Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Own It, Play It
I'll admit it, for a long time I was just a guy who owned a harmonica. Oh yeah, I'd play in front of people but I never really knew what I was doing. I started carrying a harp with me in about 1985, almost more like a piece of jewelry than a musical instrument. In those days I'd carry it in my pocket uncased. The metal covers on harmonicas are pretty malleable (I don't think you're stupid, I had to look it up to be able to spell it correctly, so I thought I'd just link the definition) so they would literally get bent out of shape. That made them sound horrible and eventually made them useless. I'd just go out and buy another one. That's how I found out about keys. Trashed that harp in the key of C? Let's try D this time. It made me figure out where my voice was.
While working in Vermillion, there wasn't a music store, so buying a new harp meant driving to Sioux Falls. If I was going to drive to Sioux Falls I usually tried to make a day of it. I'd hit the liquor store and buy a 750ml of Jim Beam, drop by the cigar shop and buy four H. Uppman coronas (for just $10! What the hell happened to the price of cigars in the last ten years?) and hit the downtown music store for a new harp. I'm sure this is just a way the music store would screw me, but since Hohner Harmonicas are made in Germany, the clerk would do a conversion of the price from Deutsch Marks to U.S. Dollars for me and then ask for payment. For a while that conversion was costing me a little extra. I've never run into another music store that did the same thing.
Still, I was just a guy who owned a harmonica. During that time, though, I wrote my first songs while working overnights at South Dakota Public TV. And being in the building alone gave me the opportunity to play as loudly as I wanted. I actually started developing some skills during this time. I wasn't a musician by any stretch of the imagination, but I could play a little.
In about 1999 while living in California, a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Guitar Center with him because they were "having a BIG sale" (I later learned that Guitar Center had a BIG sale every other week). He wanted to buy a guitar and thought I might find the store fun. I went along not really wanting to get anything, but, not really interested in guitars, I asked a guy at the counter if I could try out one of those "Green Bullet" microphones. He got it out for me and I blew a few moments. People around the store turned to look. My friend later told me that he told the salesman who was helping him, "Oh yeah, he'll be buying that!" He was right. For the first time when I played a harmonica, I sounded something like the recordings of guys like Little Walter and Junior Wells. Up to that point I just figured I was doing something wrong. Something as silly as a microphone showed me that I could actually play a little. I bought the Bullet and a little Pig Nose battery powered amp and started playing a little more seriously.
After moving back to South Dakota, I started playing open mics. I met a couple of guys named Andy (JB & TSA) and we started playing together at Patient 957. I'll admit it, when I started playing with the Andys I really didn't have any idea what I was doing. When people ask me how long I've been playing harmonica, I usually reference back to that day in January of 2004 when I walked into Cheers on a Sunday night. That's when I really started playing. That's when my education began.
I guess it's coming along OK. I got this from local musician Willy Grigg, some one who I have a huge amount of respect for as a musician. I laughed my ass off. After that I got a call from another fine musician, Mike Reardon, asking me if I wanted to sit in with him on Friday night at the Canyon Lake Chophouse. I still think of myself as just a guy who owns a harmonica. I usually refute any efforts to identify me as a musician, but it's getting to the point that I can't deny it anymore.
....what will my parents think.....
BOJ
While working in Vermillion, there wasn't a music store, so buying a new harp meant driving to Sioux Falls. If I was going to drive to Sioux Falls I usually tried to make a day of it. I'd hit the liquor store and buy a 750ml of Jim Beam, drop by the cigar shop and buy four H. Uppman coronas (for just $10! What the hell happened to the price of cigars in the last ten years?) and hit the downtown music store for a new harp. I'm sure this is just a way the music store would screw me, but since Hohner Harmonicas are made in Germany, the clerk would do a conversion of the price from Deutsch Marks to U.S. Dollars for me and then ask for payment. For a while that conversion was costing me a little extra. I've never run into another music store that did the same thing.
Still, I was just a guy who owned a harmonica. During that time, though, I wrote my first songs while working overnights at South Dakota Public TV. And being in the building alone gave me the opportunity to play as loudly as I wanted. I actually started developing some skills during this time. I wasn't a musician by any stretch of the imagination, but I could play a little.
In about 1999 while living in California, a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Guitar Center with him because they were "having a BIG sale" (I later learned that Guitar Center had a BIG sale every other week). He wanted to buy a guitar and thought I might find the store fun. I went along not really wanting to get anything, but, not really interested in guitars, I asked a guy at the counter if I could try out one of those "Green Bullet" microphones. He got it out for me and I blew a few moments. People around the store turned to look. My friend later told me that he told the salesman who was helping him, "Oh yeah, he'll be buying that!" He was right. For the first time when I played a harmonica, I sounded something like the recordings of guys like Little Walter and Junior Wells. Up to that point I just figured I was doing something wrong. Something as silly as a microphone showed me that I could actually play a little. I bought the Bullet and a little Pig Nose battery powered amp and started playing a little more seriously.
After moving back to South Dakota, I started playing open mics. I met a couple of guys named Andy (JB & TSA) and we started playing together at Patient 957. I'll admit it, when I started playing with the Andys I really didn't have any idea what I was doing. When people ask me how long I've been playing harmonica, I usually reference back to that day in January of 2004 when I walked into Cheers on a Sunday night. That's when I really started playing. That's when my education began.
I guess it's coming along OK. I got this from local musician Willy Grigg, some one who I have a huge amount of respect for as a musician. I laughed my ass off. After that I got a call from another fine musician, Mike Reardon, asking me if I wanted to sit in with him on Friday night at the Canyon Lake Chophouse. I still think of myself as just a guy who owns a harmonica. I usually refute any efforts to identify me as a musician, but it's getting to the point that I can't deny it anymore.
....what will my parents think.....
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 11:30 AM 
