2024 SPAH Convention Seminar Presenters
SPAH thanks all of these incredible teachers, performers & vendors for sharing what they know with the attendees at the 2024 SPAH Convention. Thank you all.
Neil Adler, Seven Astfalk, Charlie Barath, Richard P. Bennett, David Berntson , Robert Bonfiglio, Tom Cate, Emile D’Amico, Phil Duncan, Michael Easton, Tony Eyers, Joe Filisko, John Frazer, Brenda Freed, PT Gazell, Mitch Grainger, Enrico Granafei, Dennis Gruenling, Peter Hogi, Lonnie Joe Howell, J. A. Jansen, David Kachalon, Kong Wenzhong, Keith Mitchell, Charlie Musselwhite, Eric Noden, Todd Parrott, Larry Regen, Michael Rubin, Hank Shreve, Charlie Wilson, Jimmy Zednik, Jamey Garner and their supporting casts!
Neil Adler
Neil is one of a handful of chromatic harmonica masters who have followed the great Toots Thielemans. He has been a guest artist in performances from Canada to Belgium, received a standing ovation at the storied Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society and raves at the Bill Evans festival in Vancouver. He is an award winning jazz interpreter on piano and harmonica, a Seydel Harmonica endorser, and is active in teaching and presenting in the virtual and real harmonica world. “Love the piano and harmonica. My favorite harmonica Player at the moment” Toots Thielemans (2014)
Seven Astfalk
Seven Astfalk is a multi-instrumentalist living in Arizona.
He will be demonstrating four revolutionary tunings that will greatly elevate your playing whatever your skill level or playing style may be.
For more information on these tunings visit www.stellarharps.com
Charlie Barath
Inspired by the magical sounds that emanated from his Father’s harmonica, Charlie Barath bought his first Marine Band as a teenager and never looked back.
Beginning as primarily a traditional straight-harp player, he soon discovered through experimentation that this wonderful instrument was well suited for playing a wide range of musical styles. When he first realized a strong attraction to the rhythms and grooves of Blues music, Charlie was determined to learn to play the harp in this style as well. Though it wasn’t always an easy journey – I was convinced those cats were playing a different instrument because mine sure didn’t sound like that! – he eventually got to a level of proficiency that continues to keep him busy and in demand in his home market of Western Pennsylvania as well as other regions of the Eastern United States.
Charlie focuses mainly on the diatonic harmonica and plays mostly in a very traditional style utilizing various tongue blocking techniques. He has also developed his vocal prowess and can be found fronting his own bands as well as working as a highly sought-after side man.
In addition to performing, teaching harmonica is another activity that Charlie loves. Whether in group settings or individually, equipping aspiring harmonica players to sound as good as possible is a priority of his. He taught the harmonica classes at Calliope House of Pittsburgh, PA for several years in the early 2000s. Other teaching opportunities found him as a featured instructor at events such as Harmonicollege in Huntington, WV, Jerry Fierro’s Paradise Coast Harmonica Workshop in Florida, and Todd Parrott’s Carolina Harpfest. Charlie has also donated time helping out at The Pinetop Perkins Foundation Masterclasses in Clarksdale, MS. He’s been a frequent contributor at the annual SPAH conventions as a Seminar Presenter not to mention the Filisko Teach-In at SPAH.
You can also add some harmonica competitions to the list, having taken first place at the West Virginia State Harmonica Championships in 2012 and the Ohio State Harmonica Championships in 2013. He also earned a couple trips to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN as a solo performer in recent years.
After several decades as a professional carpenter, Charlie has been performing and teaching harmonica full time since early 2017.
“And to think it all got started when I would sneak my old man’s Echo Harp out of his desk drawer.”
Richard P. Bennett
Richard had his first stage performance in a children’s choir in 1965,. After winning multiple awards in high school for vocals and trombone, he majored in Theater in college and went on to performing on and Off-Broadway and at regional theaters around the country, including three shows at the Kennedy Center, with two at the Opera House. After moving to Chicago in 1994, he was a paid chorister at St. James Episcopal Cathedral for 10 years, and a trombonist/vocalist for a 12-piece big band. Vision loss caused him to quit the choir and trombone. So he sold the horn, bought a set of Hohner Special 20s, and began studying with Howard Levy. While sitting in with bands at the Green Mill, Martyrs, the Drake Hotel, and other venues in Chicago, he found out Joe Filisko was teaching at the Old Town School of Folk Music and, with Howards blessing, switched instructors, went from Special 20s to Hohner Crossovers, and, helped found The Lay-Down Ramblers, a 5-piece band that plays eclectic Americana, including original tunes.
