Gary Glazner

Harmonica

I started playing harmonica in 1975, using Tony Glover’s “Blues Harp,” book and K.C. Moan by the Memphis Jug Band was first song I tried playing. It was a dream to sing and play harmonica on K.C. Moan.

Beginning in 1926, African American musicians including harmonica player Noah Lewis in the Memphis area grouped around the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player Will Shade as the Memphis Jug Band.

Their 1928 recording of Stealin’, Stealin’ was included on the compilation album The Country Blues issued by Folkways Records in 1959. The song became one of the group's best known, especially after the Grateful Dead recorded it as its first single, in 1966.

The Memphis Jug Band was key in developing the jug band format, which evolved into the blues combo that is the basis of much popular music today.

The Memphis Jug Band was awarded a Brass Note on the Beale Street "Walk of Fame" in 2009. It was among the first group of inductees into the Jug Band Hall of Fame, an informal website run by jug band musicians, in 2010.

The Hump Night Thumpers are an Old Town School of Folk Music ensemble taught by Jonas Friddle. Members include Christopher Dineen; banjo and jug; Claire Herdeman, banjo; Beth Gomez, ukulele; Katharine Whisler, suitcase drum; Triston Kee, washboard; Avey Lessor, melodica; Stephen Van Houten, mandolin and Blake Montgomery, accordion and me on harmonica and jug. The Hump Night Thumpers were inducted into the Jug Band Hall of Fame in 2020.

 I.V. Waltz

The I.V. Waltz

The morphine on your breath
Could make a grown man dizzy.
His hands on my shoulders,
he helps to lift himself up.
I.V. stand, maypole ribbons
of tube and power cord.
We step, step, stop, step, step,
steady, our way to the toilet,
rolling the stand after us.
He can sit up on his own,
I give him a moment.
Snap on surgical gloves,
gently clean him.
Reverse our papa waltz,
lay him down to rest.
Trying to look busy,
listening for his death.

-Gary Glazner

Christmas Time for Marc Smith

The Poetry Slam at the Green Mill, Sunday, 12/17/2023
In 2022 Marc Smith (So What!) founder of the Poetry Slam made a miraculous recovery from a serious accident. I reworked Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here," as a tribute to Marc.