Well it has been one heck of a year ! All the show's and all the new people we have meet, and new friends made. Thank you ALL ! We look forward with great enthusiasm new song on the board to be performed and written. We have had some bumps in the Road We have lost a dear Family member and my aging Mother has had a very ruff year, we celebrate there lives and are grateful for all the time we have had together. We wish all of you a Marry Christmas and dreams fulfilled in the new year! We have had few …

  Walter Horton  was born in Horn Lake, MS (April 6, 1917), but his mother soon moved to Memphis where  Walter  taught himself how to play the harmonica at five years of age. He later learned more about his instrument by working with harp players  Will Shade  and  Hammie Nixon . Walter  was the master of the single note and his characteristic walking bass line (usually with a deep tone and selection of notes that is unsurpassed) is instantly recognizable. As an …

  Kennedy mine head spirits of the miners on there way out from the argonaut "Spirits over Jackson"  The photos I used to create this work are of the miners and the firefighters that tried to save them. The Argonaut produced 1.13 million ounces of gold valued at $25.7 million . The Kennedy reaped $34.3 million in gold elevated through three main shafts and lesser ones during its 90 plus years of operation. Argonaut Gold Mine, On the anniversary of the   Argonaut Gold Mine …

    1: As this is your first trip Tell us how it all began for you how you came to love and play the Harmonica?     I began plinking out melodies on the piano at the age of 4, so by the time I first encountered the harmonica at age 10 my passion for music had already been ignited. I remember the exact moment I was bitten by the harmonica bug. I was on a Boy Scout camp-out in the Las Padres National Forest. As we sat around the campfire, my Scoutmaster pulled out his Marine Band in …

 Th e Way west!    Shortly after Hohner began manufacturing harmonicas in 1857, he shipped some to relatives who had emigrated to the United States. Its music rapidly became popular, and the country became an enormous market for Hohner's goods. President Abraham Lincoln carried a harmonica in his pocket, and harmonicas provided solace to soldiers on both the Union and Confederate sides of the American Civil War. Frontiersmen Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid played the …

  Hell-o Joe  #1: When and how did you get involved with SPAH?   My first  SPAH was Detroit 1990.  I believe that the first year I volunteered was Memphis 1994 and have tried to be as involved as I could in every successive year. #2: When was your first teach in? I honestly don't remember.  Probably about 12 years ago or so.  It really was something that evolved.   #3: What is your favorite thing about SPAH? Easy one.  The broad variety of people and …

  Manfred   #1: I got to meet you last year when I took your seminar and learned that you know allot about the history of the harmonica.       I would say you are a great historian of the instrument, I enjoyed your talk very much.        How did you first become interested in the Harmonica?   My father Josef played the harmonica, his brothers did and so did my maternal grandfather.  When family got together, there was always music. I cannot remember …

  Each year there are Awards at SPAH they are the grand finally of the event and given out at the Closing dinner and show, for me it is very emotional as it is the end so lots of crying, hugging, and packing up to go back to life as we know it! Last year Brendan Powers won entertainer of the year. I wonder who will win this year? From Brendans site In 1995 a new dance show called  Riverdance  broke all records at the Point Theatre in Dublin. Along with the flamboyance of Michael Flatly …

 Well like most Woman I love to shop but unlike most woman I prefer harmonicas to diamonds. However I do not like to buy things that are costly without knowing something about them and the nice thing about SPAH is the vendors are there to help you understand the products they sell. One of the first things that interested me the most as a live electric player was the microphones and amps. I first meet  Greg Heumann at the 2009 Sacramento SPAH and I hit a Goldmine, the man knows everything …

  Hi Tom, thanks you for the time here at Nedra's Blog.       1: Tom when and how did you start playing harmonic? My three cousins and I received a  280 Chromatic for Christmas when I was 15 living in San Francisco.  Fortunately, former  Borah Minevitch Ray Tankersley lived nearby and we engaged him to teach us.  He moved shortly thereafter.   I moved to San Jose in 1963 and came across Ray again in 1965 at Foothill College in Los Altos, California, where …