Since 1991, Richard has studied voice with, Jack Waddell, whose students include Broadway veterans Jessica Vosk, who sold out Carnegie Hall in early 2022 and is currently starring on Broadway as Elphaba in “Wicked,” Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Brandon Victor Dixon, who played Judas in the live TV production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” starring John Legend.
David Berntson
David Berntson is a musician and an educator who has played blues harmonica for over 45 years. Currently, David fronts the jump blues combo the Hydramatics and performs as the Duo-Sonics with Bobby “Green Shoes” Parker. He is one of the founders of the Route 66 Harmonica Club and a long time Hohner endorsee. David is the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s 2006 Keeping the Blues Alive in Education Award and a member of the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame.
Robert Bonfiglio
Called the “Leading America Harmonica Virtuoso” by the New York Times, ROBERT BONFIGLIO has dazzled audiences at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Gewandhaus, Teatro Colón, Teatro Massimo, Teatro Amazonas, Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center and throughout the world.
He performed the World Premiere of the Henry Cowell Harmonica Concerto with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. BONFIGLIO has been a Concerto Soloist with over 200 orchestras around the world including the Minnesota Orchestra, John Williams and the Boston Pops, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Leipzig MDR Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony, the Madrid RTVE Orchestra, the Estonia National Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Mexico City Philharmonic, as well as the Milwaukee Symphony, Boston Symphony, Utah Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. His first RCA recording of the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto, he has performed this Concerto over 420 times .
Robert Bonfiglio got his Masters degree in Composition from Manhattan School of Music. He studied composition with Aaron Copland. Robert studied harmonica with Cham-ber Huang and was coached for 12 years by Andrew Lolya, the first flute of the New York City Ballet.
Website: http://robert-bonfiglio.com/
ROBERT BONFIGLIO is the Founding Director of the GRAND CANYON MUSIC FESTIVAL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbvYPr1vb2c
Tom Cate
Hi guys. I’ve been playing harmonica since I was a kid but only got serious about it maybe 15 years ago when I discovered performing. Since then, I’ve played with a lot of different folks but have gigged routinely with a regional band named Kevin Dalton and the Tuesday Blooms or with some variation of that band. Kevin’s music is genre-spanning and trying to follow it has allowed me (or forced me…) to stretch my harmonica playing. It also led to experimentation with lots of different effect pedals to fill the sonic spaces that I could hear in my head. I’m thankful to spend some time visiting with you to share what I’ve found that works and what I’ve found that hasn’t.
Emile D'Amico
More than three years instruction with Robert Bonfiglio
B.M. Music Magna Cum Laude Esther Boyer College of Music Temple University
Attended Seminars with Cham ber Huang and Howard Levy.
Performances; Played in bands openlng for The Chambers Brothers, Pure Prairie League,
Iron Butterfly, Mich Rider and the Soul Survivors.
Four productions of “Big River” 135 performances.
Phil Duncan
Phil Duncan was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1945. At the age of seven, his grandfather introduced to the harmonica. He casually played harmonica through his military service. Upon returning to civilian life and the University, he began to develop teaching procedures and methods through adult community education. After more than 10 years of study and research, Mel Bay Publications published his first harmonica method book, The Deluxe harmonica Method. He applied the book to the public-school classroom. With a joint effort of the Conservatory of Music at University of Missouri while working on his Doctorate, he launched a 5-year extensive study involving more than 5,000 students about attitudes toward playing harmonica. His harmonica books have sold millions of copies throughout the world. Reaching millions of people learning to play harmonica.
Phil earned his Associate of Arts degree at Kansas City Metropolitan Junior College in 1965, his Bachelor’s degree in 1972, and Masters of Music Education degree in 1973, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of music. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Fraternity, Music Educators National Conference, The National Education Association and the American Choral Director’s Association. His Master’s thesis focused on the study of methods for teaching beginning voice and instrumental techniques. His Doctoral thesis focused on recorder and harmonica measuring the difference of their effect on learning music in the classroom.
