[Harp-L] Charlie McCoy's first recording session as a harmonica player

[Ken H in Ohio]

I remember when I first started playing some 40+ years ago, discovering
something different that sounded very minor.
Turned out to be 3rd position (on a diatonic)... all I knew was that it
sounded cool and different !

I didn't really discover 5th position until listening to a Wailin Wood CD
that I bought at a early 2000 something Buckeye Harmonica Festival...

On the song "Poor Wayfaring Stranger"... Wailin was kind enough to call me
after I emailed him about the song keys on his two CD's that I bought.

What a great player he is too !

Ken H in OH

On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 1:53 PM JOSEPH LEONE <3n037 at xxxxx> wrote:

> Fairly simple repetitious riff. And I'm not convinced that McCoy knew what
> positions were. Not at 20 at least. Hey, I could be dead wrong.
> Many people have played harmonicas in off the wall positions and didn't
> know that they WERE positions. And probably couldn't tell you WHAT they
> were doing except that they 'found' a harp that worked.
> I DO know that the few times I have seen/heard Charlie play chromatic, he
> used one tuned TO the tune he was playing. I recall that we were playing
> once and using Bb diatonics in the second position for F, and I even did a
> solo on chro martic.
> He asked me if I was using an F chromo. and I showed him that I was using
> a C.
> AND in the huge compendium of tunes that he had played on vinyl over the
> years, he always seemed to use second position.
>
> Charlie used to use 2 or more diatonics for some tunes. Example:
> 'Londonderry Aire (Oh Danny Boy). He used a D crossed for the head, then an
> A straight for the bridge, than back to a D. Then he would go up one sharp,
> use an Eb crossed for the head, a Bb straight, and back to an Eb crossed.
> Four harps.
>
> I only used two. But I had changed one reed. Something he discovered many
> years later.
>
> smo-joe
>
> > On 06/26/2020 6:51 AM Ken H in Ohio <airmojoken at xxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> > That's a great song and excellent playing by Charlie McCoy.
> > I wonder if Charlie knew he was playing in what we now call "5th
> position"
> > back then ?
> > Probably did, but I still wonder about it.
> >
> > Ken H in OH
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 25, 2020 at 8:54 PM Peter Madcat Ruth <
> madcat at xxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Charlie McCoy's first recording session as a harmonica player was in
> 1961
> > > when Charlie was 20 years old.
> > >
> > > The song was "I Just Don't Understand", by Ann-Margret.
> > >
> > > The song was in the key of Am and Charlie was playing an F harmonica  -
> > > that’s fifth position!
> > >
> > > check it out:
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDagZECOhJc
> > >
> > >
> > > Peter Madcat Ruth
> > >
>