[Harp-L] Orthodoxies - One More Thing

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In the late 1990's Iron Man Mike Curtis paid a visit to my home.  I played 
him some recordings I was working on, and he seemed to like them.

In the kindest way possible he said "You know, there are alot of blues guys 
who will dismiss you because they'll say you don't play blues harmonica."

I knew exactly what he meant.  That is, even though every note I play 
reflects my blues background, I don't often record and never compose 
straight, strict twelve bar blues.  I LOVE 12 bar blues, and I love how 
beautifully lots of the players on Harp-l play it.  Just like every other 
good player on this list I try my best to be myself, and the music comes 
out the way it comes out.  And frankly, when I'm playing, if it doesn't 
sound like the blues to me I keep on working until it does.

So, not only is there no standard way to play bluegrass harmonica, I'd say 
the same thing maps to blues harmonica itself.  There is no one right way 
to play it, or to write it.  For me blues is a feeling in the music that 
I'd hesitate to define beyond saying you know it when it's there.

By the way, Bill Monroe used accordion in his Bluegrass Boys until about 
1946 or so.  He dropped it in favor of Earl Scruggs' banjo and the whole 
mix clicked in a huge way, and accordion was forgotten as a Bluegrass 
instrument.  There is clearly something to these orthodoxies.  Certain 
mixtures really grab the public.

And sometimes your employer wants the straight stuff.  But I always presume 
I'm being hired, or invited, to be myself unless told otherwise.