Apprenticeship Series – Page 3

5 Questions for Joe Filisko

November 5, 2009 Elwood

Elwood the Apprentice chats to the master of old-school blues harmonica

[UPDATE: Epilogue is now live – Old-school harmonica or new school?]

For a man bearing such a burden, you’d think Joe Filisko would have broader shoulders. I mean, considering he hoisted the entire tradition of blues harmonica up on them things, you’d think he’d be wide as a Buick.

Perched on a high stool with nothing but a harp, a mic and a couple of stories, his one-man show is like an oral ethnography of the blues harp tradition (see the Good Doctor’s review). Considering Filisko devoted decades to studying and mastering the styles of bluesmen long deceased, there’s just about nobody in the world who knows more about what it takes to be a Walter, Big or Small, or a Sonny of any kind.

Great Blues Podcasts

October 27, 2009 Elwood

Elwood's House of Blues radio Elwood the Apprentice samples some juicy blues folklore

The problem with the information age is that there’s just too damned much of the stuff. With all this delicious info floating about in cyber space, who has time for real life? Instead of playing harmonica, I can fritter away hours watching harp on YouTube, listening to harp on last.fm, reading about harp on forums, thinking about playing harp all the time but never actually doing so.

This is a filthy habit, as I’m sure you’re well aware – but like most filthy habits, worth indulging in every so often. One such indulgence is this treasure trove of interviews conducted by the other Elwood, Dan Ackroyd, on his House of Blues Radio show.

Journeyman’s Road by Adam Gussow (Part 1)

October 16, 2009 Elwood

Elwood the Apprentice seeks wisdom in the holy scriptures (of blues harmonica)

[UPDATE: Part 2 of the review is now live.]

Well, as I was saying – it’s the end of a Gussow era but not the end of the Gussow era. There’ll be no more free YouTube lessons, but there’s more Gussow wisdom to be harvested for the apprentice blues player – assuming you’ve not yet read Journeyman’s Road: Modern Blues Lives from Faulkner’s Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York.

“In the skilled blue-collar trades,” writes Gussow, “a journeyman is a way station and job category: no longer an apprentice, not yet a master.”

Well, there you have it. This delightful patchwork of essays, scatter shot and rapid-fire in their wisdom, chronicles Gussow’s journey to becoming a master – and he’s crammed in every titbit of wisdom accrued along the way. It’s like a little street manual on how to graduate from your apprenticeship and start the sometimes weary trudge towards mastery. There are threads on blues culture, threads on jam session etiquette and ‘sitting in’, threads on blues history and blues future. And the result is a palimpsest which, when held up to the light, might just give us new ways to understand ourselves. Read more

Gussow Calls It Quits?

October 16, 2009 Elwood

So long and thanks for all the chops. Elwood the Apprentice pays tribute to the end of an era.

All good things come to an end. That’s what Adam Gussow said when he finally, officially called it quits on his YouTube tutelage last week (Jason Ricci retires with him, but in this case even JR’s teaching is dwarfed by the sheer volume of Gussow’s output since he decided, February 22 2007, to “give it all away“).

As a blues pup, having suckled at the digital teat of Gussow’s YouTube channel for a good 18 months, I couldn’t help but feel wistful to see Gussow move on — like I was losing a little piece of myself. Read more

Four Things (Nearly) Every Harp Player Does

September 28, 2009 Elwood

So, you still want to be a harp player, huh? Well son, every creature has its hobbies, and if you want to pass yourself off as the real thing, you better learn how to blend in. In Part 2 of his ethnoblography, Figuring Out The Harp Player, Elwood sketches out a few key points.

It is an established fact that over 98 percent of harmonica players are white, English-speaking men between the ages of 30 and 65. (The other two percent are women and Ismael Lo.) When they are not sleeping, eating or trying on ugly hats, they typically divide their time between four activities: Read more

How to Become a Blues Harp Player

September 25, 2009 Elwood

So what kind of animal is the blues harp player? In the first chapter of the Apprenticeship Series, guest blogger Elwood takes us through part 1 of his blues ethnography, Figuring Out The Harp Player.

For some, the journey to becoming a master takes them from the depths of frustration to the giddy heights of triumph via a thousand smoky jam sessions and hundreds of hours in the woodshed. Many of us, however, find the journey to becoming a master shorter and much easier: it goes all the way to the local music store and back – more often than not via the ugly hat shop.

There’s an old joke – or historical anecdote? – about a father who sends his son to harmonica lessons. The son comes home after the first lesson and his old man asks what he learned. The boy says, “I learned the two-hole draw, dad.” Mighty impressed is his old dad. Read more