty years. I enjoyed the buzz so much that I couldn't bring myself to spoil it by telling him that I'd written the melody and lyrics a mere few months earlier.

The nicest back-handed compliment I've had was from a group of WWII veterans who loved an army song I'd published, but insisted that I couldn't possibly have written it as I had never been in any branch of the military.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 03:31 PM

Back in the early 1970s, my mother wanted to visit an old friend she hadn't seen for years, a woman she went to nursing school with in the "way-back-when." The woman lived in Portland, and I had a couple of free days, so I drove Mom down to Portland. She suggested that I bring my guitar along, so I did.

Lillian, Mom's friend, was married to a fellow named Jim Bell. Very Scottish.

I was prevailed upon one evening to drag the guitar out and sing a bit, so I did. Jim asked me if I knew any Scottish songs. I said I knew a few—folk songs, ballads, that sort of thing—and then I went through my Scottish repertoire, including "Bonnie Dundee," "MacPherson's Lament," and a few others.

Afterwards, when Jim was out of the room for a few minutes, Lillian said to me, "You've made Jim very happy. Thank you. But I'm afraid you've also made him very homesick for Scotland. He's been asking me to go to Scotland with him for a trip, so I guess I'll just have to go with him. I think I'd like that. I know he would."

And Mom told me afterwards that while I was singing "Bonnie Dundee," Jim's eyes got a bit moist and he surreptitiously brushed away a tear.

The consensus of the ladies was that the songs had really touched Jim. I hope that was it. I'd hate to think that I was so gawdawful that I'd made him cry!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 03:48 PM

message: Hello Dick, I have been listening to your CD "Around the Harbour Town" for weeks now as I have been dashing around Vancouver BC getting our 58' gaff-rigged wooden schooner ready for an extensive off-shore cruise. You might be interested to know that the CD has helped me through many long days of traffic jams. I love the music, the arrangements, the choice of songs. Thank you. Someday perhaps we will meet. We do maritime Music and other stuff too. My grandfather was from Yorkshire (Ripon). I am a Morris Dancer and I love the traditional Brit. stuff. I am particularly delighting in the sheep-shearing song. Did you write Jack the Lad? Wow! That is a great song. Gotta dash right now. We are leaving Vancouver tomorrow and there's a lot of stowing to be done. (to California, Mexico, Marquesas, Australia) We are letting lots of folks know about your music. So you might get some e-mails from points south in the future. All the best.
   I received this e mail on 30 may,and was really cheered up particularly that someone liked one of my own songs.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Betsy
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 03:51 PM

To Phil Edwards ... although the thread relates to " nice "...just to extend on what you said,I think the biggest compliment is when you hear someone perform (who took the time and effort to learn your words and music) performing something that you wrote. Now THAT is a buzz!!!!

Cheers Betsy

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 04:00 PM

Walt Robertson attended Haverford College in the late 1940s, and just down the road apiece was Swartmore College, where some monumental folk festivals were held. Walt mentioned hearing such performers as Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennet, John Jacob Niles, Pete Seeger, and other legendary figures—well before the big folk revival burst on the scene in the late 1950s. This may very well have been where Walt's interest in folk music was born.

He told me that he knew a fellow there named Cletus Otis Oakes (Oakes usually signed his name "CO2"). When Oakes got married, Walt was at the wedding. So were several major folk music figures, including John Lomax (Walt wasn't specific as to whether this was John Lomax Senior or Junior, but I got the impression that it was Senior, which would have made in about 80 and very close to the end of his life). Lomax had known both the bride and the groom for a long time.

In the reception line, Lomax shook hands with the groom and kissed the bride, then stood there, looking them up and down appraisingly. He then said, "Well . . . ya both coulda done better!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: meself
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 04:07 PM

"Why dost thou waste thy sweet gift on these mortal men? Wilt thou never return to the Olympian home of the undying gods?"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 04:21 PM

I was at a big song circle on Long Island, and there were some very VEry accomplished local 'pros' singing. I never considered myself in their league,mostly I just sing and play for the fun of it . And I don't have a smooth, professional type voice or style, but I do sing from the heart. So it took some nerve for me just to sing with the highly talented people in attendance. (I may not show it, but I have a shy streak)

As he was leaving, Oscar Brand came over to me and said in my ear,
"You are the best singer here."