Phil served 26 years as the Director Vocal Activities and general music teacher in the Park Hill School District of Kansas City, Missouri North. He has been the Director of Choral Activities at Park University in Parkville, Missouri for several years. He has been a Minister of Music at several churches in the Kansas City area. With a versatile educator’s experience ranging from elementary school through university levels, Phil
began his career of writing and performing harmonica.
As a Clinician, Phil has conducted workshops at multiple harmonica conventions and conferences throughout the country such as the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Arkansas, the Texas Music Educator’s Conference and has presented many clinics throughout the Midwest. He has been active in community education in the art of teaching music through harmonica.
Phil’s career as an author began in 1979. Since his first publication, he has added 40 books, CDs, videos on virtually every aspect of harmonica performance, making a significant contribution to the understanding and repertoire for the instrument. Phil plays Hohner’s Special 20’s and Hohner’s Rocket harmonicas, Hohner’s Chromatic and Tremolo instruments. His styles are jazz, blues, bluegrass, classical, Celtic, patriotic, and gospel. Phil performs for military reunions, rotary clubs, universities, area churches and local community activities in Kansas City, Missouri and
surrounding areas.
Michael Easton
Michael Easton entered the harmonica custom and repair business in 1999 studying under the tutelage of Jimmy Gordon and Richard Sleigh for 4 years. It was within that time he found there was a void for good chromatic harmonica repair techs. After 4 years of training he switched focus from making custom diatonics to focusing on repairing chromatics and improving the quality of them.
Sometime around 2010 or so he became the official repair tech on the Hands Free Chromatic (HFC) designed by Vern Smith. In 2019 the building of the HFC was handed over to Michael because he was the obvious choice having known the ins and outs of working on them for several years.
This seminar will focus on the best way to use the Ergonomic Neck Rack, (ENR) also designed by Vern Smith and the Hands Free Chromatic from the top player, Enrico Granefei. Guest at the seminar will be Vern Smith himself and several notable players of the HFC to offer further insight into using the HFC and ENR. You are welcome to bring your HFC/ENR to the seminar if you need help with proper setup and technique for playing it. We hope this will be a very interactive seminar with players and non players to demonstrate the advantages of playing beyond the diatonic harp in a rack.
Tony Eyers
Tony Eyers started harmonica as Yale undergraduate in the 1970’s, inspired by classmate Jim Fitting, a highly regarded Boston based player.
Tony returned to Australia in the early 1980s and formed The Full House Blues Band, which became well known in Adelaide. He moved to Sydney and was drawn to acoustic music and traditional fiddle tunes. To better play this music he devised the Major Cross tuning, used on his 2003 CD “Black Mountain Harmonica” and his 2021 release “O’Carolan’s Harmonica”.
In 2017 the Seydel harmonica company released a Major Cross version of their Session Steel harmonica model. Tony is a Seydel endorser.
He also has a strong interest in baroque recorder, and performs with “Balmain Baroque”, a five-piece ensemble he co-founded in 1995. He is the creator of the LearnRecorder.com teaching site.
In recent years Tony has been playing American Old-Time music, and has a deep attachment to these traditional tunes and the music gatherings and festivals where they are played.
Joe Filisko & Eric Noden
Joe Filisko and Eric Noden are an internationally acclaimed roots duo from Chicago, Illinois. They have been performing and recording music together for 20 years. Their original blues songs, train imitations and harmony singing are reminiscent of the 1920’s and 30’s when acoustic music was prevalent. Joe and Eric use their virtuosity and song writing skills to illustrate nearly forgotten styles of American Music.
Harmonica John Frazer
Known not only for his soulful singing and harmonica playing, John is equally at home with a guitar or behind the drums while featuring his harmonica skills.
Harmonica John performs classic rock, blues, Marley and Motown, Americana, plus some cool original songs
Career highlights include performances with Joe Walsh, Bobby Blue Bland, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, and the Farmers to name a few. John is a top harmonica teacher in San Diego and has developed an easy to understand “positions” lesson.
John is also one of the founding members of the San Diego Spring Harp Fest, held annually on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Recently attained non-profit status, John is seeking corporate sponsors to help advance the Spring Harp Fest mission.
