[Harp-L] Sonny Terry Tribute at SPAH and Pre-War Harps

[Winslow Yerxa]

All true, Iceman. And Madcat, one of the main performers at the Sonny tribute, was also the young player who broke the ice for diatonic and blues at SPAH conventions.

While SPAH has a youth program that both teaches local schoolkids at the convention and awards convention attendance scholarships to under-21 players of promise, convention attendance does skew toward gray hair, largely as a reflection of the fact that the folks who have the leisure and funds to attend tend to be those who've paid off the house, put the kids through school, etc.

This time in Texas, we again tried to get the flavor of Texas (and more generally, southern) music into the convention, and we succeeded. At the same time, though, for the first time I felt that non-roots music was seriously under-represented. I'm going to work to ensure that we continue to reflect the entire spectrum of music that people listen to and play on the harmonica.
 
Winslow Yerxa
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition: ISBN 978-1-118-88076-0
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School
President emeritus, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica



________________________________
From: The Iceman via Harp-L <harp-l at xxxxx>
To: harp-l at xxxxx 
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 6:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Sonny Terry Tribute at SPAH and Pre-War Harps



Holy Moly!


As an old attendee of SPAH during the years when diatonic harmonica was first "allowed" into the convention back in the 20th Century, it is fascinating to see the change - 


Back in the day, the Chrom players were all somewhat old white haired folk with the diatonic being championed by young, unwrinkled players.


Now the diatonic champions have become the "old guard" - watching this video was kind of like watching the Rolling Stones concert movie that came out a few years ago in which a 70 something year old Mick was prancing and performing on the stage.


Time Marches On