Kinda made my day. If not my year.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: frogprince
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 04:28 PM

As to musically related: Ive had a few people ask my wife where she got "that great song" when they didn't know I'd written it. (I'm a non-performer). A respected Canadian singer-songwriter looked over my website a couple of years ago, and commented "You don't just write songs that rhymne; you write songs that reach out and grab people by the heart". But the one that brought tears to my eyes was when one of our Mud-ladies told me that, as soon as her little niece woke up from her nap, she was going to start teaching her one of my songs.
Non-musically-related: I saw a former fellow student, and within a few minutes he said, "I really like your poem about the waitress in the all-night cafe"; he would have heard it once, about three years before that.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: CupOfTea
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 04:39 PM

In my early days singing I attended Irish week at Augusta and took a ballad singing class with Frank Harte. There were some heavy hitters in that group- voices that could fill a concert hall and repertoires that could fill a library. I had neither, and could barely sing in public. I was so nervous.

After one go round, I was rather dismissively asked to not waste our time by singing again. I was moderately mortified, but I'd rather have listened to anyone else sing, any rate, as I'd come to learn.

Fast forward a decade, it's Irish week at Augusta again. This time I'm there as a crafts teacher. At an informal singing session on the patio outside the dorm, I screwed up my courage and sang "Thousands or More." Frank Harte was among those who sang along. After, he made some comment to the effect that had been lovely, hadn't heard that song in quite awhile. Now, while it wasn't what anyone there would have seen as a huge compliment, merely knowing that I could hold my own in that company was heady stuff & made my week.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 04:46 PM

When I was in fifth grade, I had a crush on our choir director, Sister John Bosco. She said that Ronny Benedict and I, the choir's two altos, were "really sharp." I thought that was such a nice compliment - until I reached about the age of 40 and found out what she had meant.

-Joe, heartbroken-

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 05:06 PM

One evening in the early 60s I was singing at one of Seattle's nicer coffeehouses. It was late, approaching the 1:00 a.m. closing time, and I was doing my last set. There were about a dozen people still there, mostly couples. In keeping with the general atmosphere, I was singing some of the quieter songs, and I decided to end the set with a classic guitar solo. I played Romance de Amor, the Vincente Gomez arrangement that he had played in a couple of movies, notably "Blood and Sand," a 1941 bullfight movie starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, and Anthony Quinn.

When I finished, there was no applause. There was long pause, then they all got up and began to file out. As they did so, several of them came up to me and thanked me for the music.

Sometimes no applause is better.

Don Firth

P. S. That's not me in the video. But he does a pretty fair job of it.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: jacqui.c
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 09:42 PM

I'm writing this because my better half has threatened to do it if I don't. I find anything like this difficult to do as I was always taught to keep the 'light under a bushel' as a child.

Kendall and I took part in a Utah Phillips benefit a few weeks back. also on the bill were Michael Cooney, Jay Peterson, Scott Alaric, Gordon Bok and a few other professionals.

We did our bit just before the interval, after Michael and Jay and I was really concerned that, after two such good performers, our two numbers were going to be a bit of an anti-climax. During the interval a number of people came up and told us how much they enjoyed the two numbers we did. Mary was dealing with CD sales and had one lady come up and ask if Jacqui Morse was on the Kendall Morse CD that we had for sale!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Jeff
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 12:16 AM

In the mid 70s I had the great fortune to open for Martin, Bogen and the Armstrongs at The Earl Of Old Town in Chicago. Upon my arrival in the back room Carl Martin and Ted Bogen were jamming on 'Sweet Georgia Brown'. As I stood there listening Carl said, "Boy, don't just stand there, break out that GIT-tar...we need some he'p!" I obliged and we jammed on SGB for about 20 minutes...swapping licks. I didn't take a lead break until Carl, sort of gestured to me that it was my turn. Very nervous to say the least I took a turn...then another...then another as Carl kept nodding towards me when I was about to go back on rhythm. Finally, Ted took a turn and let me off the hook. Then we swapped around for another 10 minutes or so. After we ended the song Carl looked over at Ted and said, "This boy's been doin' his homework." Ted said, "Sho'nuff, Carl." Then he kicked off 'Ain't Misbehavin' and we jammed on THAT for 15-20 mins. I'm not the best guitarist in the world by quite a margin, but I would've wept had I not been so busy trying to justify Carl's esteem. In many ways I still am...what a gracious gesture from one of the greats to a scared, young man.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 02:41 AM

