Publication Party for the First Edition of Harmonicas, Harps. and Heavy Breathers In Boston, Massachusetts, 1994

(To purchase a print copy or Kindle version of “Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers,” click here.)

I was living in Massachusetts in 1994 when the first edition of "Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers" was published by Simon and Schuster. To kick off my self-financed marketing blitz, I arranged with my friend John Brancati, who worked for Rizzoli Books, to hold a publication party at the Rizzoli bookstore in Copley Place in downtown Boston.

It turned out to be a wild event. All the many Massachusetts-based harmonica luminaries (Magic Dick, Annie Raines, Mike Turk, Jerry Portnoy, the Norm Dobson Trio, Barbecue Bob Maglinte, Pierre Beauregard, Chuck Morris, Cheryl Arena, and Richard Rosenblatt) showed up and played, and the entire legendary Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra performed while snaking through the store in a conga line. It got so hot in the store from the crush of humanity that one woman fainted. An unforgettable day, to be sure! 

Yours truly fronting the fabulous Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra: Chuck Morris (left in blue shirt), Annie Raines, me, Cheryl Arena, Pierre Beauregard, Bob Maglinte, Richard Rosenblatt (far right).

Magic Dick with Charlie Baum behind him

Mike Turk

The Norm Dobson Trio

Jerry Portnoy, Pierre Beauregard, and me

Annie Raines and me

Richard Rosenblatt, Cheryl Arena, and Annie Raines