Re: [Harp-L] Name That Tume.... Please/Harp in Western swing

["Cara Cooke" <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Grey Fox:  Bob Meehan must have been somewhere else.  As I recall we met at
that festival in its previous existence as "Winterhawk" -- at the campsite
of Al Hawkes and his friends.  I don't know if Bob still goes to the
festival, but he would be the one that I would expect to be there.  I was
only able to attend because I was really on my way to Maine at the time to
visit a cousin, and it was on the way -- sort of -- at least it is if you
are coming from Texas.  Al was very kind to help me find a spot to camp for
the few days I was able to visit.  While I was there, Bob did the harmonica
workshop for the festival.

When I have attended the International Bluegrass Music Association's
convention, I have had little trouble fitting in.  Once they know I want to
play and can, we just have fun.  I have had no abnormal acceptance problems
in the heart of bluegrass country.  (It really helps to have the woodshed'n
done long before you go to play anywhere.)

However, in looking at the number of players for each instrument that might
be at any one location at one time, you might find it very difficult to
locate a harmonica player of any real ability -- whereas you are bound to
find string players on most of the instruments.  You may have problems
finding a good fiddler or dobro player, but nearly everyone can play guitar,
banjo, bass, or mandolin well enough to keep things going.  The level of
play required to do a good job on harmonica in bluegrass is substantially
higher than most people who dabble on the instrument aspire.  So the
population to choose from suffers from a serious lack of numbers.  Ever go
to a festival and find only a handful of fiddlers?  Or a bunch of bass
players, but no one brought their bass?

You have a similar problem in some areas with small populations of fiddlers,
yet present or absent, good or bad, they are still considered a part of the
music.  However, in some areas harmonica players not only must pass the
invisible gauntlet of acceptance, but must seriously excel before they are
even considered musicians.  What I have found most interesting in all of
this is who has the ultimate problem, based on the number of times I have
been told that certain well-known bluegrass musicians would never allow a
harmonica player to play with them, no matter how good -- because "it ain't
no part of 'nothin'" -- only later to enjoy the music with those same
musicians and the subject of acceptance never coming up as a problem.

Just because good harmonica players who can be bluegrass musicians are hard
to find, does not mean that they do not belong in the music.  It only means
that their presence should be cherished when they can be found.  What has
kept me a bluegrass player all of these years is that there are more really
good people in the ranks of those great musicians, than there are any other
kind of people.  The bluegrassers who try their hardest to discourage me are
not the great players, but the ones who aspire to rise beneath the shadow of
those great players.

There has been one very interesting exception over all those years, though.
Mac Wiseman once told me that he would never play with a harmonica player --
that there are no harmonica players in bluegrass.  But when he took the
stage with his band at a bluegrass festival, the band prominently included a
harmonica player.  So either he meant what he said 'tongue in cheek', or he
specifically separates musicians who play harmonica from harmonica players.
Many bluegrassers seem to do that -- a lot -- like when they say that
someone is a guitar player, but someone else is a flat-picker.  To many, I
am not a harmonica player. -- I am a bluegrass musician who plays harmonica.

Flatt and Scruggs' harmonica player was also their mandolin player, Earl
Taylor.  They also had Charlie McCoy in on things, too.  Alan Munde told me
one of his tunes, "Earl of Broadfield" I think it was, was named after a
harmonica player he played with and liked.  Bill Monroe and Jim and Jesse
McReynolds all told me that they would point to DeFord Bailey as a bluegrass
harmonica player.  He didn't perform with them, but he could hold his own
with the boys in the music.  Jim and Jesse were the ones who took on Mike
Stevens, so they knew what they were looking for and how to make it
work.  All of that did not come out of the "blue".  It may take the right
people and the right circumstance to make things work, but, then again, how
did we get the 1945 version of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys in the
first place?

By the way, have you any idea how many fiddlers in bluegrass started on
harmonica?  I don't, but I have met a great many who did.  They played many
of the same tunes on harmonica that they eventually played on fiddle.  Once
they earned enough money, they were able to get a fiddle, but until then,
their harmonica was their fiddle.  For them, the harmonica was simply part
of the path.  I know that when I can sit down with Charlie Cline, him on
fiddle or banjo and me on harmonica, and just play away without reservation,
the problem shouldn't be acceptance or density of population -- it should be
ability and skill.

I had a discussion sometime back with Josh Graves about the dobro.  At the
time, the dobro had some popularity in a variety of music, but he said that
they put the dobro on stage as an experiment.  Once they decided it had
possibilities, they turned him from being a guitar player to being a dobro
player.  If he had played the harmonica instead, we wouldn't be having this
discussion.

:-)

Cara


On 8/6/07, Glenn Weiser <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> 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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