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From: "Paul Messinger"
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 11:39:57 -0400
Subject: Augusta Blues Week

I just spent a week in Elkins West Virginia at the Augusta Heritage
Arts Festival. There were three instructors on staff for harmonica-
Phil Wiggins, Gary Primach, and Grant Dermody. Larry (The Iceman)
Eisenberg taught a well-attended mini-class that concentrated on the
technique(s) of Kim Wilson.

The harmonica segment of the festival drew about 50 participants,
but there were probably 750 participants all told for the week. All
around were swing dancers and players, as well as blues greats
such as John Jackson, Joe Harris, and John Cephas. Actually,
the list just goes on and on and any attempt to list all the people
there will just result in my skipping names.

I got to meet Harp-Ler's Ben Gallant and James Rossen, and
Dale Duncan. Jim Rossen is a heck of a player, very strong in
positional play and comfortable throughout the length of the
instrument. He played lot's and lot's of head-turning solos all
week.

Harp-L'ers should ask him about his u-block tongue-blocking style.
I'd never heard anyone do it like that before, and he got a great sound
which he was able to control really well.

Ben didn't introduce himself to me until the last night we were
there, and I never really heard him play . . . But he showed
that has no problem staying out way way late-so you know
he's got a good start on the necessary harmonica tools :-) . . .
I never heard Dale play at all, but got a few really good
smiles from him.

Larry Eisenberg sounded great at the Tuesday night concert,
as well as part of a big horn section in the Wednesday night
swing dance. Sounds like Larry has locked himself in the
wood-shed and come out with a whole bunch of cool
tongue-blocking technique that he has mind-melded
to the rest of his formidable arsensal of tools . . .

I spent the mornings at a vocal class taught by Richard
Smith and Katherine (forgot last name). These folks
had some pipes, and the class was a great experience,
and really helpful in opening me up.

I attended Gary Primach's class's in the afternoons, a
tough choice as Grant Dermody and Phil are great
teachers and have all sorts of technique I wanted
to get a hold of.

Gary, however, does some stuff that I was very
motivated to listen to. He mixes pucker and
tongue-block in a very smooth and effective
manner. He doesn't tongue-block the bottom
three holes, nor does he bend much with TB.
So, I got to hear a guy that really blends the
style that I'm most comfortable (pucker), with
the style that I've really been working on.

Plus, he's just a cool and very funny guy, with a
great voice and great song ideas . . .

If y'all ever get a chance to hear Gary or take
a class or workshop with him, I thoroughly
encourage you to do so. He's a very
generous instructor, and gave lot's of
personal attention to each player. I've got
a lot of stuff in my mind (and ears) that I'm
taking away from the time I spent with him.
He's just got a great sound, and he really
really knows what to do with it. Most of
the week he walked around with just two
harps, and played equally well in cross,
third, and first positions.

Finally, of course the best part about Blues
Week is the playing. John Cephas in particular
just loves to sit down at some point in the evening
and just play. I must have spent about 6 hours in
total sitting on various walls with him and Gary and
Phil and Grant(with Jim Rossen out there too), or
other combos, and just playing tune after tune.
Almost immediately, about a hundred people would
gather around, the jugs would be passed, and before
you know it, it's real real late (or early) . . .

All in all, a pretty good way to spend a week in July . . .

Best regards-Paul Messinger/Chapel Hill NC