Re: [Harp-L] Country Western harmonica players

["steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <swebb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following is my opinion and should not necessarily be construed as  the truth:
  If harmonica players today want to work, at least in most local venues, they need to understand that harp is, as I think the Iceman said, a luxury. A solo guitar/singer act can work just fine without harp. Harmonica can add to the sound, but we shouldn't think it is the most important element in the sound.
I think taste in playing is the key. I play by ear. I can't play all the neat stuff that guys like Smo-Joe play. Or the over-my-head stuff that people like Chris Michalek can play.  I am not a really good player. But I know how to be in a band. I know how to try and find spaces in which to play. Mostly I don't know what to play in those spaces without a lot of trial and error, but I'm lucky to have a singer/guitarist who is patient and is a good friend who lets me work it out in practice.
I love the sound of harp in country music. Don Brooks in the early Waylon stuff, Mickey Raphael just plain killed in Willie's Stardust album. Jelly Roll Johnson has a unique sound that works will with current styles. I love blues harp, too, but I'm basically a country player, I guess.
This list and going to festivals like Buckeye and SPAH have made me a much better player. More importanly, they have allowed me to make many new friends with the same interests and what could be better than that.
Steve Webb, waxing philosophical in Minnesota

---- Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> 
> On Jan 6, 2009, at 7:29 PM, Vern Smith wrote:
> 
> > Could a harmonica "fit in" to:
> > Play runs & fills during long notes and rests in the melody?
> > Play harmony with the solo instrument emulating the two-part  
> > bluegrass vocal harmony?
> > Trade off with the fiddle for variety?
> >
> > Because many CW/bluegrass tunes are laments, the harmonica can set  
> > a sad mood by crying better, IMO, than other instruments can.  e.g.  
> > in Tanya Tucker's "Delta Dawn."
> >
> > Vern
> 
> I have to be frank and honest here and say "Who needs em". I mean, I  
> do the Charley McCoy stuff and I don't HAVE a banjo, fiddle, nor  
> mandolin. Let's be serious here. In the overall big enchilada, guitar  
> rules, and there is very little call for fiddle, banjo and especially  
> mandolin in any music (these days) except country & bluegrass. And  
> they're hardly used in western at all.
> 
> In trad jazz (sometimes called dixieland), the instruments are, in  
> order of preference:
> 1... Clarinet (which was once king) @ soprano
> 2... Trumpet @ alto
> 3... Trombone @ baritone
> 4... Tuba or bass horn @ bass
> 5... Banjo @ rhythm
> There was no one marching with an upright bass, and the only time  
> piano was used was in stationary situations. If you were going to  
> drop an instrument, you would drop the banjo.
> 
> Progressive, modern, bee-bop, re-bop, and hard-bop replace the  
> clarinet with saxes. The clarinet is just about dead. Occasionally a  
> flute gets thrown in. but if you were going to drop an instrument in  
> a jass band (to save money) you would drop the flute. Why? Most sax  
> players can play several reeds and most horn players can play several  
> horns.
> 
> As for harmonica, it has THREE things going against it and therefore  
> went unused until amplification came along.
> It was:
> 1... Too quiet and didn't carry
> 2... It was a comparatively young instrument
> 3... You could also argue (which I won't) that diatonics couldn't  
> change keys at will and couldn't negotiate the 'changes' on the run.  
> And it wasn't till the late 20s that this changed. And even then,  
> there were dang few chromo players that could do it. By that time,  
> these other instruments were rooted deep into the musics that were  
> being played.
> 
> Why just tonight, I was playing with a trumpet player and clarinet  
> player in their upper 80s. They were doing all that old old old crap  
> and while I wasn't having any trouble with it, there aren't too many  
> players that even KNOW this old old old crap.
> 
> We're reaching a point where the old generation (that's running the  
> show) are disappearing and NOWZ the time to take harp in new directions.
> 
> got my sMo joe workin (roogalatah)
> >
> > ---
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