SPAH -- Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica

My SPAH convention experience started before I even left the St. Louis airport. Jumping in line to catch the shuttle to the hotel where the convention was being held, I heard a voice behind me, “Are you a D-man?” “A what?” I thought. I turned to see a tall man with a wide grin next to me, pointing at my harp case. “You can always spot the d-guys by their cases,” he said, then patted his own harmonica, a chromatic, hanging on his hip in a leather case. He held out his hand and introduced himself, “Ken.” And that was how I met the first of the many friends I would make at SPAH 2008.

I’d never been to a SPAH convention before. I was worried I wouldn’t fit in with what I assumed would be a largely older, trio-centered crowd, and I thought the purpose was spend all your time in seminars. But the truth is, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. If I had any doubts as to what SPAH would be like however, they were all laid to rest the moment I stepped into the hotel. In fact, even before that moment. A few feet from the front door I could already hear the unmistakable strains of harmonicas -- that’s harmonicas plural -- reeling off tunes inside the lobby. It might have been the Sarno brothers, or any of a half-dozen of the spontaneous jam-sessions that, I would come to find out, fill the halls at SPAH, winking into and out of existence throughout the day, but whoever was playing, I knew something right then. I knew SPAH was going to be fun.

The party was, as you might guess, already in full swing when I got there. It had started the night before, Tuesday, the first official day of the convention. I was running a day behind. I’d missed a huge blues extravaganza that had kicked off the convention, but I wasn’t too worried; there were plenty of shows left to see during the four days I’d be there. But before I could get started enjoying myself, I had a little work to do. As the editor and publisher of Harmonica Happenings, I figured I had some responsibilities around the convention, so I went in search of SPAH president, Tom Stryker.

I thought I’d just kind of slink my way through the place until I found him, but no such luck. Before I had any idea what was going on, I’d been spotted. I don’t recall who came up to me first, but I was in the lobby for mere minutes before someone asked me, “Are you the Harmonica Happenings guy?” This was usually followed immediately by, “I recognize you from your picture,” and then some variation of this next sentiment: “You know, you look a lot nicer in person.” In the first hour, I honestly had this same conversation about 7 or 8 times. So hey, now you all know: I look much nicer in person.

I did finally make my way to Tom. He was in a seminar with Charles Spranklin, Chris Bauer and Stan Harper, a legend I’m sorry I’d never heard of before. He was demonstrating various ways to do trills on a chromatic, including his famous “brick wall” approach, in which he shook the harmonica and worked the slide simultaneously, playing, for example, a C/F trill. You’ll have to try it for yourself. I would later get a chance to hang out with Stan a little, or maybe more precisely, to hang near him, as he opined on jazz and, to my delight, told a story about having met, and played in front of, the great Louis Armstrong. That was the first of many opportunities I would have to hear from and talk to great musicians at SPAH, some better known than others, none as well known as they should be.

I also got to meet my “coworkers” for the first time. I spotted Roger Bale from a mile away. He was exactly how I’d pictured him from our phone conversations. LJ Atkison and his wife Elizabeth, whom I’d only heard in board meetings, were all smiles and welcomes. Tom Stryker busy running around, taking care of business, but still nice enough to introduce me to everyone. And introduce me he did—to more people than I can possibly remember: Terry Rand, Paul Davies, Dr. SungHee Yun, Al and Judy Smith, and on and on: all the board members and other volunteers, and most anyone else who happened to walk by. Tom seemed to know them all. I struggled to keep up. Luckily for me, everyone was nice and understanding and eager for me to get started enjoying my first SPAH. So, once I got myself settled into my room and vaguely oriented as to what was going on where, I struck out to convene with my fellow harmonicist brethren.

