RE: [Harp-L] Rocky Mountain Harmonica Festival (long)

["MLeFree" <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mojo Red gave us his account of knocking around a North St. Paul blues bar
with Wild Willy:
> 8<huge clip>8
> Anyway, I just wanted to share my expreience and to
> thank Bill once again, and to remind all you online
> subscribers what an AWESOME resource these harp
> lists are.

I'm really glad you could hook up with Bill.  He's a great guy and a
terrific player.  Sounds like he showed you a very good time, too!

> Almost made me forget the fact that I was missing
> the Rocky Mountain Harmonica Festival that was
> taking place that very night back in Denver.
>
> Which reminds me... Anyone who was there... How was
> it? Michelle? Dave Minson? Speak up!

Well Ken, I would have spoken up sooner, but I am still a bit speechless
from the harmonica whirlwind I got caught up in last weekend at the Rocky
Mountain Harmonica Festival!  It was my first harpfest and it was a great
way to get started.  I know it won't be my last.

Where to start?  I suppose at the very start of the festival where the area
around the registration desk was full of pent-up harpers well before opening
hour--myself included.  A couple of smiling, exuberant harpers already had
their harps racked and a Baby Taylor guitar and an old unidentifiable
ukulele fired up.  I was to learn later that these gents were brothers Marv
and Roger Monroe, joined the 2nd day by Marv's son, Mark.  These jovial
fellows seem to delight as much in jamming with anyone and everyone in the
halls as they do in performing as part of the program or catching the other
acts and workshops.  They create a sort of carnival atmosphere that makes
the event freewheeling and even more fun than it would otherwise be.  They,
along with Jack Ely are part of the group, "Harpers Bizarre."  It's a
misnomer, though, because their playing was anything but bizarre.  In fact,
I had never heard Jack play.  He's a big man who plays the sweetest
chromatic you can imagine.  And though Marv and Roger both support the band
well on chord and bass (and their string instruments), respectively, it's
son Mark who is the real incendiary harmonica player of the group.  The cat
can BLOW!  Any instrument, any genre.  He's a harp monster of the first
water.  Best I have heard on the XB-40, no joke.  Interestingly, both Jack
and Mark play Power CX-16's, as does Judy Smith, whom I'll mention in a
minute.  Awesome instruments played by awesome players.  Came away with even
more respect for Brendan Power, if that's possible, and he wasn't even
there!

I suppose the next description should be of the other performers, but I have
to stop to mention the Mile Harmonica Club hosts who filled the event with
great players, acts, and seminars and made the event flow smoothly.  Paul
Davies seemed to be the ring leader of the event, acting as MC, raconteur,
and chief local harper.  Terrific guy, terrific player, terrific teacher,
just plain terrific.  Roger Bale was the man behind the curtain throughout
the event.  Clearly it couldn't have been pulled off without his constant
attention.  Somehow he managed to play some very nice chromatic, too (more
in a minute).  There are too many Mile Highers to mention, but one that was
also a big help was Jeff Chance.  A great player on most all types of
harmonicas, he also demonstrated his expertise as a sound man.  Kudos for
the great sound, Jeff!

The acts were many and varied.  The Mile Highers have a chromatic ensemble
called "Harpn' Harmonicas" that played several times and made a very good
showing of themselves.  Bass, chord, 2 lead (including Roger), and 3 harmony
chromatics.  Clearly they've done a lot of work individually and
collectively on their big band and show tunes.  Even better, this group
plays around town earning money for the club that pays for such necessities
as a nice PA system.

Another local act, "We Be Three" consisted of Lynn Massa (I hope that's
spelled right) on diatonic backed up by bass and a guitar player.  They
played traditional old-timey "hill music", and played it very, very well.
Davies introduced Lynn as being on of the finest at "pump" style harmonica,
a term I'd never heard.  Whatever "pump" refers to even Lynn wasn't quite
sure, but the man can play the heck out of first position diatonic. He was
free in discussing his technique which is largely based around what I'd call
tongue-slap and related tongue block effects taken to a very high level.
Gotta work on my tongue techniques some more, as Lynn definitely showed me
some "stuff"!  Very nice man, too.  Swapped him a couple bluesharp licks.
Turned him on to Peg Leg Sam, Phil Wiggins, Little Walter, and Butter to get
him into the blues groove (happened to have a few blues CD's with me...  ;).