I often get called the best mandolin player in our band, number one in a field of one.

eric

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: banjoman
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 11:08 AM

I once gat a school report that stated "Musically speaking this pupil is dead from the neck up" which I always regarded as a back handed sort of compliment as it made me determined to "become" a musician which some would say I never did as I concentrated on playing the banjo and more recently in making them.

Puts me in mind of one of my all time favourite songs "Compliments returned"

pete

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 02:59 PM

Late one night at a gathering I stayed up and wrote a new song - "Bring the Morning Home." When I played it the next morning, Kendall Morse asked where the song came from. "Oh, I actually made that up last night," I said. He looked at me hard. "You just wrote that song last night?" he asked. "Yes." He stared at me again, a look of pure disgust on his face, and said, "I hate you."

I was walking on air for a week.

Dan

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: trevek
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 03:18 PM

A respected musician (then) living in Galway asked me to learn a song her father always sang, because she liked my singing.

Shane MacGowan gave me a quid when I was busking (and he was sober-ish)and more Pogues followed with contributions.

An old Uillean (sp?) piper heard me busking with my bodhran and (I am told) commented, "well at least he has the damn thing in tune".

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Tig
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 03:23 PM

A while back I was playing bodhran in a session along with quite a few well known artistes. One of them turned to me and said "I never notice when you are playing along with us. It always fits in."

Having nearly died of shock on the spot I thought OH WOW!!!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Tootler
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 03:52 PM

After 30 years believing I couldn't sing, I'd went to a couple of workshops and found perhaps I could sing after all, so I started going to local folk clubs and took the plunge and had a go.

I'd been going about 6 months when I overhead one of other regulars at the particular club I was at, while talking to a friend during the break, saying "I do like Geoff's voice" (or words to that effect). You cannot believe what that did to my self-confidence.

Geoff

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 04:23 PM

well, I was called an egotistical twat on this forum,by someone called Jeri.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: the button
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 05:16 PM

Pin-drop silence, and a couple of seconds more silence before people start clapping. It hasn't happened to me often, but it was lovely when it did.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 11:33 PM

I did Coal tattoo in theater in Western Pennsylvania. When I finished the place was dead silent for a few seconds and then the applause started. Afterward the promoter said the house was full of old miners, miners or the children of miners.

I did my song Photographs for the daughter of my best friend, the man I wrote the song for. She said, "Thanks Don."

That was enough.

Don

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 12:03 AM

There are actually two, and they came from two artists whom I have more respect and admiration for than I can describe.

After singing with Dan Milner at my first Getaway, upon returning home I got an email from him in which he asked me about the CD that The Conklin Ceili Band (my band) was working on. I kind of explained the direction, and he said he had a song for me. He told me that he was sending it to Frank Harte and me. That song was Sligo Musketeers, which you can hear on our myspace page. Dan is an excellent musicologist and had found the broadside while researching in the dark corners of the basement of some library in NYC. It had never been recorded, as it was a throwback to the music hall days. I have been grateful ever since. A great man, great singer, and good friend.

The other was Ed Trickett. Again, at The Getaway, he heard me sing Brendan Nolan's incredible "Far From Their Homes" (a song of the coffin ships, I think it is the greatest song on that subject) accompanied by Jeri Corlew on fiddle and Kath Westra on guitar. As I came off the stage, he asked me where I got that song. I told him, and he grabbed the closest guitar (a damn nice Martin...***chuckle***) and took me outside. Up against the fender of a parked car he sang the song "Along The Famine Road" which we later recorded and put on our first CD. He told me he had been carrying it around looking for the singer for the song and I was it. In my world, Ed Trickett is like Elvis. I was shocked and incredibly appreciative. Ed is another great inspiration and I am in his debt.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 02:27 AM

A nice woman printed up flyers for our local version of the In Harmony's Way singing session, and this (click) is the picture she used.

