Hello All :
Thought I’d say hi and introduce myself since I have already posted a few times already .
Well - it began musically for me in 1954 at age 4 . A simple little 10 hole diatonic harmonica from Hohner , a Marine Band wooden type . From there it began . Listened to the Johnny and The Harmonicats on TV when TV was just starting . They played standards mostly but would also do POP - CW - JAZZ - and the Classics . From 54 to 56 and that’s when I began guitar - 58 trumpet - I listened to everything music , all styles .
Then .......
62 was a bad year musically for me . 3 one gallon sized milk bottles are smashed as I hold them with my left chording hand ,,,,, No more guitar cause I had embedded literally 100s of tiny sharp glass shards that were impossible to find and my finger tips were peppered with them and their removal was not feasible :( Many attempts were futile .........
Then life .... school band 58 to 63,,, .1964 dropped out of the marching band,,,,.athletics football & wrestling ...earned honors college football & wrestling in 72 it’s over and music begins anew .
I had developed my harp ( 10 hole diatonic harmonica ) chops all the time especially when guitar was taken away from me . Rock was a big part along with The Blues in my repertoire along with Country Western and Standards . In 77 I got my first paid gig , it was with a swinging rockin Country Western Band we did a lot of Willie Nelson’s stuff , I learned all the harmonica riffs Mickey Rafael did on all of the 70’s stuff Willie popped out . From there it went to Rock to Jazz and Standards as well as The Blues and CW . I did a lot of session work on commercials locally as well as gig for other bands when I didn’t have anything going on .
In the ” Discuss Your Gear ” your will see a few links on some of the harmonica styles I play live .
1998 October 12th . A day that changed everything in my life ...........AGAIN !
Sitting typing on a P . C . at my town’s library 3 blocks form my home I sat learning about the net and how to use the power the net and a computer offers a musician when I get an itch on my right forearm -
I scratch it several times and feel a burning like sensation that continued to bother me where I scratched and I scratched it again there and felt more pain ! Looking down I see cat scratch looking welts bleeding - - What the heck’s going on I said to myself as I look at the ” Mark Of Zorro ” bleed on my arm .
Confused - - yeah plenty - - I rub my forehead and wow I feel pain again just like my forearm and end up with two more welts a’bleeding . The librarian watching from her front counter approached me and asked if I was O . K . while I sat there at the computer terminal ?
I asked her is she had a hand held lens and showed her my welts on my forearm and forehead , she returns with the lens .
After a long and thorough investigation of my hands I check my finger tips one by one and discover on my left ring finger a cat like claw of milk bottle glass about the size of a phonograph LP needle and shaped like an arrow head ! I had to press on my finger tip to make it visible heh heh .
The librarian is shocked when I tell her that the glass was embedded in 1962 - 36 years - 3 months - and 11 days to be exact .
I passed my home as I was literally running / walking fast to my friends home 4 blocks away after I left the library . At my friends door I knock loudly and fast , he opens the door and sees my wild looking expression as I say quickly :
” Let me see your steel six string Alvarez “
He knows my history because I lamented often that I wish I could play guitar like him and his neighbor my cousin ( I would have gone to my cousin’s first but he was at work and no one would be home at that time in the late morning ) and asked why I did try this or that to get out that glass only to hear my sad story of why it could not be .
Before I left the library I had placed the guilty glass shard in clear scotch tape laminating it and as my friend confusingly handed me his Alvarez I handed him the scotch tape with the glass , his eyes popped open as I did my first God awful sounding open chords for the first time since that fateful day in 62 and showed and felt no pain .
This year marks the beginning of my 11th. year of guitar . I had a reputation already established as a session man for the harp and now I’m getting my reputation established as a guitar player too now .
Life has many twists and turns some are really beautiful sometimes in the end of what was once a personal tragedy .
So hi to all that’s my musical story and I’m stickin to it !
Easy friends :
Hurricane Ramon
Thanks for sharing.