Some of the chromatic players voiced their consternation that so much
program time was devoted to blues harp.  It was just fine by me, though!
Again, as with some of the other local talent, I was duly impressed to the
point of mild surprise to find local blues harpers of the caliber I did.
The format, whether by design or not, was consistent--amplified and acoustic
harp backed by a single guitarist.  First to perform was a young fellow
named Ronnie Shellist.  The cat has his harp technique down pat and can tell
a great story via his music.  Definitely a fine instrumentalist and singer
and a name to look for.  Next up was Dan Treanor, the self-titled
"Ambassador of the Blues".  Dan treated us to an "edutainment" act that he
normally performs at local elementary schools.  Backed by an electric
guitarist, Dan tells the story of the birth of Delta blues through song and
narrative, supported by his fine blues harp stylings and his special "diddly
bows" that he makes himself.  These are broomstick/homemade soundbox
stringed instruments reminiscent of the "portable" didly bows that all the
famous Delta blues guitarists made, except these are amplified.  Dan plays
them with a slide along with his guitarist while he weaves his story.  Very
impressive.  Dan's done his homework and is clearly dedicated to spreading
the good word about blues.

Coincidentally, someone asked on one of the lists about a harper named Clay
Kirkland a couple of weeks ago.  There is a name I won't be forgetting any
time soon!  In addition to Mark Monroe, who I mentioned earlier, Clay
Kirkland was the prize find of the festival for me.  He played twice, once
as the last of the blues harp headliners, and again in a
demonstration/seminar on fitting in with a blues band.  His main act was a
real eye-opener.  If I hadn't been tempered by the pleasure/spectacle of
seeing Jason Ricci twice this summer, they'd probably still be peeling me
off the ceiling.  To put it simply, Clay Kirkland is another Jason Ricci who
sticks more closely to the blues genre and eschews overblows.  I do not make
that comparison lightly.  There is only one Jason, to be sure, but Clay
demonstrates his own brand of virtuosity without the funk and the
pedal-to-metal Ricci style, staying more within blues boundaries with
equally fine harp acrobatics.  I stand in awe of both of 'em, but since
Jason tours relentlessly and gets more "press" on the lists, you may not
hear about Clay Kirkland like you do about Jason.  Suffice it to say that I
strongly advise seeing each of them whenever and wherever possible.  In each
case, you'll come away having witnessed the boundaries of diatonic harmonica
musicianship being pushed to and beyond their limits.

The next day we had the pleasure of seeing Al Chesis in the afternoon, due
to his heavy evening schedule.  I was ready to be brought down to earth
after seeing Clay Kirkland the evening before, but I was pleasantly
surprised.  Al's act consisted of a tour through the different classic blues
harper's music and styles.  He has obviously worked very hard and succeeded
in capturing the styles of an arm's length list of your favorite blues
harpers.  A very strong harper in the classical styles and a fine singer and
performer as well.  Blues harp is alive and well in Denver, Colorado!

I've saved for last the two groups that feature Al and Judy Smith,
harmonicists extraordinaire.  First was "Harmonica Junction" which, in
addition to Al in chord and Judy on chromatic, included a lead chromatic
player and a harmony chromatic player, and a bass player (sorry I didn't
catch their names).  Polish is the word that comes to mind.  Not a note
misplaced, too loud or too soft.  They played like a finely tuned Swiss
watch, and it was delightful to witness such professionalism.  They were so
good I dragged my aging father to a matinee show.  He was more animated than
I've seen him in some time.  And with good reason.  Al and Judy are
incredible harmonicists, musicians, and entertainers.  For their evening
show, they performed their duo "Harmonica Hotshots" act.  Again, incredible
professionalism abounded.  Al does all the arranging on his laptop and uses
Band In The Box and Sonar to create backing tracks for the tunes the
perform.  Highly entertaining to a non-harmonicist; spellbinding to someone
who knows what it takes to reach that sort of expertise on a harmonica. Al
and Judy rightly lay claim to the name, "Hotshots".

Mixed in with the fine entertainment were a host of seminars that I won't
even begin to try to describe.  Knowledgeable and talented teachers teaching
a legion of harpers eager to learn more about their instruments.  I will
only mention one thing that really struck me as really unusual.  I attended
Paul Davies' beginning harmonica class to see how he uses his 30+ years of
experience teaching harp in getting a bunch of newbies started.  Along with
his casual, friendly teaching style I saw Paul work what I consider to be a
small miracle.  He had, I kid you not, I'd say 3/4 of the rank beginners
bending on their first try!  Yes, one try on a 1-hole draw bend was all it
took.  I'd never have thought it possible, but I saw it with my own eyes.
Where was Davies when ~I~ needed him?  Just to round off his presence and
influence, for the evening show Paul gave us an amazing tour of harmonica
styles on a dozen or so different types of harmonica, displaying his
virtuosity on each.  I really enjoyed meeting, learning from and listening
to Paul Davies.

Of course, this description omitted the many stories behind the impromptu
jams in the hallways, or special private moments of pulling a particularly
talented harper aside for some hints, which were uniformly given with almost
the same pleasure with which they were received.  A great group of folks,
harpers!

Thanks to all for the great 1st annual Rocky Mountain Harmonica Festival.
We missed ya, Ken, but your Mile High buddies filled in for you pretty well.
See ya next year!

Michelle