Should I feel complimented?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Micca
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 03:37 AM

But Joe it is SOOOOOO You (apart from the absence of the tweed hat)

The folks above who said when you hear someone else sing one of your songs and say something nice about it(especially if the don't know its yours,
A coupla years ago I went to Walthamstow Folk Club here in the UK to Hear Roisín White, the Irish Gaelic singer, Kevin Shiels offerd me a floor spot and I sang "The hash my father scored" after her first set in the interval Roisín came and spoke to me and asked where I had hears the song I sang, I told her I wrote it and she said she had heard it on Radio Clare on her way to the airport that morning!!!!!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,MC Fat (at work)
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 04:58 AM

Jool Holland (yes the Jools Holland) told me after hearing me sing at Fagans in Sheffield that I had a great voice and someone in Matt Molloy's Bar in Westport someone called me a 'fecking superstar' well what he actually said was when he couldn't get another song in 'The fecking superstars are in'. My very good friends The Great Bonzo and Doris appeared on a TV talent show and one of the judges told them 'not to give up their day job' as Bonzo stated on their later publicity 'as this was our day job we took this as a compliment'

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Modesty forbids my name
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 07:25 AM

I hadnt sung for years but a friend who ran a folk club persuaded me to go to a club I sang at 20 yrs before.
He had never heard me sing.
When the organiser recognised me he insisted I sang for them.
When I finished my friend turned to a mutual aquaintance & said, "We are with a superstar."
Never forgot it & it made me take up singing again!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 07:38 AM

Well I sang a song I had just written in the Wellington FC, NZ. Basically it was a plea to a lass back in UK not to attempt suicide.

Two lasses about the same age came up to me later and both said "thank you" and remarked that the song was "right".

No artistic praise for song or delivery but - I tell you - Their words meant more to me than any accolades about skills, and I have had a small number of those and they are always welcome.

The target of the song acknowledged it was part of the recovery but I now represent a period in her life that she wants to forget, so I have to be forgotten. I think I can take that if I did my small part "right".

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST, Alfred Non E Mouse
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 06:09 PM

Well, modesty forbids, but a number I treasure. I am not as confident as people maybe think I am (particularly about sex and/or my singing and playing) - so:

An early girlfriend: "I've never wanted any man so much"
Another girlfriend: "That's wonderful"
Another girlfriend: "I've never come so much with anyone"
My late wife (not to me, passed on by a friend after her death): "I love that man so much"
A rival mobile disco operator, at university: "Great show [insert name]"
A black punter at a disco gig at a white social club in Nottingham: "You were the only person in here who did not stare at me when I came in"
Another student (black) at a disco gig I did at university: "Soul brother number one"
A girl (quite a dancer) at university: "You are the best dancer on campus. Andy has a little more rhythm but he is so limited in what he does"
I was kind of dancing off another guy in a nightclub in Croydon. He was good. I asked him if he was a professional dancer. He asked me if I was.
My daughter, then 13 : "Don't you hate it when grownups are right?"
Punter, at a minifest in the south east: "You have a terrific voice"
Punter, at another fest (comps with flaws are the best): "You have a terrific voice for traditional songs but we like tunes we can play along with".
Daughter and friends some years later (after her gig with rock band - they 20-ish me nearly 60): "Do you want to come on to a club with us?"
Another performer at a minigig in Nottingham: "What sort of guitar is that? It sounds like liquid gold"
A punter at same gig: "I really like your fingerpicking style" (my picking is less than basic!)
Another catter: "Are you recording anything? Nobody else is doing anything like it to traditional songs"
Martin Carthy: "Did you write that? Good song"
A punter at Sweeps: "I've never experienced anything like it. You joined in with your mandolin on a song I know you have never heard before because I wrote it and it fitted as if we had rehearsed it".
Tom Lewis, at Tenterden: "One of the high points of the festival for me has been your mandolin playing. You just joined in and it sounded like you had rehearsed it".
Adrian O, at Tenterden: "We did this the other night and [Name] found all the right notes".
A villain who is a friend: "I'd really like you as a driver on a job"
A barrister, now a very senior judge: "[insert name] has been the hero of this case"
A very very well known common law and human rights barrister: "I adopt Mr [insert name]'s note and find nothing to criticise in it."
A barrister and film executive producer: "If you think I am talking about copyright while [insert name] is here you have another think coming"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 07:43 PM

heard at a pre-getaway sing. (not said to me, but appreciated all the same)

