Re: [Harp-L] Georgia (was Gerorgia) - oops

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

Originally off-list, forwarded with permission of Captron.

On Jul 29, 2007, at 1:16 PM, Captron100@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Hey, joe, are u the guy who turned Charlie onto the trick of  
> raising the 5 hole draw ?
> ron
>
> Short version?........NO.....but here are the details

1... 20 March 1956 I started my harp involvement with chromatic. In  
about a year, I started on diatonic.
2... 25 September 1959 I was changing a reed on a Marine Band. The  
reed was too low, so I had to tune it up.
3... I was tuning the wrong reed and accidentally took the 5th draw  
UP almost a semi tone. I liked it. A week later, I took the 9 up  
also. A week later, I added a wind saver to the #5 draw (inside)
4... I was immediately able to do tunes I couldn't do previously.
5... Summer of 1960, age 18, I left home and went on my own.I quit  
playing.
6...19 Feb 1974  we had a child born with a birth defect. I got  
involved with children's hospital in Pittsburgh.
7... After doing a telethon for the hospt. and then a Jerry Lewis  
telethon, I was asked to go to Nashville as a guest of the O'Neils.  
Apparently the mother had been (shall we say) chummy with Ernest Tubb  
in the past.
8... I did one number as a guest of Tubb on the last Ryman Auditorium  
Christmas show.
9... A fellow named Jim or John Raydell, Rydell? wanted to know how I  
was able to play Frosty the Snowman and NOT change harps on the  
bridge. So, I showed him. The we goofed around a bit.
10.. Apparently it wound up getting around even though Raydell? was a  
chromatic player.
11.. Turns out that Rydell? was on Hee Haw with Charley McCoy.
12.. I noticed that during Charlie's first 8-9 albums, he switched  
harps a lot and even did something I had done. He used 'Piccolo'  
harps. This allows the same pattern as the low end of an MB only an  
octave higher. (without the hassle)
13.. Then around album 9-10, he was using harps with the 5th draw  
already raised a semi-tone. So, ???

My suspicion is that somewhere along the line, someone showed him my  
trick. He has used it ever since. I can't be sure, I can't prove it,  
I don't mind either way. If I WAS responsible for this wonderful  
tuning getting to the masses, I'm very happy about it. I'll die  
knowing that I contributed something. If it became popular some other  
way, that's cool too.

p.s. One weekend while in the navy, I and other sailors were at the  
Peppermint Top Hat in Virginia Beach and Roy Orbison was on the bill.  
I offered to play the harmonica part for 'Candy Man' for him since he  
didn't have a harp player there with him. He turned me down. No  
telling where I would have wound up today if he had said yes. Still,  
(in all) I always liked Roy. As for Charlie, he has a winter home  
down here in Ft. Myers Fla. Charlie is (in MY estimation) DE MAN.

smokey-joe