[Harp-L] Will Scarlett's place in the history of overblows

[Rick Dempster]

Jim, regarding your comment: "you lost my serious consideration of yours
when you included Charlie McCoy and Bob Dylan in the same sentence";
It's called irony;
                                              The point is not whether one
plays well or not, but whether popularity is achieved. The more people take
up harmonica, the better the capital investment.
If I want to play chromatically on a diatonic, I prefer a customized Sub30,
but I have to spend considerable time and money on that. If enough people
bought them, Suzuki might see their way clear
to putting the valves on them they need to work well.
                                               Whether you think Dylan can
play or not, does not matter. People loved his songs and his sound. I'd say
harmonica sales were helped quite a bit by Bob's fairly basic squawking.
                                               As for Charley, let me say
that, for example, 'Jackson', by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, which was
on top forty radio back in the late 60s, here in Australia, where only top
selling overseas records were released (all via the UK) and I would say
that it would not have escaped the 'country' market if  a fiddle had been
used instead of the harp.
                                             That is because the sound of
the harp suggested folk and blues, which were very 'hip' at the time. If
the sounds of over-playing (sorry) over -blowing ever becomes popular with
the
non-harmonica playing public, then all those incredible players I have
heard (all better than me!) using that unpleasant sounding technique, will
suddenly be in demand, and I'll be proved wrong.
                                             I discovered OB/OD all on my
own (hadn't heard anyone do it except Blues Birdhead, and didn't know what
he was doing till I worked it out. I used it for the next thirty years, but
have dropped it. I just use chromatic and customised Sub30s, or just out of
box Special 20s.
Cheers cobber,
RD


On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 19:14, Jim Stoye <jimstoye at xxxxx> wrote:

> Rick, everyone is entitled to his opinions, but you lost my serious
> consideration of yours when you included Charlie McCoy and Bob Dylan in the
> same sentence.
> JS