From: "Glenn Weiser" <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [Harp-L] Name That Tume.... Please/Harp in Western swing Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 23:15:30 -0400
Message: 9 Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 19:11:04 -0500 From: "Cara Cooke" <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] To: Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx Message-ID: <c1406ac10708061711i17e9999cu9ceee0ac5f0857c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Just an FYI, hearing the term "bluegrass harmonica" should not be any more
odd than hearing the term "bluegrass dobro". Flatt and Scruggs had both.
It may be more unusual to have a harmonica player on the ball enough to do a
good job in the music than on the other instruments, but that does not mean
that it cannot ever be considered an authentic bluegrass instrument. Just
because we aren't accustomed to it, doesn't mean that it never happened
somewhere else or sometime else; and it does not mean that it cannot be
re-applied by those capable of holding their own with the other players.
----------------------------
Cara-
I certainly agree the harmonica when in the right hands is capable of playing bluegrass. But I just reviewed a major bluegrass ferstival (Grey Fox) for an Albany, NY weekly, and while there were lots of dobros not one harmonica was heard onstage all day. Other than Flatt and Scruggs, who used I think Charlie McCoy, how many other classic bluegrass bands ever used harp? The Stanely Brothers? Bill Monroe? I know it can be done (and Mike Stevens has proved it) but how accepted is the harp in the bluegrass world these days? Not as much as dobro, I'm guessing.
-Glenn Weiser
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