[Harp-L] What first attracted you to harmonica? Why did you learn to play it?

[Grant Walters]

I’m not sure if this message is going out to average Joe’s like me…
but…

I was in a classical Orchestra as a first chair...trumpet player…
Public school finance cuts…cut the Orchestra …and 
I was not allowed to join the Stage Band ( jazz)….
unless I would march in the Band…Sousa music…
As the captain the football team…
this was impossible…
The Director was happy to drum me out of the Band…
figuring I was a Jock….Highschool stereotyping …limits growth..again…

My cousin Ryan Walters was a harmonica player so I dug the Roots guys...
but it was not until I heard Magic Dick that I realized 
it sounded like the trumpet …ahhh haaaa
I also heard Madcat Ruth on a Hohner sample record…scratch my back...
and then sought out Mark Ford and Andy Just in our area…they rocked...
sounded like lead guitar to me…..sold my trumpet…bought a tweed amp..

The rest is history…legend in my own mind…

Grant Walters…Wavelength Band...