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"The Big Apple's Merry Monarch of the Mouth Harp"

-- Shlomo Pestcoe, NYC

I'm a harmonica player who has been performing American folk and vernacular music in all its many forms since the mid-'70s. Blues (early acoustic style and electric Chicago-style), Appalachian fiddle tunes, old-time country, bluegrass, honky-tonk, and Louisiana Cajun and Zydeco are just a few of the various different styles I play and teach.

Over the years, I've had the privilege and honor of performing and recording with the likes of Otis Rush, Bruce Springsteen, Sonny Burgess, John Sebastian, The Sun Records Rhythm Section (the band of the King himself, Elvis Presley) and Bo Diddley. I've also shared the stage and recording studio with blues legends BB King, Homesick James, Honey Boy Edwards, Pinetop Perkins and John Hammond, as well as stellar bluegrass and folk artists like Hazel Dickens, Tom Paxton, and the late great John Herald. In addition, I've appeared on soundtracks for both film and television.

The Alphabet City Opry. East Village, NYC, 1998
(NY Times)

My love of Americana-- especially the rich and varied musical heritage of the South-- came from my parents. My mom was originally from Memphis, TN. Our frequent trips down south to visit her kinfolk provided me with my first experiences with country music.

My late dad was a New Yorker who was stationed in Mississippi during World War II. There he fell in love with the down-home blues. Dad learned how to finger-pick his Gibson flat-top guitar by watching and listening to local bluesmen. Likewise, he took up the "blues harp" style of playing harmonica. Upon his return to the Big Apple, my dad got to know the legendary East Coast/Piedmont-style bluesman Josh White and got involved in the burgeoning folk scene which was just getting started in the late '40s and early '50s. Dad's love of the blues and folk music engendered in him an open-mindness and tolerance that was rare for a middle-class Republican WASP of that time. (This is especially significant when you consider that the political convictions of most NYC folkies back in the day swung a 180 degrees to the left of my dad's and their ethnic/religious/social backgrounds were just as radically different from his own.)

My dad passed on to me his passion for the blues and traditional American music. In fact, he gave me my first lessons on the harmonica, sharing with me the blues harp style he had picked up in Mississippi when he was a young draftee.

I really got into the music when I relocated to Morgantown, West Virginia in 1976 to escape from suburban New Jersey. At the time, Morgantown had a large community of young folks like myself from all around the country who played old-time fiddle and string band music, as well as bluegrass, blues... and reggae! (I was a member a local reggae band, The Good Tones.) I was priviledged to play with blues/ragtime guitarist Ernie Hawkins, who had apprenticed with the late great Reverend Gary Davis back in the '60s. I also performed with The Snakedrivers, a hot Chicago-style blues band out of Baltimore.

The Gowanus Canal Hotshots at The Good Coffee House. Park Slope, Brooklyn, 2002. From left to right: Shlomo Pestcoe (fiddle); Trip Henderson (harmonica); Rena Rubin (banjo-ukukele); Bob "Dr. Frets" Jones (bass); and "NYC's Mayor of Old-Time Music" Jack Hirschorn (guitar).

After living and performing in the South for many years, I moved back north to New York City and became active in the vibrant old-time, bluegrass, country, and blues scenes here in the Big Apple. I now regularly play with a quite a variety of different bands and performers throughout the Tri-State area such as The Booglerizers, The Dirty Water Dogs, and The Demolition String Band to name but a few.

And you're sure to find me at the Sheriff Uncle Bob's weekly old-time and bluegrass Good Times Jam Session, Wednesdays, 9 pm till late, The Baggot Inn, 82 W 3rd Street (between Sullivan & Thompson Streets), Greenwich Village, NYC. Come on down and we'll have a few tunes and a few beers!

I'm a founding member of Sufferin' Succotash, one of NYC's foremost string bands performing a rich flavorful gumbo of old-time country breakdowns and heart songs; down-home blues, rags and hokum favorites; and Louisiana Cajun and Black Creole "Bal d'Maison" dance tunes from the 1920s, '30s and beyond. I also lead The Brooklyn Corn Dodgers, a unique old-time band which features two harmonicas as the main melody instruments, following in the tradition of The Crook Brothers Band, early stars of the Grand Ole Opry.

These days I'm playing with The Second Fiddles, a really fine ragtime blues band. Check us out on Myspace: www.myspace.com/thesecondfiddles

In addition to my performance work, I teach harmonica and produce concerts and events. With Sheriff Uncle Bob, I co-produce The Sheriff Sessions , an annual Fall roots music festival in NYC which offers the finest in bluegrass, old-time country, and early blues music today.