The other night I was on one of my usual harmonica walks through the neighborhood when I noticed that one of the houses I was passing had all of its windows open and was playing music so loud that I found myself wondering if there was a band practicing inside. It was made all the more present because of how it echoed through the quiet night air. I was playing my own music, though, so I really couldn’t make out what song or genre it was, only that it was really loud. But just as I passed the house, I thought I heard the word, “harmonica” in the lyrics so I stopped playing and listened… and heard the most awesome song playing: (song starts at 0:53 but the first minute is a great intro by Elwood Blues a.k.a. Dan Akroyd)

I stood there smiling ear to ear and bopped my head to the song. When it was done, I called out to the open windows asking who the song was by and a nice lady named Libby came to the window excitedly and said with an almost hippy drawl, “We played that for you, man!” It was wonderful! That was the night I discovered Curtis Salgado, the man who was the inspiration for John Belushi and Dan Akroyd to create the Blues Brothers in 1978. What a fantastic musician! And what an awesome song! I was just beaming with joy. Normally, I walk around playing music for everyone else but that night someone played music for me. Thanks, Libby for the tribute and for introducing me to a new favorite musician.

Image credit on the main page goes to Arlan Huilar, by way of Flickr. Thanks Arlan! Awesome pic