Brenda Freed
Brenda Freed has lived, performed and taught privately in the Texas Hill Country since 1991. Originally from rural Iowa, she has been singing publicly all of her life. She began singing in church as a young soloist, where she also developed a keen ear for singing harmony.
After two years at St. Olaf College, she transferred to the University of Iowa where she earned a BA in Music Education and Music Therapy in 1980. That same year, she started teaching K-12 vocal and general music classes in rural Iowa. In 1982, she left to pioneer the music therapy program at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) in Iowa City, Iowa. While working as a music therapist, she earned a Master’s Degree in Music Education/Music Therapy (emphasis in counseling). Throughout her University of Iowa college and employment years she played and sang in bands, original and cover material.
Since 1991, Brenda has run a private music teaching business, teaching voice, vocal harmony, piano and guitar. To supplement her teaching, and for self-study, Brenda has published two instructional recordings: Effortless Singing (2007) and Effortless Harmony Singing (2010), both 2-CD sets, available for purchase or download on popular sites.
In addition to her current 1-1 online lessons, Brenda has taught across North America at workshops, festivals and conferences. She is available to teach Effortless Singing and Harmony Singing Workshops as a conference presenter, panelist and mentor anywhere.
Jamey Garner
Professional Vocalist, Harmonica player, Songwriter and Actor.
Jamey has most recently toured the US, Canada and Europe with his band High South, releasing two records with Universal Music Group and entering the Top 10 Album charts in Germany and Austria. In addition, Rolling Stone magazine featured High South in their March 2020 David Bowie issue, subsequently presenting the band’s 2020 Tour throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Jamey will be conducting a fun and informative seminar the 2024 SPAH Convention on Jamzone, an engaging and versatile online platform offering backing tracks with game-changing features such as key transposition, tempo adjustments, instrument mix controls, and song section looping.
PT Gazell
Hot, swingin, smooth, original, clean, lyrical, faster than a speeding bullet, diatonically chromatic, one of a kind, masterful, the swinginest, Oh yeah, like what? Nat King Cole, Benny Goodman, Louie Jordan, Ben Webster, Sweets Edison, …that’s what!
With 6 Solo CDs under his belt, including his double Grammy nominated 2011 release, “2 Days Out” and “A Madness To The Method,” PT Gazell continues to expand the musical boundaries for the harmonica. Using his own signature model instrument, the PT Gazell Model 1847 Noble, he proves that the harmonica is capable of much more than what most of us believe.
PT likes to think of his performances and musical projects as an ongoing conversation between himself and his fans. Judging by the music he delivers, he’s quite a compelling and articulate speaker.
No other player combines his phrasing, his melodic style, his song choices and his improvisational abilities… his singular style may draw comparisons to others, but in the end, it’s a style all his own.
Dig It!
Mitch Grainger
Mitch Grainger infuses the Blues & Roots genre’s traditional styling’s with a confidence, and depth of spirit, that has seen him compared to the likes of Robert Johnson* by American music critics.
No overnight sensation, this accolade came after over 25 years of performing and recording, predominantly as a side-man with some of Australia and the world’s greatest blues and blues-rock artists.
Beginning his career at just age fourteen, playing harmonica and guitar in the bars of Balmain in Sydney, Mitch Grainger spent his teens honing his craft as a side-man, by jamming with fellow high schoolmates CW Stoneking and Alex Lloyd before joining The Bondi Cigars, who he toured every inch of Australia with before he had turned twenty-one.
Balmain was fertile ground, and if not for being born here, Mitch’s life may have taken a totally different path. One night at The Bridge Hotel in Balmain, Malcolm Young of AC/DC who also lived in the area, walked in and saw Mitch Grainger playing, this led to a long – term friendship and the introduction of Mitch to the Albert’s productions family and one of Malcolm’s mentors, the legendary Australian producer Harry Vanda, whom Grainger made a deal with for the Australian release of his album Love and Demons in 2006.
Meanwhile, the touring work continued all through Mitch’s 20s and into his early 30s with multiple bands, including The Bondi Cigars, Papa Lips & Grainger (with his sister Kara Grainger). Then in 2010, Mitch Grainger relocated to Los Angeles and ensconced himself in the live music scene of Hollywood. It was here that subsequently, in 2015, Mitch Grainger took his first real steps into the light under his own name on the world stage, with his solo acoustic release ‘The Blues’.