Trying to decide what to do at SPAH is, in a word, overwhelming. Talk about the tyranny of choice: at any given moment there were at least 2 seminars going on, not to mention various jams and shows, and of course there was always someone just wandering down the hall that I’d always wanted to meet in person or that I’d been chatting with online for years and just never actually met. Even if I did manage to commit myself to one event, getting there uninterrupted was almost impossible. On top of that, the SPAH schedule can be grueling if you try to take it all in. There’s something scheduled or just plain happening from 8 a.m. until well into the next morning, every day. It’s harmonica overload. Tom, shortly after I tracked him down earlier, had asked me to take notes on what was happening so that I could relay them to Jaine Rodack each night and have her write an article about SPAH. I might have had a ghost of a chance had I been there solely to report on the convention, but keeping track of what was happening and actually being there were two separate things, and I knew early on I’d have to be writing about SPAH 2008 myself. There was just no way other way to do it.

It was Wednesday afternoon when I headed out into the wilds of SPAH, and I’d already missed a seminar by Michael Peloquin, who I’d seen on Harp-L for years, on playing horn lines on the diatonic, as well as a tongue technique seminar with the aforementioned Stan Harper, James Conway and Robert Bonfiglio! I was kicking myself. Lucky for me, Michael would be reprising his seminar later in the week, so at least I could still catch that. I hit the vendors’ room to try to get the lay of the land. Suzuki brought their new (and heavy!) “Fabulous” chromatics, Seydel had a table there (manned by the sweet Betty House) with their cool new (but actually quite small) Big Six diatonics, Hohner had a table with a giant, 6-foot harmonica in front of it and one of their new VooDoo wireless mic & amp set-ups for people to try out (which I did). There were harp cases and leather holsters and a stunningly simple but effective looking system developed by a fellow named Clyde for holding a number of harmonicas together in your hand, so you could switch from one key of diatonic to the next with a flick of the wrist. I was taking all of this in when I saw a familiar face, Jason Ricci, his hair a shade of bubblegum pink that any hardcore Anime-phile would envy, and he was doing what he usually does: playing fast and playing LOUD. Of course, I just had to say hi, and that’s how I met Brad Harrison, a young Chicago harp player and customizer who’s decided to start making his own harmonicas, from scratch, in his own design. He wasn’t even using standard reedplates. Jason was putting one of Brad’s harmonicas through its paces, and it sounded like it was holding up well. I’ll be interested to see what kind of waves Brad’s new designs make.

Of course, I spent so much time hanging out in the vendor room, chatting with people and looking over all the cool merchandise that I ended up missing the afternoon blues jam. I quickly learned lesson numero uno when it comes to the SPAH convention: learn to budget your time.

At that point though, all the seminars and shows were done and everyone was gearing up for the evening’s big entertainment down in the ballroom, so I figured I had a little time to catch my breath. I scrounged up dinner, then figured I had a minute to take a nap. Having a two-month old daughter can really wear a person out and I guess I didn’t realize how tired I was. I slept right through my alarm and woke up halfway through the big show that night in the ballroom. I made it just in time to catch some of Robert Bonfiglio’s amazing musicianship, then it was time to catch Joe Filisko’s “mob.” It was like diatonic harmonica variety hour, with Joe Filisko as the host. His encyclopedic knowledge of all the players and where and when he met them was impressive. My one regret was that Joe himself never took the stage to play one of his incomparable renditions of a pre-war tune. But, I didn’t have much time to regret: Joe’s list of players ran the gamut of musical styles, with amazing performances by Cara Cook, a country and bluegrass player, Mike Peloquin, who did an acoustic, three-harp tune with Jason Ricci and another player whose name I didn’t catch; Winslow Yerxa, who played a beautiful solo rendition of The Beatles’ “Imagine”; James Conway who played an Irish tune complete with a bagpipe-like drone; Chris Michalek, who played a melodic and soulful tune written by Jimi Lee, who played backup guitar and harmonica with about half of the “mob” players, including Dale Spalding, who was probably my favorite “find” of the entire event. Dale was a soulful crooner, an impressive harp player (and guitarist, he plays harp in a rack, like Jimi Lee does) and all around nice guy. I was lucky enough to hang out with him a couple times during the convention, once hearing him try—and nail—11th position during a workshop with Chris Michalek that he’d been commandeered into providing accompaniment for, and then later, when I cornered him to buy a CD, I found out he played harp on one of my favorite Poncho Sanchez tunes, a cover of Ray Charles’ “Mary Ann,” with Brother Ray on vocals! Dale was unfailingly modest about the whole thing, but I was just blown away. Dale is definitely one of those guys who deserve to be much better known than he is. It’s not easy to play harp on a latin-tinged cover of an R&B tune and still sound like you belong there.

