Well, I worked the dishroom at Mizzou, and made some $ to buy a $6 harmonica and teach book in 1972. Got good enough to not be laughed at. Fast forward to 1999, and I tried to reconnect with the blues scene. I went to Paul Delays first event upon getting out of prison. Small venue at ZigZag Oregon, but he asked me to help carry in equipment. So I consider myself a roady for him.
Curtis Salgado had a weekly gatherings at Wankers Corner near Portland back then. He was being a teacher. I hadn’t brought my harp, so he let me use his. I told a few that I swapped spit with him.
Good luck on bending notes...
Don’t know if you remember the kid that was a big hit on the Carson show and then toured with Muddy Waters etc, but I get to see Brody Buster this summer. He is supposed to be playing at the Lake of the Ozarks at a new joint. He probably spends more time now as a one-man-band. He won the first prize for that class at the Memphis Blues festival that past year.
Go here:
https://soundcloud.com/the-brody-buster-band
As I mentioned above I have a special amp designed for the harp coming next week so I am cranked waiting to see what I can do with it. Bending was tough on my good harmonicas — I had already let my tongue get involved in my pucker-focus and had to unlearn that and then I found that with my best harp, a Seydel Noble, it was not a tough as on a Soul’s Voice.