[Harp-L] Southern California old time and bluegrass harp report

[Trip Henderson <trip.tunes@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been out in LA for the past few days visiting family from Taiwan. We
started the trip in Las Vegas then on Sunday while on the runway before
flying to LA I googled "old time music sessions" and to my delight found
there was a floating session each first Sunday afternoon with a contact
email so I shot off a note just as the flight attendent was about to snatch
my phone.  Upon landing in LA there was a warm and welcoming email with the
address (little did they know I was bringing a harmonica). An hour later I
settled in and could feel the terror in the room as I pulled out my trusty
harp and joined in on the "Fishers Hornpipe", and then the collective sigh
of relief when they realized I knew the tune. An added treat for me was
having a chance to play with Tom Sauber who happened to be there,  Tom
works with Mark Graham and I'm happy to report that they are releasing a
follow up to their "Thought I'd Heard It Blow" CD which is a masterpiece.

The bass player then invited me to a bluegrass session the following night
letting me know that this was a hardcore bunch but that I'd be welcome
assuming I knew the repertoire and jam etiquette. True to his word this was
a terrific bunch of trad bluegrass players and like the nice folks from the
day before were most welcoming once they knew that I too had spent my time
in the woodshed learning these wonderful old songs. One fellow who was the
guy that kept it honest and true to the old ways made a point to throw me
solos came up to say howdy. I in turn went to shake his hand but he pulled
back and gave me a elbow bump and indicated that he did not want to shake
because harp players are blowing snot into our hands - I took no offense
and we all played on. The following day I got a notice on my phone that I'd
been mentioned in a Facebook comment.

What follows are excerpts of that trail, pretty amusing stuff especially
following the recent thread started by Glenn Weiser about the history of
bluegrass harmonica.  The first comment is from the elbow bumper and the
rest are from various folks that were there that night.

"A lot of pickers are getting sick (flu and stuff). At the westside jam the
harp player (a real good bluegrass harp player) wanted to shake my hand. I
did the pause, then elbow bump. Someone said are you worried about gettin'
sick? No he blows into those hands . . . they understood!"

"Never thought I'd see you write "a real good bluegrass harp player"

"Foggy mountain had a harp it was just right, I don't mind bluegrass style."

"I really enjoyed his playing....who was that masked man?"

"I don't know but he left a silver bullet..."

"That was Trip Henderson <http://www.facebook.com/trip.henderson>, visiting
from Brooklyn, NY. Met him at an old-time jam the day before. Check out his
band, The Whistling Wolves <http://www.facebook.com/whistling.wolves>."

"There have been some great Flatt and Scruggs recordings with harp, they
used it on Foggy Mountain Breakdown"

"That was Charlie McCoy, who was really a guitar player--he even play on
Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde album. I hated the crap he played with F & S.
That was producer Don Laws bright idea, and it contributed greatly to the
bands demise."

"Only the re-recording of FMB had that damn harp. The real one, the good
one from Dec 11, 1949 ya know the Mercury cut had no harp, it's in G#,
equals just right."

"He was the Yoko Ono of F&S."

"I can say that the masked man was humble and not too intrusive"


Ha! "Humble and not too obtrusive", I'll take that as a mighty fine
compliment from a bunch of bluegrass hardcores.

Happy trails friends,

Trip

-- 
Trip Henderson
*https://soundcloud.com/trip-henderson*
www.youtube.com/user/TheWhistlingWolves
www.youtube.com/user/tripharmonica