Mitch’s depth of understanding of the genre and his charismatic stage show immediately thrust him onto the wider blues & roots scene. He packed houses in Australia and Scandinavia, performed at prestigious festivals, such as the American Folk Alliance in Kansas City, and earned standing ovations while opening for Tommy Emmanuel across the North East of the USA.
Then, come 2017, while looking for more of an electric sound, Mitch disappeared, turned recluse, and focused on inventing, patenting and Kick-starting a revolutionary new harmonica microphone called Dyna-Mic, which would enable him to play harmonica hands free, in an electric band setting.
This new harmonica microphone is now used by 100’s of harmonica players around the globe, and notably was used by Bob Dylan on his 2018 New Zealand Tour.
With a growing global fan base that includes over 120,000 subscribers on various social media platforms, Mitch Grainger is now taking his raw emotional form of Blues & Roots music up the metaphorical Mississippi River, out of the acoustic domain, and into the world of blues rock on the back of his latest release entitled “Plug It In”.
Enrico Granafei
Harmonica player,Guitarist, vocalist Enrico Granafei has explored many different types of music during his career. Enrico has a degree in classical guitar from the Conservatory of l’Aquila, Italy and a masters degree in jazz performance from the Manhattan School of Music where he was the only student of Toots Thielemans.
Enrico discovered the Hands-free chromatic harmonica when he met Vern Smith, the inventor of this innovative device. Since then playing in this solo situation has become his mission. Aware of the fact that this type of coordination was never explored before at this advanced level, Enrico has spent the last couple of decades perfecting this unique and innovative technique.
From straight ahead Jazz to bossa nova to funk Enrico does it all making you think that it’s two or 3 people playing.
Dennis Gruenling
Dennis Gruenling is one of the world’s most respected blues harmonica players, an entrepreneur, and a harmonica education innovator. As a musician, he is considered one of the modern masters of amplified harmonica playing. Dennis has not only mastered traditional Blues styles, but he pioneered a new approach to playing jump and swing blues on the diatonic and chromatic harmonica that draws on the classic Blues tradition while still sounding fresh and modern. As an instructor of over 25 years, he has helped students learn the language of blues harmonica both virtually and in person, in addition to pioneering his online Q&A harmonica webinar series. He built his BadAss Harmonica business from the ground up, which not only restores and sells vintage microphones and amplifiers, but offers lessons, webinars, and his own exclusive line of harmonica merchandise. Gruenling spent 20 years teaching and performing on the road before joining forces with the Nick Moss Band and subsequently signing to Alligator Records. As a result in recent years, he has been awarded not only the SPAH “Bernie Bray Player of the Year” award (2019), but also 3 Blues Music Awards – Harmonica Player of the Year (2019), plus “Blues Band of the Year” and “Traditional Blues Album of the Year” (2020) for his work with The Nick Moss Band.
Peter Hogi
Peter Hogaboam is a harmonicist and multi-instrumentalist from the Chicago area. He studied music education at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and conducted wind and string ensembles in public schools for 10 years. Focusing on harmonica since 2007, his interests include chromaticism on the diatonic, Richter-tuned chromatic harmonicas, musical use of overbends, and expanding the harmonica’s role in any genre of popular music.
Lonnie Joe Howell
Harmonica from Texas
Lonnie Joe was born and raised in the Lubbock, Texas area, well known for its musical influences from artists like Buddy Holly, Mac Davis, Bob Wills, and Waylon Jennings. His musical interests caught fire in his early college years when he started playing guitar and soon added harmonica as a second instrument. He started learning the songs of Bob Dylan, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Beatles and Charlie McCoy. He started playing guitar and using a Harmonica rack and singing as he learned new material from Rock, Country, Blues, Gospel, and Bluegrass artists.
His life experiences from jobs such as farming, truck driving, harvesting crops, teaching junior high mathematics, and owning a music store have contributed to his career of performing, songwriting, recording, teaching, merchandising and managing all the areas of his music business.