Before the night was out, Steve Baker, PT Gazelle, Mike Rupert, Jimmy Meade, George Brooks, Jelly Roll Johnson, Jimmy Gordon and RJ Mischo all took the stage as part of Joe’s show, and all them were amazing. That alone would have made the trip to SPAH worth it, and I’d only been there less than 12 hours.

My first day at SPAH was rather blues & diatonic heavy, which is partly due to what I managed to catch and partly due to what was on schedule that day. And it wasn’t over yet, because after the big show, it was jam time. Blues jam, of course. After the stage was cleared, the masses gathered back in the ballroom for a blues jam led by the incomparable, the inimitable, the indomitable Buzz Krantz. I knew Buzz from my short stint in Chicago, but I hadn’t quite seen him like this before, throwing his bearish frame around, laying down the laws of the jam and keeping all the peons in line. On top of all that, his playing was excellent, including some playful high-end blowing, and the best-timed fast playing I’ve heard, and this while sitting just a few feet away from LD Miller. Speaking of LD (who sang a strong version of “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” that kind of reminded me of Susan Tedeschi), the a bunch of the Young at Harp crew was there, including the wonderful (no pun intended) Julian Davis, who braved the blues jam with his chromatic and more than held his own.

The jam probably went all night, but I wouldn’t know because I was still exhausted from the trip and my lack of sleep in days prior. I headed back to my room and, welling with inspiration, grabbed a harp and rattled off a few clunky lines before passing out.

Thursday

The next morning, the first thing I heard when I woke up the next morning was faint but unmistakable: a harmonica. I don’t know if it was coming from the hallway or from another room, but I knew what it meant: I was in another world, an alternate universe that was all harmonica, all the time.

The next few days were just a whirlwind of harp. I managed to make it to Peloquin’s second installment of his horn lines seminar, but I had to miss Willi Burger’s seminar, “Harmonica and Classical Music,” which was running at the same time. I tried to catch the tail end of it, but Tom Stryker pulled me into Young at Harp’s “Harmonica for Beginners” seminar. The kids did well answering questions about all aspects of the harmonica from the crowd, and each played a tune that exemplified their individual style. Catching the Y@H seminar though, meant I had to miss Charles Spranklin’s seminar running at the same time. It wasn’t even noon and already I was losing the time management battle.

After missing another bunch of interesting-sounding seminars (“Dynamics of Trio Playing” with Chris Bauer and “Valved Diatonic Harp” with PT Gazell) while having lunch and dealing with some SPAH stuff (the fruits of which you will all hopefully be seeing rather soon), it was time to catch Joe Filisko’s teach-in, probably the single most informative offering I took part in while at SPAH.

Picture the large ballroom, with each member of Joe’s “mob” holding a mini-seminar at his or her own private table, with us “students” free to roam from one to another, asking questions, playing, you name it. I finally got to meet Brendan Power, a marvelous and visionary technician and, as I soon found out, a phenomenally multi-faceted harmonica player and a nice guy to boot.

