I believe We, The People and It, The Harmonica are all better off coming down off our thrones. Only then can we connect and be of use. My playable FlashHarp® Harmonica USB embodies this belief and reminds me to live and breathe it. Each is a little piece of my soul. Of course, how you use FlashHarp is up to you...

• Make it your main flash drive
• Give as a gift with a special memory inside
• Learn from its play-along song lessons

🎵 FlashDance Demo: www.etsy.com/shop/BackyardBrand/About
🎵 1 of its 10 videos: www.etsy.com/shop/HarmonicaUSB/About
🎬 What HGTV¹ says: www.etsy.com/shop/USBHarmonica/About

Patented FlashHarp is:
• Personalizable www.etsy.me/2xzMhcM
• Necklace-Makable www.etsy.me/2yhOZT1
• Handmade by me in 🇺🇸 of custom U.S.-made and imported parts
• Handpacked in excelsior straw, for shipment anywhere
• In the key of "C" (as is its available full-sized Plug 'n Play companion www.etsy.me/2i4rKGm )

♫▬▬▬▬ B•B ▬▬▬▬♫
Got to run? Remember there's two "h"s in FlashHarp.com (which always redirects here).
♫▬▬▬▬ B•B ▬▬▬▬♫

• The recipient of 100%-5⭐️ feedback like: "Wow!" "Freaking cool!" "Genius!" "Love it!" www.etsy.com/shop/BackyardBrand/reviews Comments like these are far more inspiring for new harmonica players to get than the demoralizing kind ( youtu.be/xpyxJVsGZyA ) "old harmonica" beginners often receive.

• Also playable in the key of "G" (if played "crossharp²"). FAQ#9 tells the difference between straight- and crossharp. www.etsy.me/2fNnV42

• USB-equipped to keep you carrying (the harp that gets carried is the one that gets played).

• Born of the same spirit of innovation all great harmonica pioneers plug-into

♫▬▬▬▬ B•B ▬▬▬▬♫
Visit The Big Backyard of BackyardBrand and zoom-in on Riverside a few years ago...³
🔭 bit.ly/vPqaY2 🔭
See the guy in his backyard trying to fit his life's work in a harmonica box? That's me experiencing my "Eureka!" moment—I'd just found a way to do two things at once:

B) Make the harmonica something EVERYONE can enjoy again

B) Free it from those who take it and themselves WAY too seriously

BackyardBrand.etsy.com
♫▬▬▬▬ B•B ▬▬▬▬♫



1
More Press about FlashHarp...
INDIE ARTISTS ALLIANCE: indieartistsalliance.com/2011/04/flashharp/
GIZMODO: gizmodo.com/5397374/instructions-on-playing-the-flashharp-harmonica-usb-drive-come-included
DUDEIWANTTHAT: dudeiwantthat.com/gear/music/4gb-flash-drive-harmonica.asp

2
My short historical fiction, Champion Book, fills-in the critical missing piece in crossharp's origin story (I repeat—for historians: THIS IS FICTION!): www.etsy.com/listing/273512590 I can preload Champion Book for you onto a FlashHarp. Just ask.

3
The scene of my Eureka! moment is Riverside, Illinois⁴ which PBS calls "one of 10 Towns That Changed America" (see 16:01 min. @: to.pbs.org/2vG9plW ). Riverside sits at the crossroads of the three key out-routes that carried the harmonica south to the Seat of the Blues and west to cowboy country—namely, U.S. Highways 41 and 66 and the then Santa Fe rail line. The Village shares its home-state status with Abe Lincoln, the harmonica-playing president who, by declaring the enslaved "thenceforeward, and forever— free," clarified the real meaning of our pending Civil War. ¶Zoom-ahead now past the South's rampant ruin and envision a minstrel troupe of former-slave performers. See what's in one of their hands? Yes! a harmonica! And what's that musician doing with that harmonica? Yes! —Exercising the freedom to innovate a whole new playing style, one with an empowering tone so authoritative it gives a "human"-sounding voice to a people who, by enslavement, had had theirs taken from them; and who, therefore were in desperate need of one. Let’s call this now-free people's newly gained style, “crossharp.” Further, let's remember, this is the essence of the “voice” of The Blues. ¶From its rural, jug-band roots, crossharp (aka, “blues harmonica”) spreads into urban settings in not-so-hot pursuit of a solo career. Deford Bailey and Sonny Terry arise to become instrumental in this transfer. In the cities, Little Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf electrify it. Sonny Boy Williamson II mentors James Cotton, and so on. ¶And soon, the little ax jumps the tracks. Instead of coming from mainly black chops, somehow now crossharp's source becomes young, white musicians. Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite, John Mayall and Mick Jagger hear in Chess Records a sound they'll feed like a raging river into the juggernaut of Rock. ¶Country & Western "feels" crossharp, too, as Charlie McCoy and Jimmie Fadden prove. ¶By the early 70's, the whole harmonica-playing world is caught-up in the sound of crossharp. ¶All cool now (behind the scenes, anyway) crossharp starts copping an attitude. Which we all know is a lot like a flat tire: You can't get any farther until you change it. ¶Enter Howard Levy. Mr. Levy is given—and very graciously receives—credit for inventing “overblowing,” a technique that fills-in the missing notes to make the devilishly diminutive diatonic as big as a chromatic. ¶The Internet exaggerates this large scale change and, on youtube, the black-mentor masters fade further to black. Yet and still, amazingly, Jason Ricci finds his way to arise as SPAH's Harmonica Player of the Year. Meanwhile, the mic'd-up mantle passes to digital disciples like Adam Gussow, David Barrett and more. FlashHarp is born and you, with your own story still to fill, find your way here. ¶Congratulations, my friend (can I get an "Amen?")! You are now officially—according to me, anyway—up to speed on the nine lives the harmonica has lived so far (on U.S. soil). ¶I encourage you to determine where the tale goes from here. ¶Get crackin'!

4
As the U.S.'s first planned suburb, Riverside is a National Historic Landmark Village. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, also designer of New York City's Central Park. Here's what life's like here, today: vimeo.com/75615729



©James McLean U.S. Pat. Nos. D602,940 & D624,550; FlashHarp is a registered trademark of FlashHarp Music; Registered Copyright No. PAu- 3-577-937 All IP vigorously enforced.