[Harp-L] Harder than it looks



http://www.nptelegraph.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14448474&BRD=377&PAG=461&dept_id=531813&rfi=6

05/01/2005

Harder than it looks

By DIANE WETZEL , The North Platte Telegraph

"There once lived an Indian maid, a shy little prairie maid, what sang a lay, a love song gay as on the plain she'd while away the day.

She loved a warrior bold, this shy little maid of old, but blythe and gay, he rode one day to battle far away."

On the final day of the annual Country Bluegrass Festival, I walked across the parking lot with a lump in my throat and a stinging in my eyes that had nothing to do with the dust in the air. I had just finished talking to Fred Larson, the "Harmonica Man." In the course of our conversation, I had mentioned that when I was a child, my grandmother played the piano, and I always asked her to play "Red Wing." She would play with much vigor and we would belt out the words together.

Fred and I were talking about how he grew up listening to old 78 records on the family Victrola, and hearing his uncle play the harmonica.

"I bought a fifty-nine cent dime store harmonica," Fred said. "I play mostly by ear, and every song I play has some special memory for me, either of the person who taught it to me or the place where I learned it."

While we were standing in a hallway at the Centennial Building a t the Lincoln County Fairgrounds with crowds of people jostling past, Fred pulled out a harmonica from his "apron" that has room for six harmonicas and proceed to play a rousing rendition of the song I most associate with my grandmother.
From Council Bluffs, Iowa, Fred works for the Union Pacific when he isn't traveling around the area to jam at festivals. He owns more than 40 harmonicas.


"If you blow one out, you need to be able to grab another one while you are jamming," Fred said.
Fred plays a diatonic harmonica, which is a 10-hole, 20-reed instrument.


"People often think of them as just a toy," he said. "If you don't sing, you can pour your voice into the harp. Think of Louis Armstrong. He sang just like he played the trumpet. He didn't have a great voice, but he could get the emotion in a song.

"People say playing the harmonica is easy," Fred said. "Then why aren't there more people playing it?"
Along with his uncle, Fred said he was inspired by his father, who played piano. He listened to Billy Preston, Artie Shaw, Gene Autry and Burl Ives, all who inspired him.


"People I meet come up to me and say how much they like my music," Fred said. "That's what makes it for me. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, we are all on the same level when we have the universal language of music."

Before our visited ended, Fred played two more songs, just for me. While my foot tapped along to "Whiskey Before Breakfast" and "Darlin' Nellie Gray," I found myself thinking it was time to get my old Fender guitar out of storage and limber up.

"You play what you hear," Fred said. "If I hear a song, I can play it. If I don't have a harp with me, I whistle all the way home so I remember."

"Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing, the breeze is sighing, the night bird's crying.

For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping, while Red Wing's weeping her heart away.."

A picture of Fred Larson can be found at http://images.zwire.com/local/Z/ZWIRE377/zwire/images/Harmonica330234.jpg with the following caption: "Fred Hanson of Council Bluffs, Iowa, plays one of many harmonicas he carries with him. Saturday afternoon Hanson was at the fifth annual Country Bluegrass show showing off his talent and part of his collection of more than 40 harmonicas. "



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