Re: [Harp-L] bluegrass harmonica (referenced in Country Western Harmonica Pla...

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Unfortunately, catering to the big stars is a marketing problem:  How to get
your product seen by many as better than the competition with the least
amount of outlay.  My father-in-law and I did this for a new, local Austin
guitar manufacturer (Collings Guitars) for many years (many years ago).  We
weren't big stars, but we were good enough to warrant attention in the
bluegrass world -- a world dominated in Texas by Martin Guitars.  He was a
fantastic guitar player and caught people's attention.  My harmony and
harmonica also helped bring people to the stage to see us play.  In the end,
all the guitar players would come around after the show to ask 3 questions:
1) How long have you been playing?  2) Where did you learn to play like
that?  3)  Where did you get that guitar?  Both of our guitars had been
built custom, but they each became the prototype for a Collings guitar
model, and he played both of them for shows.  Collings received so many
orders for the guitars from us (and others who were also touting his work)
that he moved his shop and expanded.  Lyle Lovett also plays Collings
guitars.  I am sure he gets orders from that, too.  These days Collings
Guitars is big business with a good sized campus.  Then, when the first of
our guitars was made, he built them in his home garage.

People asked those same questions of me and my harmonicas, too.  Since
Hohner was the major brand here, with Lee Oskar coming up from behind, the
answer to question 3 was fairly predictable.  Perhaps Hohner got sales
because of me, but we will never know.  Some have told me later on that I
was the inspiration for them to learn to play bluegrass music on harmonica,
but the numbers are still too small to put much of a dent in sales for a
company as big as Hohner.

A star plays for a lot of people, some of whom will be interested in his
instrument (seen by many... least amount of outlay).  We could do what we
did for Collings Guitars because the bluegrass world is filled with
excellent musicians who are always looking for the better 'axe'.  There are
more "stars" watching the show and wandering the campground at a bluegrass
festival than are on the stage, though a really big star on stage with a
brand name instrument can increase sales even at a bluegrass festival.  The
Martin Santa Cruz guitar is a great example.  Tony Rice plays a D-28 (once
played by Clarence White of the Kentucky Colonels and the Byrds) that has
gone through the worst of times and has had to be rebuilt and reset, but
every guitar flat-picker (then) wanted to be able to play just like him, so
they were interested in that guitar.  (Tony still has this effect, but so
many of the guitar players he inspired have matured, he has real
competition.)  Martin Guitars made a copy of sorts of his guitar -- the
Martin Santa Cruz.  Tony helped them advertise it.  Now the Martin Santa
Cruz can be seen in many flatpicker's hands.  It is a good guitar, but the
one Tony plays is a custom repaired D-28 and the one he records with is a
D-18.  It is easy to see how a big star can influence even knowledgeable
players to purchase a particular brand or model.

As for me, I don't provide the "what instrument do you play" info unless it
comes up or an instrument maker has made an agreement with me that I support
that instrument in some fashion.  I will defend my instruments,
though, because I don't play bad ones, but I try to be honest and fair to
all of the makers whose instruments I play.

 Cara


On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> On Jan 17, 2009, at 6:32 AM, Cara Cooke wrote:
>
>>  In an ideal festival line-up, for me, would be a good draw or
>> two, then I could fill the rest of the festival with our stellar local
>> Texas
>> bands.
>>
>
> That's what Birmingham was. Charlie McCoy headlined and there were several
> OTHER stellar performers there. A number of which were headliners
> themselves. AND they had back-up.
>
>  In all of that, I would want to make certain that I had very good
>> players on all of the instruments, including harmonica and dobro, and
>> stellar harmonies.  And I would ask those players to host a workshop
>> and spend time in the campground with the attendees and jam a little.  For
>> bluegrassers, that is the biggest draw of all -- to be assured that there
>> will be wonderful players to jam with and opportunities to ask questions
>> and
>> learn, even one little tidbit, from a player they truely respect.
>>
>
> This has been a thorn with me. It used to be that there was a lot of open
> mike time and it was IN the open (usually an atrium) where passersby could
> stroll by and hesitate for a while and listen. Lately, open mike has been
> more or less in a hidden locale and sometimes even in a meeting room with
> the doors closed. There are a LOT of players whom are neophytes BUT would
> still like to get in some play time. And since THEY are the backbone of the
> whole enchilada, and are spending thousands of dollars, to be THERE instead
> of some nice little cruise, they should get their 15 minutes of fame. Even
> if a festival has to curtail some of the SHOW time to do it. I get upset
> when the 'little guy' gets ignored.
>
>>
>> Cara
>>
>
> We are in total agreement. One thing I should point out: Let's say I am
> going to play tonight and beforehand I make mention that I will be using the
> Hohner 270 (or Hering 5148) chromo and the spl-20 exclusively. Why SHOULD I?
> I mean, why should people who don't get any benefit give free advertisement
> to a company that should do something themselves. It would be like BUYING a
> t-shirt, or hat from one of these companies and then giving them a free
> billboard. Stars make up only a small percentage of the harmonica world.
> It's the 'peons' that the manufacturers should go after.
>
> smo-joe
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 5:47 PM, <IcemanLE@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Great post, Cara. I agree with SMOJO - well written.
>>>
>>>