But my most memorable experience was finally meeting, and learning from, Chris Michalek. I should take a moment to say that I hadn’t played a lick of harp in months prior to SPAH, and practically no diatonic in nearly a year. Even going to SPAH was a little nerve-wracking, as I knew I’d have to play sooner or later. And so, here I was, with the infamous Chris Michalek, diatonic harmonica player and Harp-L presence extraordinaire, and I knew I couldn’t just sit there and take notes. Chris was teaching 11th and 12th position playing and, with the help of Dale Spaulding on guitar, had me playing over chord changes I wasn’t familiar with, in positions I had never tried before. Chris was supportive, but challenging, and while I was deathly afraid of sounding like an idiot, I also knew I was learning.

I cut out a little early to see George Miklas’ “Bass Harmonica” seminar with Bud Boblink, Judy Smith and Doris Michelin. I surprised to find it completely packed, with some people having to stand against the doors. I mean, how many bass harmonica players do you see out there?

Next was Tom Stryker’s “Jazz Harmonica” presentation, which showcased a number of styles and players, including Chris Bauer, Julian Davis, Slim Heilpern, Mike Polesky, Ron Kalina and Smokey Joe Leone, a man I’d chatted with for years online, but had never actually met. I was lucky enough to get a little time with Joe over the next couple of days, and I found him to be much like his online persona: warm, funny, humble and chock full of stories.

Speaking of warm, funny and humble, I was really looking forward to the next item on my agenda: Charlie Musselwhite’s afternoon show. I’d seen him wandering the halls earlier that day, chatting with people and checking out all the vendors. I’d met Charlie in Chicago too, a year or so earlier. Of all the famous people I’ve ever met, Charlie is without a doubt the most unassuming person I’ve ever met, and you could see it as he hung out at the convention, just a regular guy. I even caught him watching an outdoor jam once, enjoying the music with a big smile on his face and taking pictures.

Charlie played a bunch of great tunes during his set, but the highlight was when he answered questions from the crowd. He told storied about his early days in Chicago, and his even earlier days growing up in the Delta. He rattled off the names of harp players that few if any are likely to remember (“Johnny Moment,” had to be the one with the best moniker). He told stories about Big Walter and the big whoppers he’d whip off with a straight face and nary a second thought. And he tried to calm one woman’s fears about her son wanting to grow up to be a bluesman and already looking to play the festival circuit at a young age. In an age where celebrities occupy increasingly rarified air (unless they’re on reality TV), it’s not often you find one so comfortable just being himself in a roomful of admirers.

Funnily enough, Charlie wasn’t even the big show of the evening. After another couple of workshops (Al & Judy Smith, Steve Baker on “Funky Phrasing”), it was time to watch The Harmonicoots—the Sacramento harmonica club hosting SPAH 2009—sell next year’s convention, and sell it they did. Bud Gardner, self-described “head ‘Coot,” painted an impressive picture of the next convention (read more about it in Bud’s article in this issue) and the ‘Coots played rousing patriotic songs to drive home the point. If their stage show is any indication, next year’s convention is going to be an impressive affair.

Also in the line-up that night were the Young at Harp kids, the Hotshots and the Chris Bauer trio, which, after hearing Bauer rip up some jazz with Stryker earlier that day, astounded me. Chris is equally at home with jazz and with trio-style standards, and probably more. I made a mental note to order up some CDs after I got back home. Another jack-of-all-trades that night was Rodrigo Eberienos, in from Brazil. Over the course of that night and the next few days I’d hear Rodrigo play diatonic and chromatic, blues, jazz, Brazilian music and even Irish fiddle tunes, all of them beautifully.

Sadly, the only way I could catch all of that was to miss the “Blues Night” going on at he same time upstairs, but I hear Dave Moore, Michael Peloquin and RJ Mischo really tore it up that night. It was just one of several shows I’d be sorry to miss before SPAH was over.

Later that night, for a change of pace, I skipped the blues jam and dropped in on the jazz jam upstairs. Randy Singer MC’d the jam, which was composed mostly of chromatic players: Charles Spranklin, William Galison, Joe Leone, Stryker, Slim, Polesky, Julian Davis... They kicked off with “Bluesette” and just cooked right along from there. I couldn’t stay for the whole thing, but what I managed to catch was just amazing, despite the sound issues some complained about. I was also lucky enough to meet the legendary Bobbie Giordano and actually hold a Renaissance chromatic! It’s a beautiful instrument, and Bobbie and I had so much fun talking we had to move away from the band so that we weren’t talking over them. But, after a couple of G&Ts, it was time for me to hit the sack.