"See? That didn't hardly suck at all!"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Hawker
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 07:50 PM

2 spring to mind, one was after singing a self penned song, a lady said to me after wards....'That was just beautiful..........You made me cry!' (Well, I assumed it was a compliment!)
and the second was recently when I heard a fine singer perform a song which I wrote, and sing it, in my opinion, the way it SHOULD be sung - just beautiful! Why do singers shrink from singing songs if the writer is there? That they want to sing it at all is for me, the greatest compliment of all.... and singer of my song, you are a 'catter and you know who you are, Thank you!
Cheers, Lucy

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Acorn4
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 07:50 PM

"You're completely bonkers, aren't you?"

"I nearly wet myself at one point"

As I write mainly comedy stuff I thought they were both OK.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,cStu
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 07:52 PM

I got told I ought to insure my hands once. I think it was a compliment ...

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 09 Jun 08 - 07:56 PM

"We succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. Which is to say, the audience rarely left - in groups."

    Lou Gottlieb of The Limeliters

I once heard thunderous applause from one table of folks who had been loudly, drunkenly talking all through my set. Their server came over to me during the break and gave me a $20 bill. "They said that was for being done." Critics!

A left-handed one, which I have never truly figured out, was offered up after an open-air amphitheater college performance of my trio back in the early sixties. That morning, about 8:00 AM, I had all four wisdom teeth removed. My Dad took me home, under heavy medication (Darvon). I awoke about noon, groggily remembering that my group was supposed to perform in a little over an hour. I had forgotten to tell anyone about my surgery. I drove the ten miles to the college, found the other two, and shortly went onstage. At the conclusion of a performance - of which I have no recollection, several people came up to tell us we had never sounded better. Go figure.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 08:14 AM

I've received many lovely compliments in my 30+ years of singing in public, but nothing beats that second or so of silence before the applause (and the stunned looks on the faces of those who had no idea I was doing the solo)!

If pushed, I would have to say the compliment I recieved from an Italian nun, after a concert in some town in Italy, in 2006. The chorus had just performed several religious pieces by English composers, the main one being a Requiem by John Rutter (a composer I loathe incidentally), to an audience which the chorus outnumbered 2-1. The nun made her way over to me and said I had a lovely voice and that of all the chorus, I was the only one who looked as if they meant what they were singing.

It's little things like that, that make it all worth while.

LTS

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 04:16 PM

All compliments are nice. I never really quite believe them, because I know some places I've played my guts out, played really well and still gone down like a lead balloon.

Basically the   nicest, was when a lady asked me to come out of retirement and sing at her 105th birthday. I'd sung at her 95th birthday and her daughters 50th wedding anniversary.

The thing for a pro is not believe the compliments, or the nights when they call you rubbish. Just know that the truth is in there somewhere.

I think its in Great Expectation that someone says to a drunken Pip - Know your own worth!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 04:56 PM

"That wasn't as bad as I expected it to be."

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 05:18 PM

Not a compliment as such, but I did make someone cry with laughter once. I'm just sorry it wasn't one of my own songs (it was one of Ivor Cutler's).

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,World's bluest white singer
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 05:29 PM

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to hang out with the great Mississippi Fred McDowell when he came to my college for a concert. We would up sitting up all night, drinking gin and smoking reefer, singing and playing guitars.

When Fred's manager, Dick Waterman, came by in the morning to collect Fred, Fred asked him "why didn't you get this white boy to record with me last week, instead of that kid Michael? He didn't understand the blues at all, but this kid really knows."

