[Harp-L] The road to William Clarkes' home

[PGrissim@xxxxxxx]

10 years ago, I bought 2 tickets to the Golden Sails Harmonica show in Long  
Beach,Calif. It was on Thanksgiving, and I couldn't get off work. I called up  
the promoter and asked him if he would be so kind as to give me a refund, he  
said he couldn't do that, but, he would give me a subscription to "Southland  
Blues Magazine" which he was affiliated with. In the back of the magazine, 
was  an ad that read, "45's,Classic Blues & Jazz albums,William Clarke's'  
personal collection".Call ######### after 6:00 PM. I called up and  Jeanette 
answered, and I asked her if she would be willing to sell any of her  late husbands' 
microphones,she said she would. I took a flight to  L.A. the next day and 
rented a car for the short drive to Torrance.  When I arrived, the whole family 
was there and they welcomed me  inside. they pulled out a big trunk that had 
all sorts of old mics, harmonicas,  and gig flyers. I only had 400 dollars with 
me ,so I bought all the mics in the  trunk, plus some old 10 holes, and a 
chromatic. He played his harps  upside down, and he used fingernail polish to mark 
the keys. (one currently  is in Dave Barretts' studio in San Jose in a frame) 
I bought all his  George Smith albums and all of his own albums and some 
misc. jazz albums. Some  of the pictures of him with various players were cut out 
of the album with  an Exacto knife. His music room still had a life size 
picture of Bill on  the wall. There was a an old Bassman there with some mics on 
it. I asked if  it was for sale, She said "no, we already shipped one to the 
East Coast to  a dear friend of his, and this one was going to another friend, I 
looked in the  back, and it had all the wires hanging out with lots of black 
tape holding  the wires together. I left with some interesting mics, two, in 
particular, the  one you see on Dave Barretts' mic page (The first Shure circa 
1938)  belonged to William, I believe that is the one on his "Blowin like hell  
CD, I gave it to Kim Wilson last month in Santa Cruz, I told him the  history 
of it, and he was overjoyed,a great moment. One particular mic, a black  70's 
JT30, had a unique volume control on it. It had the standard setup,but, the  
actual knob is a piece of a guitar cable end (the part that is the threaded  
male) , very cool. Somehow a gentlemen in New York found out I had it,and,  
called me up and said he wanted it back, he said he made it just for William, I  
said no dice, the called did not end well. There was a Turner Challenger, an 
old  Biscuit, and a bunch of JT 30 shells. Just to make the journey and meet 
the  family was pretty surreal for me, I value the mics and the memories, I 
doubt the  stars would ever line up for such a "Harmonica trip again. Pete  
Grissim 



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