Winslow is from Canada, where his family has been since 1784, with the Yerxa name descending from the Netherlands
Now lives in San Francisco
First heard the harmonica from the blues rock bands of the 1960s
Went to music school and moved to San Francisco, joining first band which used African and Caribbean rhythms
Heard Scottish and French Canadian music and joined the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers club, playing harmonica with them
This club helped developed Winslow’s playing of traditional music, how to read from notation and which harmonicas to use
Recorded the album Harmonica: Northern Traditions Reimagined album in 2006, of traditional tunes
Studied voice at music college (wasn’t allowed to study the harmonica)
Started out playing blues harmonica, after converting from playing an electric kazoo
The Tony Glover Blues Harmonica book was an early source of learning about the different blues harmonica players, but that book had some inaccuracies
Received first Marine Band as a Christmas present at a young age
Was always interested to learn more about harmonicas, and that has led on to gathering the knowledge that he has gone on to share widely with the harmonica community
Picked up playing the harmonica quickly and listened to great players as part of learning, including chromatic players
Learnt diatonic and chromatic at the same time
Initially learnt third position blues on chromatic
The great tonal varieties of Larry Adler
Heard Tommy Reilly playing at a young age, the theme on a Canadian children’s TV show
SPAH, founded in 1963 in Detroit by members of the Ford motor company, was initially focused on the chromatic harmonica
Different harmonica clubs still exist in the US and the chromatic versus diatonic SPAH wars
Winslow takes part in a number of harmonica ensembles
Sophisticated pieces for harmonica bands are available
Usually plays chromatic in the harmonica bands, and occasionally some bass and chord
Winslow was the President of SPAH from 2012-2015 and what that involved, including the yearly conventions and the SPAH magazine
How Winslow became President of SPAH
SPAH convention is still well attended despite the impact of Covid on in-person get togethers
Winslow is still involved with SPAH, on the youth and entertainment committees
Harmonica UK and the name change from the National Harmonica League and the UK magazine
Winslow is the author of the books: Harmonica for Dummies and Blues Harmonica for Dummies
The Dummies series involves very intensive writing
Harmonica For Dummies is written for diatonic, covering different styles
Lots of online resources for learning now, meaning learning from books is less appealing
Floated the idea of a Chromatic Harmonica For Dummies book but publisher didn’t think it would sell enough
How to monetise online content, and successful examples such as Liam Ward, Tomlin Leckie, Ronnie Shellist and Jason Ricci
Winslow does have a good YouTube channel of harmonica content
Published the Harmonica Information Publication magazine from 1992-1997
The initial idea for the magazine came from transcriptions Winslow had made of Toots Thielemans solos, and was in discussion with Toots about creating an instructional book with Toots
Put the out HIP magazine by himself at first to prevent the same writers always being published
The HIP magazines are available to buy from Winslow’s website
Might publish the Toots Thielemans interviews that he did
Winslow was a strong contributor to early harmonica forums, such as the harp-l email forum (founded in 1992 by Chris Pierce at Western Kentucky University)
Composes songs which he releases via YouTube and Bandcamp, using lots of different types of harmonica
Creates videos, often with narration over the top
There It Stood song is played in 6th position
Made some jazz recordings with a violin player
Has made a series of YouTube videos on the JDR Trochilus / Bushman Gamechanger harmonica, which comes in three different tunings
The blue JDR Trochilus / Bushman Gamechanger tuning explained
The yellow JDR Trochilus / Bushman Gamechanger tuning explained
The red JDR Trochilus / Bushman Gamechanger tuning explained
Plays lots of different types of harmonica, with the JDR Trochilus / Bushman Gamechanger adding to that list
The XB40 and harmonica players wanting the same form factor
Teaches harmonica online and in-person and also taught at the Berkeley Jazzschool in California
Ran the Harmonica Collective camp with Jason Ricci, with the last one being run in 2018
Uses special tunings and is interested in the chords they can produce
No favoured brand of harmonica, as wants to remain impartial as an online reviewer and why doesn’t endorse any brand
Uses overblows and learnt about the in the 1970s from Will Scarlett and the arrival of Howard Levy
Toots Thielemans recorded overblows in the 1960s
Alternative tunings can get you the missing notes but still sometimes nice to get the sound of an overblow
Roland van Straaten use of overblows
Embouchre: tongue blocking and puckering and corner switching, and briefly experimented with u-blocking
Amps: has a clean amp and a Digitech pedal
Mics: uses a vocal mic such as the Shure SM58, and recently bought a Blows Me Away Productions SM57
Adds effects post-production when recording
Future plans include more YouTube videos and instructional material
Videos of the ‘Bunch O Guys’ recordings made at SPAH in 1997 with Joe Filisko, Dennis Gruenling, Larry Eisenberg and Chris Michalek, among others