(Or words to that effect. It has been forty years or so, after all.)

Not long afterward, Fred's latest album "I Do Not Play No Rock n Roll" was released, and I realized that "that kid Michael" with whom Fred had recently recorded, and whom he had disparaged at my expense, was none other than the late great Mike Bloomfield, someone I still greatly admire as an electric-guitar virtuoso. But as a vocalist, I suppose, and as a true interpreter of that real deep-down down-home feeling, maybe I really am (or at least really was) even better...

Or, maybe I was just nicer (i.e., more deferential) to Fred than someone else my age who was very successful and widely recognized as a musician, and perhaps just a little bit full of himself ~ ???

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Stringsinger
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 05:46 PM

jack Elliot, Guy Carawan and I visited the cabin of Maggie's Ol' Man, (Ted Sutton)in the Smoky Mountains. He was very excited at my banjo pickin'. He said, "Come lissen, here Maggie! These fellows play banjer Californy style."

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 06:01 PM

Interesting story GWbws.

I suppose the manager was trying to get some folding money together for Fred. I suppose he knew Mike Bloomfield's fans would buy the record and however it turned out it would look good on Mike's CV - add to his reputation for being someone who had sat down with one of the greats.

Whereas you may have played better, but you had nothing to trade. The music business is like that.

sony Boy williamson came to England and made an album with The yardbirds. According to clapton's biography, Williamson went straight back to the States, and said those english want to play the blues really badly, and that's how they play them - badly.

Nevertheless I bet it was one of SBW's biggest selling albums. i still see it in the boxed sets of Yardbirds stuff. Lets hope some of the money got to the artists.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Joybell
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 06:06 PM

When I was a young trainee nurse at a big Melbourne hospital we took in drunken old men from the streets. There was room and time for that sort of help then. We fed them and bathed them and treated their illnesses, then found them places to live.

One day an old fellow said to me, "Just stand there for a moment. You know, when the sunlight catches your beautiful eyes they look like pools of rich dark gravy!"

I've had lots of compliments since then -- relating to music and writing but this one is the one that comes to mind first.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: meself
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 08:53 PM

(Pedant alert: Re: the Sonny Boy Williamson anecdote - I believe that would have been "real bad" rather than "really badly").

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: theleveller
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 08:46 AM

You're not as bad as people say. Made my day.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Banjiman
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 09:57 AM

Mr Leveller......I think I've been nicer to you than that, stop being coy!

Paul

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 10:16 AM

Being asked by Martin Simpson if I'd accompany him on "Duncan and Brady"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: theleveller
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 10:28 AM

Very true Paul. You're a man of considerable taste and discernment.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Dave P
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 12:25 PM

Gray and I were once told "You're better than you sound"!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: PoppaGator
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 02:39 PM

Big fat tips from successful musicians, or from celebrities of any kind, are flattering and useful compliments for any street performer.

Years ago (early 70s), singing on streetcorners in the Fisherman's Wharf area in San Francisco, I had two such experiences.

A nice long listen, stopping in his tracks, plus a couple of bucks, from Boz Scaggs; and

A ten-dollar bill (biggest donation ever!) from comic/actor Red Skelton as he was exiting the Buena Vista restaurant/bar.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Tangledwood
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 07:15 PM

In the past I guess I've thought that good performers know they're good and compliments above the normal applause are unnecessary, or could even be taken as sycophancy. I see from the responses in this thread that they can mean a lot to you. A couple of days ago I was making some transport arrangements for Monica Weightman after the Dreaming festival and mentioned that I'd enjoyed her shows. She looked so surprised and pleased. I'll make more effort to show appreciation in the future.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 04:40 AM

Oh yes as Derek Brimstone used to sy, its not the stardust and the glitter. Its when the gang joins in......

But keep the noise down, I've got a headache!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 07:40 AM

I remember that Aunt Forteque's Bluesrockers used to advertize every month in Folk Roots and put in a fake quote from somebody such as Martin Carthy or the Pope etc.
We (Blind Panic) always said that if we ever put an ad in we'd use a genuine quote from Aunt Forteque's: "We've got to follow that you bastards!"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Joe
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 07:50 AM

My favourite is when people say they 'have never seen anything quite like it it' and the many interpretations that can be made of such comments.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Ewan Spawned A Monster
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 08:38 AM

I was recently told that my singing voice was not quite as terrible as I make it out to be.

