Town_&_City_Magazine

Throughout his life in Bloomington-Normal, Steve “The Harp” Mehlberg has done a little bit of everything. He served in the Army as a medic and lab technician. He’s been a farm hand, a Normal Fire Department Lieutenant, and was even crowned Mr. Illinois in 1987. But he’s perhaps best known as the area’s finest harmonica player. From his days with the Soul Seekers, playing against bands like the Shattertones at Marty’s Friday Night Dance Party, to playing gigs at old local hangouts like the Layz J Saloon, Red Lion, Polar Lounge and Night Watch, to sharing the stage with legends like Charlie Musselwhite and Joe Bonamassa, Steve “The Harp” has been playing harmonica and singing the blues in Central Illinois for over 50 years. Besides being an artist and songwriter, Steve is also an educator. Along with the Blues Blowtorch Society, Steve gives out free harmonicas and lessons to students all over the Bloomington-Normal area. Town & City caught up with Steve “The Harp” at his home in Bloomington to talk about his musical influences, what it’s like to teach music to the young and the old, and the future of the blues in Central Illinois.

Town & City: How did you get into the blues, and what drew you to the harmonica? Steve Mehlberg: That’s a heavy question right there. I was in the United States Army and I was stationed at Fort Baker in Sausalito, California and had a part time job working up at Ghirardelli Wine Cellar. Friday nights there was a guy from Chicago who played the blues and he had a harmonica player that would sit in with him. There were many Friday nights I worked at the wine cellar and at the end of the night I asked the harmonica player one time, “How did you learn to play that harmonica?” and he says, “Get you some Muddy Waters records and just play along.” So that’s exactly what I did. I went to Tower Records in San Francisco and bought a Muddy Waters album (Sail On) and a Little Walter album (Hate to See You Go). When I heard that Little Walter album it grabbed me. I had an epiphany. There’s a song on there called “Rollercoaster” and I couldn’t believe the harmonica player was playing it because I’m a trumpet player, and I said, “That sounds to me sweeter than anything I’ve ever heard in my whole life.” I listened to that album so many times it won’t play anymore. Also, I went and bought a book called Blues Harp. That’s where I came into the word harp. I said, “Why do they call a harmonica a harp?” Well, it’s because it sounds like a harp when you blow through it sometimes. Harmonic can sound like many instruments: trombone, saxophone, guitar—and to me, I’m doing my job if I can make it sound like instruments other than the harmonica.

	Something else that attracted me was, see, the trumpet is only one note at a time, but when you stick the harmonica far enough in your mouth you can almost play ten holes at once. It has more chord capability. So I started practicing and reading this book. And when I bought my first amplifier and microphone, I used to take my harmonica and turn that amp towards the cornfields and turn it up as loud as it would go and play to the corn. I used to say I had a lot of ears listening to me (laughs). T&C: You’re also an educator of the blues, as well as a teacher of the harmonica. How did you start teaching?

SM: It was just a natural progression. My first student was back in 1975. He was a 72 year old gentleman from Quincy, Illinois. He asked me how to play the harmonica so I had him come over and showed him a few things. Harmonica is relatively simple, and he picked it up fast with a lot of practice and by the time he left me he was playing a lot of Americana tunes. I start off with just the basics. The scale and simple songs and what they call intervals and chords—some blues tunes if I’m at a blues festival or if I’m in a school maybe I’ll show them “Row Row Row Your Boat.” I started having more people then come up to me and say, “You play good, how’d you learn that?” And I’d say, “I taught myself,” and they’d say, “You think you can teach me?” and I’d say, “Sure.” And that’s how I started back in ‘75. People coming up to me after gigs and asking T&C: How many students do you have? SM: Right now I have three private students. Over the years I’ve probably had 500 or so. The youngest was 6 months old, my granddaughter, just put it in her mouth and she has fun. The oldest was 85.

T&C: You’re a supporter of the Blues Blowtorch Society. What do they do and what’s the blues climate like in Central Illinois? SM: The Blues Blowtorch Society is partners with many organizations: Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Blues Foundation—and they are basically an educative source for people interested in the blues, whether finding out where to go, learning how to play, or whatever. And partly because of them, the blues climate in Illinois has been growing leaps and bounds over the last 20 years. Also thanks to Bruce Bergethon, Frank Black and WGLT. And it’s because of their playing of the blues, Delta Frank in particular, because of airplay, we’ve gotten a lot of listeners. However, the bar scenes and the blues have ebbed in flow much more. Right now there’s been a downturn. We’ve lost a large amount of factory jobs in the area because of political situations and things like that. Also, because of DUI laws, being what they are, people don’t want to go to bars as much and a lot of blues people who do smoke can’t, so that’s a deterrent. We’ve seen less and less patronization of the blues bars even though there’s increased listenership across Central Illinois. But it’s been things like The Blues Blowtorch Society and the Nothin’ But the Blues Festival, bringing in national and international blues musicians to play with local guys, that have made it possible to continue to support the blues. LOG ON TO WWW.STEVETHEHARPBLUESBAND.COM TO LISTEN TO HIS LATEST ALBUM “BACK IN THE BLUES” OR VIEW HIS UPCOMING GIGS.