SPAH friend Luke Clebsch at harmonica.com has written a cool “first timer” review about attending the SPAH Convention in St. Louis in 2023. Take a look at his article here.

 

(As published in the recent issue of Harmonica Happenings)

 

We have an election in progress to pick the new SPAH President and Vice President for the next three years

 

 

 

 

2024 SPAH Election Procedures

It is time for SPAH members to elect their new President. We currently have just one declared candidate, current SPAH Vice President Jerry Deall, whose campaign statement appears in the recent issue of Harmonica Happenings. As a reminder however, any eligible voter may choose a write-in candidate as their presidential nominee. SPAH members have two ways of casting their votes: by e-mail (preferred) or postal mail. There is a ballot (see link below) for those who would prefer to cast their votes on paper. For those who prefer email, a special address is set up: elections@spah.org. Below are the election rules and procedures.

 

 

General Rules (these apply to all votes and voting methods):

• Votes will be accepted from April 1st until July 1st.
• You must be 16 or older in order to vote.
• For those with family memberships, each qualifying member of the family is allowed a vote (e.g., must be 16 or older)
• In order for your vote to count, your membership dues must be paid up through July 1st, 2024.
• Per the bylaws, only one vote per member. If a member submits more than one vote (e.g., one by mail, one by email) they will be rejected and not counted.
• You must supply your personal information (first and last name, address, and telephone number) in order for your vote to be counted.
• SPAH may contact you to verify your vote. (This information is for the purpose of verifying eligibility only.)
  Eligible votes will be recorded but NOT how the individuals voted. Only members of the election committee will see the ballots.

The election committee considers people’s votes privileged information and will not share that information outside the committee.

 

Procedure for E-mail Ballot (preferred):

Put your first name, last name, address and telephone number, along with your vote (“Jerry Deall” or “Other [fill in name]”) in an email to elections@spah.org.

 

Procedure for Mail-in Ballots:

Fill out the ballot with your first name, last name, address and telephone number, along with your vote. You may cut the ballot out and mail it, or you may send a photocopy instead. The ballot must be mailed to the address listed on the ballot.

We thank you for your vote. Your participation will help direct SPAH’s future.

For two decades, the Kerrville Folk Festival has produced one of the premier Harmonica Workshops in the USA. Three days with workshop Director Rob Roy Parnell, and two other instructors: in 2024 that’s Buddy Greene and Nic Clark, plus Michael D’Eath. We spend 3 days together, in the center of the most prestigious songwriter festival in the world, and enjoy hours of instruction plus all that the Festival has to offer.

 

The 2024 KFF three-day Harmonica Workshop will be held Monday, June 3rd – Wednesday, June 5th. Registration is $375 through April 15th, or $450 beginning April 16th.  Your registration fee includes three days of admission to the festival and campground (including Sundown Concerts and tent camping), three days of harmonica classes, lunches on class days, a commemorative t-shirt and a Hohner harmonica. Discounts are available if you have Kerrville Folk Festival tickets already.  

A 10% discount is also available for current SPAH members (use code: SPAH10)

Go here for registration and other details.

Ready, set, REGISTER! 

Register now to obtain the best convention rate – Only $205 for members during early registration. Hotel rooms are also best to book early to make sure you have the room you want at the Convention hotel.

 

Registration opens Monday March 4 for those wishing to attend the 2024 SPAH Convention in person. The Convention will be held August 13-17 at the Tulsa Hyatt Regency Downtown.

 

Registration and other details are here.

My dear friends, Happy February! Energized by 2 fabulous shows with The Howard Levy 4 last weekend, I can’t wait to jump off into other realms this month. Two big reunions are coming up: I’m playing in West Palm Beach, FL with Garrison Keillor and the full cast of A Prairie Home Companion(!) on Feb.10. Having been on the show as a guest soloist over 50 times, this will be my first appearance with Garrison in about 6 years, and I am delighted to be part of his wildly imaginative and eclectic universe. The band will be led by long-time music director Rich Dworsky, along with some stellar players including the great Stuart Duncan on fiddle and guitarist Mike Seal. I’ll be joining the band and performing some of my own tunes as well. Unlike previous shows, this one won’t be broadcast on NPR, making it an exclusive in-person experience that you won’t want to miss. TICKETS The other highly anticipated reunion will be with German bass clarinetist/composer Michael Riessler and his son Lorenzo on drums, marking our first collaborative performance in 5 years. To say that Michael is amazing is an understatement- you have to see him live to fully grasp his mastery of the bass clarinet and his innovative musical approach. We have toured extensively in Europe for 30 years in many configurations, also recorded the album Silver and Black, and performed multiple times with Lorenzo, who is an exceptionally skilled and advanced drummer/composer. Later this month, I will welcome the Riesslers to Steve Rashid’s beautiful Studio5 in Evanston, IL on Feb.23 (TICKETS), followed by a FREE concert on Feb.25 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (INFO). The repertoire, composed by the three of us, is incredibly complex and wild with plenty of virtuosic, interactive improvisation and humor. Chicago and NC friends- don’t miss this one-of-a-kind trio! See y’all soon, Howardinho

 

Hello World- On April 2, 2024 I will be celebrating my 75th birthday with a concert at the Ark, in my home town: Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Not a SPAH member yet? You should be!

 

SPAH Members are the life blood of the harmonica community. Together, we ensure that the instrument, the music, performers, teachers and evolution of the instrument in all its forms is preserved and advanced for the next 60 years, and beyond!

