Woodyfest 2018: Kids’ Harmonica Class

Kids’ Harmonica Class

The The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival [Sidenote: Part twenty-five of our ongo­ing Woodyfest reviews fea­tures Joe Baxter, John Williams, and a pas­sel of enthu­si­as­tic kids.] has pro­vided a vari­ety of children’s pro­gram­ming over the years. Last year the fes­ti­val expanded from just orga­niz­ing kids’ con­certs to also host­ing youth workshops. 

On fes­ti­val Friday, Woodyfest artists Joe Baxter [Sidenote: The Oklahoma song­writer is so well-respected that in 2016, a group of fel­low musi­cians got together to record Tribute to the Songs of Joe Baxter, a com­pi­la­tion fea­tur­ing cov­ers of songs that Baxter wrote from 1992 – 2016.] and John Williams [Sidenote: When he’s not teach­ing kids to play har­mon­ica, Williams sings and plays gui­tar and har­mon­ica with Gypsy Twang.] taught an intro­duc­tory har­mon­ica class at the Okfuskee County Historical Society located in down­town Okemah. A dozen chil­dren and their par­ents attended, seated in metal fold­ing chairs or stand­ing at the room’s perime­ter while Baxter and Williams showed the proper har­mon­ica grip. After the stu­dents mas­tered the grip, they were ready to learn the loco­mo­tive, an inhale-exhale excer­cise evoca­tive of a train rac­ing down the tracks.

By the time this reporter was ready to move to his next assign­ment the class had played their first melody. All they needed was a camp­fire and a pot of beans to com­plete the scene.

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