Friday

I was starting to feel the strain of trying to keep up with everything at SPAH, and I slept in pretty late on Friday. But I made it up in time to catch teaching a six-part harmonica composition to a group that included Tom Stryker, Chris Bauer, and Al and Judy Smith. Stan’s presentation really highlighted the benefits of being able to read music, showing just how quickly you can get six people to play a tune together when they know what they’re doing and can read.

I also caught some of Brendan Power’s presentation on the new Suzuki harmonicas, though I missed Michael Rubin’s enticingly named, “Join The Dark Side: 2nd through 5th Positions” seminar. I missed it because I caught another of the most memorable harmonica-related moments of my life: Peter “Madcat” Ruth in a small room, expounding on his approach to “groove.”

I’d heard Madcat before, even met him once (guess I’ve met a lot of harmonica players…), but this was Madcat all alone, in a small room, with just harps and his custom percussion rig. It was incredible. He played tunes in odd time signatures, he walked through his percussion rig piece by piece for us, and I was blown away the whole time.

The rest of the afternoon blew by as I caught more of Filisko’s teach-in,then hung out with some of the people I’d met, including Dale and Charlie, Charles Spranklin and Bob Cohen.

Of course, a ton of seminars went by in that time, including seminars on chord harmonica playing and “Celtic and Old Timey” seminar with Winslow Yerxa, Paul Davies, Brendan Power and James Conway.

That night, the big show included PT Gazell, Brendan Power, and Jelly Roll Johnson, all of whom I missed because I overslept my alarm. My eyes were bloodshot and I wasn’t sure if it was still Friday. I raced down to the ballroom and when I hit the bottom of the stairs I ran into Slim, who promptly said, “Oh man, did you catch that last set?” I answered groggily, “Uh, no.” “Oh, it was hot,” he shot back, “the band was really on!” Just one more amazing SPAH moment I missed. I figured next year I’d just have to drink a lot more coffee.

I still made it in time to catch Madcat & Kane though (that would be Madcat Ruth and singer/guitarist Shari Kane), and they were simply unbelievable. A stripped down acoustic duo that ran through everything from early blues to Gospel to Curtis Mayfield to some of their own compositions, like a medley of train songs. Madcat even did a little beatboxing during a Sonny Terry-like solo on Bukka White’s “Fixin’ to Die.” It was a great show. I’d strongly recommend them to anyone who loves good, solid American roots music, with or without harmonica.

It was some time before or after the Madcat show that caught William Galison hanging out in the ballroom lobby, playing guitar and chromatic harmonica in a neck rack. Not only did he sound good, he did a hilarious mumbling blues number. I don’t suppose I’ll hear either of those on any of his CDs or during one of his live shows. It was another unique SPAH moment I won’t soon forget.

That night I hung out at the blues jam and listened to Buzz, Joe and all the rest wail away long into the night.

Saturday

Saturday was the last day of the convention, and while there was less scheduled, it was still a packed day for me. It was my last day to catch Chris Michalek at Filisko’s teach-in. He really put me through my paces, this time focusing on phrasing over a funky chord progression. At one point I felt inspired and, with Chris’ permission, grabbed my chromatic to play a few bars. I’m sure I learned more during my time with Chris than I had in a long, long time before then.

There was an annual meeting of the SPAH board and membership that afternoon. For any of you that were out there in the audience, thanks for all the interest in the magazine. I hope you’re enjoying it and no, I haven’t forgotten all your concerns. Well, except for yours, Ben. I’m ignoring that one.