Membership makes you part of a worldwide community of talented and dedicated harmonica musicians and entitles you to numerous membership benefits:

• 4 issues of the full-color SPAH magazine, Harmonica Happenings, mailed to you each quarter
• Discount prices to attend the SPAH Convention, in person or online
• Discount prices to attend certain harmonica workshops (e.g. Kerrville Folk Festival, Blown Away on the Bayou)
• Access to the SPAH membership website (some coming in 2024), including:
  • Unique video content from past Conventions
  • Teachers & Workshop organizers may create their own page on the SPAH website to help our members improve their skills
  • Club leadership can create a page to help new players find a local club to join
  • Access to online copies of back issues of Harmonica Happenings

Annual dues are $60 per year for an individual, and $75 per year for a family. We accept new members throughout the year, and renewals done at or after the Annual Convention in August are good through the end of the following year!. Renewals are due by January 31 at the latest, but we encourage you to renew at the Convention or soon after.  Renewal instructions.

To join SPAH right now go to the online membership form and fill it out. If you prefer, you can download the application and mail it to SPAH with a check for your dues in accordance with the specifications above and mail both to:

SPAH Inc.
PO Box 551381
Dallas, TX 75355

We accept various forms of payment:

• Check in U.S. Dollars drawn on a U.S. bank.
• New York Bank Draft
• VISA or Mastercard
• Contact us if none of these work for you

Join or renew your membership here. It takes all of us to keep this going!

 

Watch here for performances, seminars and more at past SPAH Conventions

 

SPAH has several YouTube Channels. While some videos are restricted to members (click “resources” when logged in), and those who registered for past conventions, many are publicly available for anyone to watch – both recorded and live stream

Here are the links to them all:

SPAH Harmonica – Main channel, SPAH Week 2020/2021 videos and more

 

SPAH Main Stage – from past Main Stage Convention performances

 

Founders’ Stage and most Seminar presentations are currently available only to Convention registrants

Please stay tuned as other videos are released to SPAH Members.

If you would like to get involved in the Convention while you are attending, there are several ways to do so.

• Present a seminar. Seminar presentations at the Convention are an opportunity for you to share what you know about the harmonica, music, singing or any related topic of interest to the SPAH audience. If you would like to propose a seminar presentation, please follow the link below. SPAH Seminar Coordinators will respond to your proposal in the first quarter of 2023.
  • Please note: Seminar presenters at the SPAH Convention are volunteering their time, but are allowed to share any products or services they offer during or immediately after their presentations.

Propose a Seminar

• Volunteer. While the local club provides a great deal of wonderful help to the SPAH board and staff, SPAH always welcomes proposals from others willing to help out. Please follow the link below to tell us about yourself and your skills and interests in volunteering.
  • Please note: Depending on the level of effort involved, some volunteers are provided assistance in attending the Convention, with access to daily events, Convention registration or rooming. The SPAH Convention team will work with you to explore and confirm any details starting in the first quarter of 2024.

I would like to Volunteer at the 2024 SPAH Convention

• Attend the President’s Breakfast. This year, SPAH will host the annual President’s Breakfast on Saturday, August 17^th at 8:00 a.m. in the Oklahoma room on the first floor of the Convention Hotel.
  • We’re inviting a single leading representative from each Harmonica Club, Blues Club, or similar organization, as well as from each sponsor and each SPAH vendor. This gathering is to further cooperation, information exchange, collaboration, and networking with our partners as we look to the future of the harmonica and of SPAH. SPAH is also looking for organizations that would be interested in hosting future conventions in their city.

Print or Download the President’s Breakfast form

Charlie Musselwhite is Gettin’ The Blues.

A Short Film about musician Charlie Musselwhite Featuring Dave Peabody.

Charlie Musselwhite’s journey through the blues was from his birth in Mississippi to Memphis, Chicago and California. Arriving in Chicago in the early sixties, he was just in time for the epochal blues revival. In 1966 at the age of 22 he recorded the landmark Stand Back! to rave reviews. A precipitous relocation to San Francisco in 1967, where his album was being played on underground radio, found him welcomed into the counterculture scene around the Fillmore West as an authentic purveyor of the real deal blues.

 

Fifty years of nonstop touring, performing and recording have reaped huge rewards. Charlie Musselwhite is living proof that great music only gets better with age. This man cut his (musical) teeth alongside Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and everyone on the South side of Chicago in the early 1960’s. Thank your lucky stars that he is still with us telling the truth with a voice and harp tone like no other.

 

More than 20 albums later he is at the top of his game, a revered elder statesman of the blues nowhere near ready to hang up his harps, his depth of expression as a singer and an instrumentalist unexcelled and only growing deeper.

 

Charlie has been collaborating with the world’s finest Artists for many years, including Ben Harper, Cyndi Lauper, Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Gov’t Mule, INXS, Mickey Hart and Japan’s Kodo Drummers, George Thorogood, Eliades Ochoa, Cat Stevens and personal friend and best man at his wedding John Lee Hooker. Musselwhite, more than any other harmonica player of his generation, can rightfully lay claim to inheriting the mantle of many of the great harp players that came before him with music as dark as Mississippi mud and as uplifting as the blue skies of California. In an era when the term legendary gets applied to auto-tuned pop stars, this singular blues harp player, singer, songwriter and guitarist has earned and deserves to be honored as a true master of American classic vernacular music.

 

More info about Charlie at: www.charliemusselwhite.com

 

Interview and performance were both recorded at the live theatre, Quayside Newcastle, UK 2008.

Title music by Asphalt Canyon featuring #Lyndon Anderson (Harmonica)