Howell spent 20 years in Nashville playing on recording sessions, writing songs, playing in bands, creating instructional videos, and writing instructional books on how to play harmonica. Four of those years were spent earning a degree in Commercial Music from Belmont University.
Howell’s harmonica style is described as diatonic Blues harp applied to Country. Many of his country and bluegrass songs use a “country tuned” harmonica played in the “Cross harp” position.
Howell’s track record includes four CDs, three Harmonica instructional DVDs, and 2 books written for Mel Bay Publications. He currently performs on a regular basis as a single act, or with his own group The Hot Texas Band. He teaches harmonica. fiddle, and guitar at his music store in Levelland TX.
Lonnie Joe’s CDs books, and DVDs are available on his store’s website: texasmusicsupply.com
and his songs can be streamed at: lonniejoehowell.hearnow.com
J. A. Jansen
J.A. Jansen, hailing from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a versatile musicologist and dedicated music teacher in primary education. He studied jazz guitar at the conservatory and also teaches harmonica. Jansen wrote a master’s thesis on authenticity in blues, highlighting his deep knowledge of the genre. His time living in the USA broadened his musical horizons and gave him the opportunity to perform on stage with renowned artists such as Red Simpson, The Nightcats, and Diunna Greenleaf. His versatility and experience make him an inspiring force in the music world.
David Kachalon
David Kachalon is a musician, songwriter, visual artist, and Harmonica Instructor. He teaches Blues Harmonica at the Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago Illinois. He also runs the Continuing Education Harmonica Program at both the College of DuPage and Harper College. You can, in addition, find him at the online music school, Tunelark.com, and recently he has begun as a contributing member at Harmonica.com. He teaches the Filisko Method, and is fully authorized to use all Filisko Teaching Materials. In addition, he helps as a SPAH Seminar Coordinator. David is also the person behind the SPAH Instagram account Official_Spah63. He also helps as a Contributor and Content Facilitator for the SPAH magazine, Harmonica Happenings.
David starting out playing in bands during high school, and has played in such groups as Spanish Blues Band Azul De Noche, the multi tournament winning Jug band Strictly Jug Nuts, the Muscovy Ducks Cajun Harmonica Enable and the Three Kings Harp trio. He also has an acoustic duo project called Hal and Dave, but mainly spends his time fronting The Frozen Ground Blues Band. They play covers of Chicago blues standards, as well as some original songs around the Chicagoland area. David chooses to play exclusively with only the Hohner Marine Band Crossover and Thunderbird harmonicas.
Davidkachalon.com
https://frozengroundbluesband.com
Cod.edu
Tunelark.com
Kong Wenzhong
The owner of Jiangsu East Musical Instrument Co.,Ltd, and created Easttop brand, committed to the development of high level harmonicas and improvement of products.
※Secretary General of The Harmonica Professional Committee of China Popular Music Association Harmonica.
※Secretary General of the Harmonica Professional Committee of CMIA.
Keith Mitchell
Charlie Musselwhite
(SPAH President, Michael D’Eath, will be interviewing Charlie Musselwhite for this seminar)
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. (Photo by Andrea Zucker)
Todd Parrott
Todd Parrott has been called one of the freshest, most innovative and proficient harmonica players today. “He’s got it all: great chops, killer tone, speed, finesse, and impeccable taste,” says Buddy Greene. “He plays with a sensibility and maturity and never sacrifices musicality for mere technique.” Adam Gussow adds, “I think he’s got the best chance of any harmonica player I’ve seen to cross over and become the public sound and image of what pure-D American blues harmonica is about.” Todd began playing harmonica in January of 1990, after hearing the lively harmonica playing of a guest speaker who visited his church. This inspired him to purchase his first harmonica, and what started as a fascination quickly became a lifelong passion. Today, his soulful harmonica can be heard in churches and at harmonica events, both nationally and internationally, and on many studio recordings. Todd is also a well-respected harmonica instructor, having taught at nearly every major harmonica workshop in the USA, and is a regular teacher and performer at the annual SPAH convention. He is currently a faculty member at the Tomlin Leckie Harmonica School, and organizes his own annual harmonica event, The Carolina Harp Fest, offering harmonica players an additional, fun opportunity to learn, jam, collaborate and develop their skills. Todd is an endorser of Hohner harmonicas.
