Re: [Harp-L] Cowboy/Western Harmonica



If I can make a suggestion, you may want to look at some other things as well. When I started playing Bluegrass harp, back in the days before the internet, etc. I had never heard a bluegrass harmonica played before. That allowed me to develop a more unique style. What I did was study what other instruments are doing and apply that to the harmonica. Listen to what harp you can find, but I really think that approach will help you. Listen especially to instruments which can sustain a note. Guitars and mandolins, for instance can not. 
Fiddles, trumpets, clarinets, etc. can and you'll a whole bunch of sustained-note instruments in Western Swing and if you like Western music, eventually you gravitate to Western Swing. 
So, I'd suggest listening to as much Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys as possible. Bob Wills refined Western Music into something very special.  There are so many elements in Wills' you can learn from and apply to the harp. 
You can listen to a few of his tunes here:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=159653569
Dave 

Since there was talk of the Gene Autry Hollywood stuff, I thought I'd mention this. That Hollywood genre of cowboy music really got its start around 1931 or so, when Jimmie Rodgers moved to Texas to help with his TB and decided to be a cowboy. His is the first cowboy yodel and got the ball rolling on this music. Autry started out as a Jimmie Rodgers tribute artist, some might call it a copycat. Whatever it was, it started with the singing brakeman, who was from Meridan Mississippi, on the east side of the big muddy.. 

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Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com 




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