Re: [Harp-L] Custom Harmonicas: Rick Epping's Role



David Payne wrote:
<To say Lee Oskar perhaps introduced these things is fine. What I am saying is credit
<must also be given to people who have perpetuated and popularized ideas and refined
<them. Just because I did not mention Lee Oskar, should not be a slight to Lee Oskar.
<Credit ought to be due to Steve Baker as well.
<WHile I've never been a fan of the Lee Oskar harps, I embrace the fact that 
<LO set the stage for a lot of what is happening today.
<
<I can not possibly mention all the people who have contributed in any single post,
<which is precisely the point. The development of anything is never as clear cut 
<as it appears, it's a usually a play with a cast of thousands.  

Indeed.  

Charlie McCoy was using country-tuned harps in the late 1970s.  Charlie is a consummate pro, and one of the things pros don't do is show you what's behind the curtain.  He didn't make a big deal out of how he achieved his intentions; he just did it.  Charlie had a lot of gold records.  Should we say that Charlie is the guy who put alternate tunings over the top?  Charlie, by the way, told me that he was introduced to the country tuning by some guy at a performance in upstate New York.  Should we credit that guy?

How many of the people who hear Jim Conway's music know that he's using some pretty wacked-out tunings to play his drone effects?  

In 1995 and 1998, respectively, I released two CDs of solo harmonica pieces recorded in real time without overdubs.  Many if not most of those pieces used alternate tunings, including dorian minor, country tuning, melody maker, natural minor, and harmonic minor.  Both CDs are still selling today. I'm not claiming to be the prime mover either on alternate tunings or solo recordings, notwithstanding that other recordings of this type have followed. I used so many alternate tunings in large part because I could get them from Lee Oskar so easily.  

Was Lee Oskar the prime mover for alternate tunings? Certainly the easy availability of alternate tuned instruments helped make them more widely used. You're not a leader unless you have followers.  The public focuses on whoever is most popular and says "he's the guy who invented it."  But the guy who invents it and the guy who popularizes it are two different things.  And many, many players are often working toward the same goal in parallel, more or less unknown to each other, until one breaks through.

In the end, as Frank Herbert wrote in "Dune Messiah," "History is the story of where the money goes."  The story of where the ideas come from, and how they play out in the world, is a different story. 

Regards, Richard Hunter
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp

 
 



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