Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Rack players/Now Marv Munroe

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Martin:
 
Marv Monroe has been a fixture at every one of the eight (8) Conventions  
I've attended so far...
 
He's the 'roving' troubador, with his guitar and self-constructed harp  rack. 
 He has both XB-40's set up side-by-side in his rack which seems to  be 
changed and tweaked (and updated) every time I see him, and conducts most of  the 
play-alongs for the majority of the chromatic players at the  Conventions. 
Sings, too, and knows just about every song there is to  know...especially what 
will work for play-alongs. His brother Roger  plays harp and guitar as well and 
is usually at his side.  Roger was  under the weather this year so didn't 
arrive until pretty much the last day...it  just wasn't the same without these two 
guys teasing and kidding with all  the ladies and getting the party started 
in their usual inimitable way.
 
Marv's won what I believe to be the Bernie Bray award as the  person of the 
year who promotes the idea of the 'preservation and advancement'  of the 
Harmonica, and is SO beloved by those attending the Conventions.  I  don't know what 
we'd do without him and Roger.  
 
At this past Buckeye, for instance...he was supposed to be seated  beside me 
for the Sat. night banquet (I was quite looking forward to that  since he's 
always a lot of fun)...but missed the entire sit-down dinner...ending  up eating 
on the run due to spending most of his time working on  ironing out issues 
with the crackling coming from the sound system  (something had been dropped, 
causing a problem).  He didn't sit down  for ages.  Marv's a really good guy, 
also doing videotaping of many of the  major performances...and always there to 
organize and handle the set up for the  mics and the sound for Open Stage/Open 
Mics.
 
I've spent some time now checking through older issues of my  Harmonica 
Happenings to see if I could find a good photo of him and his rack  system...only 
to finally find the best shot in a very recent  issue - last year's SPAH 2007 
coverage  (issued in Fall, 2007, Vol.  41, No. 4).  He's in the centerfold, 
halfway up the lefthand page  wearing a beige SPAH baseball cap, with a great 
closeup colour photo of his  rack.  I have no functioning scanner or would send 
it to  you, but perhaps someone else here could, or someone from SPAH might 
forward it  on? 
 
Incidentally..that's also him at the bottom of the other side of the  
centerfold ...the bottom photo of 4 men...he and his brother Roger are wearing  white 
polo shirts with two other guys I believe to be the Sgro brothers.
 
Regards,
 
Elizabeth
 
Message: 7
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:03:49 -0700
From: "Vern Smith"  <jevern@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Rack players
To: "martin  oldsberg" <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>,  <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID:  <002c01c8a00d$bfe00dd0$6401a8c0@user292e480637>
Content-Type:  text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "martin  oldsberg" <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>
To:  <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 6:03 AM
Subject:  [Harp-L] Rack players


> "Marvin Monroe played a pair of XB40s, F  and F#".
Was this done in a rack? Two harps in the same  rack?

Yes.  They were side-by-side but tangent to the arc made by  his mouth when 
he turned his head.  He made the ad hoc rack  himself.  An interesting 
feature of the rack is a strap that goes  around his back to hold the yoke 
stably against his chest.  The rack is  made of soldered copper pipe and 
looks funky but works really  well.

Marv is the person to tell you about his playing technique.   He told me that 
he frequently plays crossharp in the key of C.  It  appeared to me that he 
used the F# harp infrequently.  He played an  impressive version of the Wm 
Tell Overture which is written in mostly F and  Dm!  His guitar is a 
nylon-stringed Baby Taylor.

Marv can play  almost any song.  His ability to remember or "feel" the 
correct chord  on the guitar is awesome.  Marv attends almost all of the 
Harmonica  conventions and frequently runs the open-mic sessions. He is 
modest and  unassuming but if you hang around him for a while, you learn that 
he is one  hell of a musician.

(snip)
 
Vern




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