The Blues Scene's Puddle...

Guest Post by Award-Winning Blues Harp Player John Paul Drum

John Paul Drum, winner of the 2024 International Blues Challenge (IBC) Lee Oskar Harmonica Award

From The Kansas City Blues Society Muscian Spotlight by Craig Smith

[John Paul Drum won] with what Lee Oskar himself declared “the highest score ever obtained for the award.” Guitarist Bill Dye was awarded the 2024 IBC Cigar Box Guitar Award. Kansas City duo Drum & Dye placed second in the 2024 IBC Solo/Duo Category. This level of success by any entrant is hard to achieve at the IBC, produced by The Blues Foundation, which is a worldwide search for blues talent that begins months before in various regional venues all over the world and culminates on Beale Street every year.

Our guest this week is John Paul Drum. He is just one of the many phenonomenal artists we are striving to acquaint you with. You can read his own words below, but first, listen to my words please.

In the fall of 1987 at the Walnut Valley Music Festival in Winfield, Ks, I crawled out of my little tent and looked to my right and at the same time this long haired hippie-type leather-clad cat crawled out of his and looked to his left. We eyed each other suspiciously. But after the initial shock of he seeing me and me seeing him, we’ve been fast friends ever since.

Back then, John Paul Drum was just fumbling his way through the harmonica which has now become synonymous with what he does. I have never seen anyone take up an instrument and rocket from beginner to expert so quickly. His dedication to his craft is an inspiration to anyone who tries to play any instrument. It’s all hard work and practice, practice, practice.

He’s giggin’ all over the Kansas City area, Lawrence and Topeka, and always down in Memphis where that long-haired freak just keeps winning shit. I’m proud to call him my friend and I really wish you’d check out his music on the links provided in this post.

My Best,

Doug

The Blues Scene’s Puddle…

By John Paul Drum, 2025 All Rights Reserved

When I moved to KC in the late 80s, it was for a specific reason. Having fallen under the spell of “Blues” music and wanting to get as close to it as I possibly could, it just made sense. KC had the old guys that played the music and had been doing so since the 40s in some cases. I didn’t think you could learn this stuff from books. It had to be more tangible. I needed to know where they picked it up. What did they talk about off stage? Who were the folks they admired?

I also felt that I was at a disadvantage, being a young, long-haired, white boy trying to infiltrate a secret organization. After the initial “hairy eyeball” of suspicion and disdain, apparently my tenacity won the old guys over. There were a few younger black fellas playing, but not that many. Most of the younger players were younger whites like me. Eventually, I became accepted and invited on stage. This was huge to me and confirmed in my mind that the devotion and practice were working as it should.

[From johnpauldrum.rocks: "There he [John Paul] fell under the wing of KC Blues harmonica man Little Hatch. Hatch informed John Paul that he was the only harp player he cared to share a stage with.”]

John Paul Drum with legendary KC blues guitarist Millage Gilbert

Fast forward 30 plus years.

All the old blues guys are gone. Where once I was the “kid”, now I seem to be the old guy. I don’t think I carry the aura of the old blues man. Partially for racial reasons and partially because fewer and fewer give a shit. The stars I reached out for, struggling to bathe in their light, have snuffed out. Things have changed. Music has changed. Like it always does. Popular music is now thud-like. Not that it ever had much emotional depth. Yet every once in a while, blues would appear in the pop sphere in a mutated form and shine without the populous realizing where it came from. And it always has been thus.

I don’t have younger musicians following me from gig to gig, hanging on my every note. We are now in the age of information where one can “learn” the basics of the form from the computer in your pocket. The blues scene’s puddle seems to be drying up. Will it dry up completely? No. However small, there is still a tiny wellspring of players feeding the puddle.