St. Louis' Harp Attack Marks 40 Years With Original Players Reuniting

Five performers from the original 1986 Harp Attack lineup will step back on stage together this Saturday, August 29, when the St. Louis harmonica showcase turns 40 at Old Rock House. Eric McSpadden, Jim “Ribtip” McClaren, Jon “Johnny Diamond” Erblich, Sandy Weltman, and Tom “Papa” Ray will be joined by newer faces Big George Brock Jr. and Chris “Iron Jaw” Taylor for a night meant to trace four decades of the instrument's evolution in the city.

The reunion show, set to start at 7 p.m. at 1200 S. 7th St., brings together musicians who first shared a stage in 1986, when the original Harp Attack was organized by Ron Edwards with a dozen performers beyond Erblich himself, according to St. Louis Public Radio. Erblich told the station that the original event differed from today's version because each artist back then brought accompaniment suited to their own individual strengths, rather than performing under one unified format.

A Half-Century With the Harmonica

Erblich has played harmonica for 50 years, a run that started after he became interested in the instrument at a college jazz festival, per the station's report. His curiosity deepened after he watched Jerry Portnoy perform alongside Muddy Waters at the 1978 New Orleans Jazz Festival, according to Old Rock House. He went on to study Little Walter's playing and sought training from St. Louis musicians including Tom “Papa” Ray, and in 1991 he won the city's “Road to Memphis” competition fronting his Rockin Lucky Band, the venue notes.

Today Erblich plays chromatic harmonica and says he's drawn to exploring Latin music, part of what the station describes as the harmonica's development into a celebration of its versatility across genres. That range is baked into the instrument's history: the harmonica, sometimes called the mouth harp, turns up in the hands of blues greats like Little Walter and Big Mama Thornton as readily as in jazz, folk, and even Stevie Wonder's catalog, per the same account.

Carrying Big George Brock's Legacy Forward

Among the new additions to Saturday's lineup is Big George Brock Jr., whose father remains one of the defining figures in St. Louis blues. Big George Brock moved to St. Louis from Mississippi in 1950, opened the Club Caravan in 1952, sparred with Sonny Liston, and shared stages with Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters before his death in April 2020 at age 87, according to the St. Louis American. He is remembered as one of the last major Mississippi-born bluesmen of the Great Migration, and his son's presence at Harp Attack ties the 40th anniversary lineup directly back to that era of the city's blues history.

Tom “Papa” Ray, another original 1986 performer returning Saturday, has his own deep roots in preserving St. Louis music. He co-founded the record store Vintage Vinyl in 1980 on Delmar Boulevard and hosted community radio shows on KDHX for more than 30 years until 2023, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Fellow original member Jim “Ribtip” McClaren began playing blues harmonica in 1969 after hearing Paul Butterfield on Muddy Waters' album Fathers and Sons, honing his technique while working as a bowling alley mechanic in St. Louis, according to Old Rock House.

A Bigger Harmonica Moment for the City

The anniversary show lands in a month when St. Louis has already been a national harmonica hub. The city hosted the 63rd Annual Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica Convention from August 11 to 15, drawing international players alongside local performers like Sandy Weltman, according to the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. That convention was hosted by the Gateway Harmonica Club, a St. Louis nonprofit founded in 1987 by accountant Sidney Wolff that has grown to nearly 100 members performing more than 60 public concerts a year and has donated over $100,000 to local charities since its founding.

The city's harmonica ties even reach into baseball history. Cardinals legend Stan Musial was an avid harmonica enthusiast who frequently jammed with local musicians and members of the Gateway Harmonica Club, carrying the instrument to civic and team events throughout his life, per Saint Louis In Tune.

Old Rock House itself carries its own layer of St. Louis history. The venue, which reopened in 2007 near Soulard, takes its name from an 1818 riverfront fur-trading saloon once frequented by Mark Twain that was demolished in 1959 to make way for the Gateway Arch, according to Student Life. Saturday's show is produced with reporting support from St. Louis Public Radio's St. Louis on the Air team, including producers Alex Heuer, Danny Wicentowski, Emily Woodbury, Elaine Cha, and Miya Norfleet, production assistant Layla Halilbasic, and audio engineer Aaron Doerr.