HUNTINGTON — A Boyd County native took top prize Saturday at the West Virginia Harmonica Championship at Pullman Square in Huntington.
Gary Riffe, who now lives in Huntington, won the competition that featured 12 harmonica players from across the region. His brother, Geoff Riffe, of Ashland, also played Saturday but did not place.
Second place in the competition went to Gary “Hounddog” Jordan, of Charleston, while Ferdinand Carson, of Greensboro, N.C., placed third.
The second annual competition was sponsored by the Huntington Harmonica Club. “It was an excellent event,” said club spokesman Jim Rumbaugh. “This year the talent was even better. I was impressed by the diversity and the quality we had.”
Rumbaugh said the event, like the club’s weekly meetings at the Java Joint in Huntington, serves several purposes. The first is to gather harmonica players to play for an audience to enjoy while the second is to enhance the abilities of all players through shared-learning.
Paula Stewart, of Huntington, began playing the harmonica 21/2 years after attending one of the club’s shows in Huntington.
“It was a beautiful fluke,” she says. At the clubs’ performances members typically will give free five minute lessons to anyone in the audience. Stewart took one and became hooked.
“It wasn’t something I had thought about a long time,” she says, “I was just willing to get up and take a lesson.”
Stewart has played both years in the competition, which is part of the West Virginia Hot Dog Festival. To her, the event is not as much about competing as it is “having the opportunity to share harmonica playing with the public.”
Many audience members were delighted to hear the tunes.
Ashlanders Jo Heck and her husband, Eddie, came to Pullman Square just to hear the sweet reed-bending tunes. “I like to hear it. You don’t hear much of it like you used to,” said Eddie Heck, who plays the harmonica.
“It’s unique. You just don’t hear it too much anymore,” agreed Scott Burns, of Ashland. “Everybody puts more of their own flavor into it than anything else.”
Jordan, whose grandfather inspired him to learn to play, said he feels each musicians music is as unique as them.
“Playing the harmonica comes from your heart and soul. You have to feel the music. What I’ve learned you aren’t going to get out of a book,” he said.
While his music is country-style blues, others play jazz or bluegrass with their instruments, he said. “It’s just a soulful instrument that can be versatile.”
“We play the music because we like the music,” Rumbaugh said. “Variety is the spice of life and this is our little bit of spice in the musical flavors.”
Music from Saturday’s competition can be heard on the Huntington Harmonica Club’s Web site, www.harmonicaclub.com. The organization meets each Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Java Joint at the corner of Third Avenue and 16th Street.
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<a href="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/dailyindependent/flashpromo/slideshow/harmonica_show/">Audio slideshow: West Virginia Harmonica Championship<b><b>
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