Other web Sites
Harmonica Blues  Harmonica Amps
Harmonica Links Harmonica Pages
• Archives Home
• Years
 · 1992
 · 1993
 · 1994
 · 1995
 · 1996
 · 1997 		 · 1998
 · 1999
 · 2000
 · 2001
 · 2002
 · 2003
 
Web HarpL
Ebay Searches:
Amps:
Microphones:
Effects:
Harmonicas and Gear:
Harmonica Music and Instruction:

 

 

Harp-L Archives

[Previous Message] [Next Message]
[Next in Thread]
[Start of Thread] [End of Thread]

Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 09:29:27 -0600
From: "Tim Moyer"
Subject: A Holler for HOOT

Well, after only living in the Dallas area for a year and a half (okay,
changing jobs, having a second child, buying a home, blah, blah, blah) I
finally made it to my first meeting of the Harmonica Organization Of Dallas,
or HOOT, last night. I have been getting, let's call it "persuasion" from
HOOT-Dallas member and former Working Man's Harps customer Beverly Windham
to attend and I finally convinced myself that my wife could deal with the
kids for an evening while I went and fraternized with my brothers and
sisters of the reed. As a little background, I had volunteered to do a
diatonic customization seminar for HOOT members at our local Mars Music on
the Sunday before, and at that event got to meet with many of the local HOOT
members. That was strong persuasion to attend.

And I'm glad I did; what a great group of people. Chapter president Jerl
Welch did everything to make me feel welcome, introducing me to the
auditorium full of attendees, who represented just about every aspect of
harmonica interest from old-time chromatic players to country diatonic
players, tremolo players, blues harp players, newby diatonic players, and
the delightful Dallas Harmonica Trio (for whom Jerl is the bass harmonica
player [http://www.flash.net/~jh1/dh3/]). The meeting included a lot of
audience participation events including a resounding rendition of "Happy
Birthday" led by the Dallas Harmonica Trio (and accompanied by anyone in the
audience who had a C harp and an extra breath), and a nice play-along,
"Blowin' In The Wind", led by Jerl's twin brother, who's name I believe is
Derl (please excuse my horrible memory for names).

Going for a "full-emersion experience" I signed up for the open-mic session,
at which I played a kind of swing-y, jazzy version of "Summertime" (arranged
by a singer-songwriter friend in Austin), which I "taught" to the backup
band in about two minutes -- they were excellent musicians and very quick
studies, and did a marvelous job of following my lead. Open mic also
included one player on what sounded (and appeared) to be a tenor CX-12
playing a kind of minor big band tune, one player doing Lee Oskar's famous
"Lowrider" (which conjured memories of sitting in the back of French class
in high school entertaining my friends with the same tune, circa 1975), a
beautiful solo tune by Derl and band, a couple of diatonic tunes by Jerl,
and a couple of songs by the Trio. Afterwards we heard a bit of a seminar
by Charlie McCoy on country diatonic playing. All in all it was a
delightful evening, though I still remember my knees shaking as I played in
front of an auditorium of strangers!

Throughout the evening club members, some of whom I'd met before, some not,
stopped by to shake my hand and say hello and welcome me, and chat about
harp customization, diatonic playing, and collectible harmonicas. It was so
nice to be so welcomed by a great group of folks.

All this is to say to any of you out there, see if there's a harmonica club
in your area (if you happen to live in Texas, HOOT has chapters in Dallas,
Amarillo, and a new chapter in Austin) and go check it out. It will
certainly broaden your horizons and introduce you to a great group of folks,
if the Dallas HOOT chapter is any indication.

And thanks to HOOT for giving me a Texas-sized welcome!

- -tim
tymoy~otmail.com
tymoy~exas.net

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com