Advertise on podcast: Harry the Guitar Player

Harry returns to The Crybaby and meets the Swig. It's like a ghost town in the city. The Swig tells Harry that the crowds don't come anymore. Harry plays a little music on the stage till Calvin Swig tells him to stop. Harry then proposes a show to get people back.

Harry has been out of commission. Constable RD gives him a ride to his door and offers Harry some advice.

It is late at night when Harry comes home. Waiting for him in his room at the Tarantula Arms is Jollimore and Dr. Self-Help, Harry's psychologist from early life, when he suffered the tragedy of losing his band and family. Harry asks what they are doing in his room when they begin to explain to him that he made a deal to play the guitar the way he does, to know fame and riches, and now must pay up.

Mick tries to kiss Harry as they leave the Crybaby Bar. "I could love you, Harry", she says. Harry sends her off into the night. When he gets back to his room at The Tarantula Arms two guests are waiting.

From Mick at the bar, Harry learns the secret of The Crybaby audience. All have been watching him, but they have come with knowledge. Harry has been their scapegoat, their crutch.

In music school is where Harry finds himself, learning guitar scales. He still comes to the Crybaby to perform. And what he has learned lightens the weight of the guitar. Jollimore comes in for a drink.

After his film debut in Toronto, Harry returns to the Crybaby Bar. He thought people would be more congratulatory toward his big trip and film when he realizes that those in the swamp of booze are narcissists like him. Harry is not feeling it, with his big old valuable Gibson J-45 on stage. He tumbles to the floor, gets up and goes to the bar. Voices come. He gets back on stage to try again. He sings The Cannonball, then, it is as if a cannonball strikes.

Harry meets Tomasina in Toronto as they do radio show interviews. She takes him to her tour bus and explains the business of guitar playing that they are in. Harry looks up at the skyscrapers and knows that back here, on a tour bus and doing radio shows still holds emptiness.

Harry launches 'The Cannonball' and it is everything people expect. The Cannonball, the song that chased him through his life, written by JaJoe Jollimore. Harry has written lyrics and at the Crybaby Bar passes it off as his own song. Emily Dickinson is on his mind. He feels kin to her but he tells her to lighten up. At the Crybaby Bar, everyone is attendance. Harry sings tThe Cannonball and his world changes. He gets a record deal and a movie contract. He flies to Toronto to attend The Toronto Fringe Festival, so see the film he plays lead in.

Harry writes the Cannonball and reads us the lyrics. He performs it at the Crybaby to a sold-out crowd.

Harry is chased through from the Crybaby by two college football players. They were playing on the stage with his gear when he knocked out the power to the Crybaby's control panel. On the night train home he meets someone from the past.

A huge past hangs over Harry's head. Harry searches the early events to get a sense of now.