12/30/2025
MY ORIGIN STORY. I began my harmonica journey on March 25, 2020. Kris and I were watching Jeopardy! as usual. In Double Jeopardy, in the category Musical Instruments, one of the clues was, “Hohner makes the Bob Dylan signature model of this instrument that Bob plays.”
The correct response was, of course, “What is a harmonica?” Lockdown had just started, and I thought, “That might be something fun to look into.”
From that moment, my life changed for the better. I began taking lessons from the great David Barrett, attended a SPAH Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica convention, met some of the coolest people on the planet, wrote about some of these folks for Forbes, started doing interviews for SPAH’s quarterly publication “Harmonica Happenings,” began jamming in Central Park with Matt Sherring, attended two Harmonica Masters Workshops Trossingen created and led by the inspirational Steve Baker, and now I can play piano/harmonica duets with my mom Sheila Weinstein. And all because of a clue on a TV quiz show.
