07/21/2007

Joe's Autobiography - Published in the August-September edition of the UK National Harmonica League Magazine - "Harmonica World"

Straight from the Heartmonica…

By Joe Powers

People often decide to study a particular musical instrument because it interests or inspires them. I never chose the harmonica… it chose me.

My Aunt Susana had no idea what she was starting when she slipped a harmonica into my Christmas stocking when I was two years old. That shinny “tin-sandwich” quickly became my best friend and went with me everywhere.

By the time I was 13 and in middle school, I had joined my first rock band as the lead singer and harmonica player. I had never really had any music lessons but spent hours listening to my mom's old blues records trying to imitate what I heard.

I wasn't really interested in trying to play exactly like anyone else; I just wanted to play the melodies I heard in my head. I discovered early on that when I was feeling sad or lonely, I could put a “harp” in my mouth and blow those cares away like the wind.

In high-school, while other kids were studying more conventional instruments, like violin, piano, trumpet, or guitar, I kept with my harmonica. Even though people didn't always take it seriously, to me there was no other instrument that could come as close to my own voice. It could wail and sob, and growl, and roar, and take me places I'd never been before. Places where I became one with my heart.

When I was 18 and a senior in high-school, I was leading my own pop-rock band and writing original music. We finished off the school year winning the city-wide battle-of-the-bands but shortly after the group came to an end when people left for college. I had to make a decision myself as to where I would go and what I would study.

At this important moment in my life I was greatly influenced by my musician friends in the orchestra and Jazz band. I was amazed at how easily they could sight-read music and understand the theory behind it. To me it was like a mystery that needed to be solved. So I decided to enroll in music school and have never regretted it. The experience has changed and shaped my life in ways I could have never predicted.

In college I learned about the inner workings of composition and discovered many new sounds, instruments, and cultures. I began studying the chromatic harmonica and exploring Classical music, Jazz, and other genres.

A chance trip to a ballroom dance class during my junior year eventually led me to the Argentine Tango. That passionate music went straight to my core and resonated deeply. Somewhere in the melancholy, nostalgia, and fervent love, was that same intense energy I felt when I poured myself into an improvised melody.

After graduating, I went to study in Argentina for a year and a half. Since then I have performed Tango, Jazz, Classical, Blues, and many other styles of music throughout the world.

For me, the harmonica provides a vehicle to express myself deeply and completely in a way that words can't touch. It brings sound to life and magnifies emotion like a window into the heart.

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