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The group of men sat in chairs, with guitars propped up on their legs just right, as the man at the front of the room, began to strum his guitar. He stopped and looked up at the group long enough to ask, ”What got you interested in the Blues?” Alan Parsons said he had “always loved the Blues”, and David Pitts agreed, mentioning that he had “picked it up in college.” Each man in the room had his own reason to be there - to learn an acoustic sound from one of the greats, Bernie Pearl, who was accompanied by bass guitarist, Mike Barry, for the class, “How to Jam the Blues: Acoustic”.

Next door you could hear laughter, and then a long, slow draw on a harmonica followed by a burst of crystal clear notes that sounded almost human. Laughter

followed again, and this time, it was the descriptive, fast-paced talk of harmonica ‘ace’ Jose Ruiz that grabbed his audience’s attention, as he encouraged his students to ‘think outside the box’ of traditional harmonica styles.

“It’s about being ‘tasty’”, Ruiz explained, “choosing your notes, and your ideas, and hearing music in your head, and then delivering that sound.” He continued, “The guitarist is the guy drawing the picture, and the guy playing the harmonica is the coloring guy. The harmonica is the box of colors.” While the temperatures continued to heat up West Texas, the cool sounds of blues and jazz wafted throughout Centennial Park, as music from two stages - the Main Stage and the Community Stage (placed on opposite ends of the Park) - kept