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Harmonica enthusiasts are gathering in San Antonio this week, filling the River Walk with its bluesy sound, at the convention for the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica.
It’s about 95 sunny degrees on the patio of the Dakota East Side Icehouse as Claude Butch Morgan and Dave Moore lay down a groove. This is an ice-breaking gathering of a few dozen harmonica fans, most from elsewhere. The organization putting the event on is called HOOT, or the Harmonica Organization of Texas.
Justin Vasquez is producing the convention. “We've worked with us, with SPAH. This is Society for Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. Again, these organizations! We've got long names!" he laughed.
Mercifully, there was a breeze, and all the participants were all in the shade as the sun set. Musicians rotated all night each playing with a band for the first time.
Vasquez noted that the harmonica is very much a story of the United States: “I think over the years, the harmonica has had a very rich history, especially with the history with blues artists. I think it has fallen out a bit more as music has become a bit more ... a lot of the stuff is done a lot on computer.”
But not at this event.
“I was a smoker for a long time, a cigarette smoker for a long time. I worked in EMS for over a decade,” he said.
Knowledge he gained with the EMS compelled him to stop smoking cigarettes.
“With that medical background and my experience as a harmonica player since I was 15, I kind of made a switch I got off of smoking cigarettes,” he said.
Vasquez couldn’t be a bigger fan out of one of the world’s smaller instruments. That you can hold a harp in one hand, and make some soulful sounds.
“What I find really interesting about the harmonica is the fact that you can take this with you" — he paused to play for 15 seconds — "and just quickly put out an expression right out of your pocket.”
Another harmonica player at the convention was Jarred Goldweber from Cleveland. His backstory on discovering harmonica was a classic.
“My mom forced me to go to an arts camp when I was 12 years old. I did not want to go, kicking and screaming," he explained. "And she goes, ‘I don't care,’ kicked me out of the car, and they handed each kid a harmonica, and they go, ‘by the end of the five weeks, you'll learn how to play.’ And I'm like, ‘great!”
In just that fashion, he became a harmonica player, and in the harmonica world, he has a fascinating subset talent.
“I do rock and metal solos on harmonica that are usually on guitar, and I convert those over and post them on Instagram and TikTok. So I've done everything from Primus to Metallica to Black Sabbath to Fleetwood Mac, you name it,” he said.
But tonight, he and a thrown-together band created some killer grooves.
“I think a lot of people underestimate what it's really capable of. There's some really incredible players that are doing very modern things that you don't really see out in the world all that often,” he said.
Goldpepper is a true believer in the instrument’s potential. That said, he went to college.
“I'm an electrical engineer. I went to school for that because of harmonica. I learned about pedals and amplifiers and made me really interested in electronics, and that's what I do full time. I tried trumpet, I tried guitar, nothing really stuck, but that one was like the one,” he explained.
About 500 harmonica players are attending the convention through Saturday night at the Hilton Palacio Del Rio. Many of the events are open to the general public.