But in all seriousness, it was great fun and I was honored and excited to be able to speak field questions from the SPAH members. It really highlighted for me how much HH (and SPAH as a whole) is a product of—and service to—the community.

That night was the big big big show—the final blowout: Willi Burger followed by William Galison. I was never much for classical harmonica when I first started playing. Except for the odd piece by Larry Adler, it just didn’t grab me. But I gained a new appreciation as I saw more live performances, and Willi’s is now certainly at the top of my list of favorite live harmonica performances. His takes on the “Carmen Fantasy” and Gershwin’s “Summertime” were both exquisite. And Willi, though he didn’t speak much English, had a great rapport with the audience. After the show, I immediately bought one of his CDs. Galison’s set was also memorable, and reminded me of how lucky I am to live in the same city with him. His emotional and tonal range on the instrument really inspired me. So much so, that I admit I didn’t take any notes during his performance. I just sat and listened.

Officially, that was the end of the festivities, the last SPAH hurrah. Unofficially, there was still another blues jam, still many jams, really, spread out all along the halls of the convention. I heard about some here and there, but I spent almost the entire night in one spot—right outside the ballroom in a circle with dozens of other harmonica players taking their turns playing the blues. It was an amazing night. Everyone seemed to be there, and everyone was ready to play. I’ll never forget some of the inspired solos from James Conway, who was sitting next to me and blew some stuff that almost scared me off my chair. And Ben Nathanson, who played an entire solo using only, it seemed, the 3-hole draw, and had the whole room eating out of his hand. Charles Spranklin blew some blues on his chromatic, David “Jazman” Fairweather took a turn singing, and I even got up the nerve to eek out a solo or two myself. Before the night was out, there were several kinds of whiskey working their way around the room and the level of competition was matched only by the amount of camaraderie.

At some point well into the morning the jam seemed to start falling apart, when in strolled a couple of guys bearing roast beef (maybe it was brisket) sandwiches and water. Apparently, Jeff and Billy Citrin, two brothers who live in St. Louis but aren’t (or weren’t) SPAH members caught wind of the convention and hustled on down. Billy was so taken with the whole thing, he cooked up the sandwiches and bought the water for all of us, giving a lot of us a second wind. Billy, if you’re reading this, thanks again, man. You’re the best.

Refueled and unwilling to let my last hours at SPAH go without a fight, I went to roam the halls and see who else was up. It had to be 2 or 3 in the morning when I ran into Joe Leone, who was hanging out with a Wally Peterman (I think), Phil Caltabelotta and a few others, including Slidemeister’s own Scotty, a.k.a Elizabeth. They were having their own little jam session by the elevators. Joe didn’t have a harp though. He’d packed up all his stuff. And even though I practically begged him to fish out a chromatic and play me a few bars, he demurred. But I wasn’t about leave without one of us playing something, so I stumbled through the melody of “Summertime.” To his credit, Joe was very complimentary. I felt like I’d accomplished something playing a tune for Joe—like I’d just created another one of those moments I’ll never forget, the kind of moment that encapsulates the fun and friendship of a SPAH convention, that makes the trip and the late nights and all the missed moments worth it.

I managed to catch a couple hours of sleep before heading out to the shuttle the next morning. The sun was still rising and I saw Jimmy Meade in the courtyard welcoming the dawn with a little music. And that was the end of my first SPAH adventure, and hopefully the beginning of many more.

I hope that those of you who’ve never been to a SPAH convention get some sense of what it is like. But I should say that I left out a lot of what was, to me, the most important part of it all (and keep in mind I didn’t even mention all of the seminars, jams and performances), and that was the time I spent just hanging out with people, either playing or just chatting. I made (or met) a number of friends and other amazing people on that trip, and time I was able to spend with them is worth even more to me than the performances I heard or the music I got to play. That, for me, is what SPAH was really all about: the people. In that spirit, I hope to see all of you (or more of you, even) at next year’s convention. And next time, Joe, you’re gonna play me a song even if I have to wring it out of you!