Larry Regen
I am a full-time working musician specializing in 10-hole diatonic harmonica. What sets me apart from other “HARP” players is my ability to play chromatically on the diatonic. This allows me to play jazz, blues, standards, country, including melody in addition to riffs. In 2009 I was the only diatonic player to be a finalist in the Arizona Best of the Blues competition held at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix. I just renewed my contract with Sun City Grand for the 2022/2023 season; this will be my 10th year of teaching there. I have done a fair amount of studio work in and around greater Phoenix, including the opportunity to work with Grammy winner Billy Williams who produces Lyle Lovett. This year I look forward to teaching at SPAH for my 5th time. Currently I perform about 70 shows a year in total with 3 different bands “Kate and the Dream Band” Lone Mountain Band Arizona” and Play Wilde. Performances are on You Tube and Facebook.
Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin is a harmonica player/teacher from Austin TX. Charlie Musselwhite says about Rubin, “I think your instructions are the best and when people ask me about learning the harmonica, I tell them about you.”
Rubin has played on Broadway and with such luminaries as Cyril Neville and Ruthie Foster.
This seminar is a blues jam for all levels, any instrument. Not only will we jam, Rubin will give strategies for succeeding in a jam.
Find information at michaelrubinharmonica.com
Hank Shreve
Hank Shreve began playing harmonica at the age of 8 and has established himself as a major harmonica talent on the blues scene in the Pacific Northwest. Between the ages of 8 – 18, he picked up other instruments, such as Drums, Keyboards, Guitar, Dobro, Lap-Steel and Vocals.
Hank won the Northwest Harmonica Championship in 2008 and CBA’s Muddy Award for Best Harmonica in 2009 and 2013. Also, Hank won the 2021 Rooster Blues Award for Best Male Vocalist. Hank has performed at the Las Vegas Big Blues Bender, The Waterfront Blues Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival, the Cognac Blues Passions Fest in France with Karen Lovely, and Seattle’s BumperShoot with Magic Dick and Lee Oskar.
In November 2018, Hank was a featured artist and teacher in the Jason Ricci/Winslow Yerxa Harmonica Collective, in New Orleans, along with John Nemeth and Rick Estrin. Hank was also a featured instructor at the 2019 Helen Harp Fest in Georgia, as well as the 2019 Great Lakes Harmonica Retreat in Petoskey, Michigan.
Over the years, Hank has shared the stage with Honeyboy Edwards, Norton Buffalo, Smash Mouth, Merle Haggard, Gregg Rolie, Marcia Ball, Sista Monica Parker, Amy Clawson & Pam Tillis, Terry Robb, Magic Dick, Lee Oskar, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Karen Lovely, Deanna Bogart, Roger Fisher (from Heart), Curtis Salgado, DK Stewart, Johnny Dyer, Lloyd Jones, Paul deLay, RJ Mischo, CJ Chenier, Aki Kumar, Phil Wiggins, Rob Paparozzi, Jim Belushi, Mickey Thomas and many other national and international acts.
Apart from being one of Eugene, Oregon’s beloved musicians, Hank is also a music instructor. He currently teaches online classes through Music Masters in South Eugene. He teaches Harmonica, Drums, Guitar, Lap-Steel, Piano and Music Fundamentals. He also is a contributor to Tomlin Harmonica School, as well as Ronnie Shellist’s Global Harmonica Summits.
Hank is endorsed by Hohner Harmonicas, Blows Me Away Productions, and Lone Wolf Blues Company.
Jimmy Zednik
Brand Manager for Hohner Harmonicas & Melodicas for the U.S. at KHS America.
After working as a professional musician and in music retail, Jimmy began working at HSS (Hohner, Sonor, Sabian) in 2005. Jimmy has since worked for Hohner, Inc., and KHS America in Sales, National Accounts Management, and his current role as Brand Manager since 2022. He has a passion for music and engaging with the harmonica community to support the art and joy of harmonica playing.
Jimmy, along with special guests, will be hosting a seminar at the 2024 SPAH Convention detailing Hohner’s enhanced diatonic models, the Marine Band Crossover, Marine Band Thunderbird, Rocket, Rocket Amp, and Rocket Low. Each model’s design features and upgraded functionality will be covered in this presentation.