RE: Hangin' with a Local Legend

["MLeFree" <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mojo Red hung out with a Local Legend (edited ruthlessly):
> Yesterday I was able to attend the monthly meeting
> of the Mile High Harmonica Club in Denver...this
> month the club was honored when Clay Kirkland, a local
> Harmonica Legend, attended our club meeting...At one
> point I wanted to get folks playing in 3rd position and
> started playing the chords for Charlie Musselwhite's
> great song "No" (from Continental Drifter). Charlie plays
> this in Dm on a C chromatic, so I put my Solo-Tuned C
> Marine Band in the rack and ran through a verse
> with the harp.
>
> Clay's mouth dropped open... "Man, that's really
> cool," he said to me. "How are you playing that?"
> This from a guy who could play circles around me in
> his sleep with one lip and a mouth full of
> crackers... Made me feel pretty good. :-)
>
> I grinned and showed him my Solo Tuned (364S)
> Marine Band. He said, "I gotta get me one of
> those." He'd never seen one before. Hey, I got to
> "teach" something to a Local Legend!

Way cool, Ken!  Love it when that happens.  I liken it to catching a nice
fat trout on a flyrod when you have an audience of envious lure fishing
on-lookers.  One of those finer moments...

Also, those 12- and 14-hole Hohner diatonics ~are~ such cool harps, I wonder
why they are often overlooked.  Yes, they have wood combs.  Yes, their holes
are spaced further apart than 10-hole diatonics.  But, their tone is right
up front and the opportunities for breaking out of the 10-hole "box" abound
with their increased range.  I've never had trouble adapting to the hole
spacing.  And, I think the big harps are easier to work on than 10-holers.
Once you seal the comb and install screws to hold them together, these are
sure to become some of your favorite harps.  They are, after all Marine
Bands, and they're not that expensive, either.  I'm saving my pennies for a
Steve Baker Special right now, and that'll probably be my next harp.

Keep on Truckin', Ken!

Michelle