Result!

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Trev
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 08:55 AM

Not music based, but as a student I had a few meetings with Edward Albee to discuss his work. My Theatre lecturer, Steve, was writing a book about Off-Off-Broadway Theatre and asked if I had a contact for Mr Albee. Having arranged the meeting I left them to meet and discuss whatever.

Later Steve came up to me, grinning. Apparently Mr Albee had commented, "That friend of yours, Trev... he's not as dumb as he makes out, is he?"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: theleveller
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 10:02 AM

I love Dr Johnson's critique:

"Your work is both good and original. Unfortunately, the parts that are good are not original and the parts that are original are not good."

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Midchuck
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 11:10 AM

When Kendall Morse his own self conceded that I had beaten him at coming up with the most and dirtiest limericks, some years ago at Old Songs over late-evening whiskey. I think his concession statement is in here somewhere.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Dave P
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 11:56 AM

Re the comment from theleveller, it brings to mind the old joke:
"I own a Stradivarius and a Titian, unfortunately the violin was made by Titian and the painting ..........."

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Phil Cooper on sig-o's computer
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 04:33 PM

Margaret and I were playing at the No Exit Coffeehouse in Chicago one night. There was a group of about six Loyola University students sitting and talking and generally ignoring us. There was one kid in the group that kept looking right at us, obviously paying attention. When we took a break he came up and apologized for his friends' rude behavior and said that he was really liking what we were doing. I told him we appreciated his comment.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 05:01 PM

Phil's story, above (12 Jun 08 - 04:33 PM), reminded me of one of my own.

Back in the summer of '05, some of my college friends organized an unofficial reunion, an informal event not connected to the school or even to any particular class year. The attendees were almost all folk/acoustic musicians and members of the college-graduation classes of 1967 through 1971.

(Not necessarily all graduates, not by a long shot, but members of those classes for at least a year or two, if not four. Also, not all of us necessarily still playing music very regularly, but most still in possession of an instrument or two and everyone willing to harmonize, jam, etc.)

Our first "event," on the Thursday evening kicking off the long weekend, was held in the basement of an off-campus pizza restaurant that has long been a student hangout.

Sometime during a long evening of song-swapping and unstructured performances, a half-dozen young undergrads wandered in and, hearing the music, ventured down the stairs to check out our private party. None of us objected (especially after an offer to buy us drinks!) and the kids sat down to quietly listen.

(This was summertime, and very few actual college students were anywhere to be seen, but these new friends ~ younger than our own kids ~ were among the small population of summer-school attendees.)

I can't remember any specific quotes, but they all something nice and complimentary to say to us. We were all taken aback by how obviously these young folks enjoyed and respected our music and, for that matter, us. They seemed to consider us veterans of a long-ago legendary era when it was a lot more fun, and a lot more important and serious, to be a college kid and a rebel.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: jojofolkagogo
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 07:58 PM

Very enjoyable thread ~ so thanks !

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Gene Burton
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 08:00 PM

I got called "a musician" a couple of hours ago.

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 10:42 PM

Some one once said
"A Piano Accordion player WITH SUBTLETY - that's different!" :-)

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Willie-O
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 11:01 PM

Comment from a plain-spoken friend (a highly accomplished keyboard player): "Your playing blew me away last night! And you used to be so shitty!"

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 04:02 AM

I review CD's for a local folk magazine. I had written a withering review of a CD. In the next edition I was given hard time by fans of the group. In response to this a very nice person who I don't know wrote 'With no finger in the pie, or the ear, Joe is well placed to review CD's and long may he do so for our benefit' - or something like that!

Cheered me up no end!

Joe G

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 04:27 AM

After singing a tragic ballad, I was told that my singing of it was absolutely pathetic.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Nice Compliments that you have had
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 12:53 PM

Fred Jordan once told me that he had enjoyed my singing.

Possibly one of my proudest moments!