Music for the (mother) road

On the first Tuesday of every month the members of the Route 66 Harmonica Club gather at the Western Country Diner at 19th and Sheridan to learn a few licks and share a meal. Every now and then, the group convenes at The Dusty Dog Pub, where R66HC founding member and Tulsa music legend Jimmy “Junior” Markham — he’s shared the stage with Leon Russell and J.J. Cale, just to name a few — supplies all the fixin’s for an open jam. Here lately, the group has been busy with a little new business. Over the first weekend of March, the group, along with the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, hosted the fifth-annual Tulsa Harmonica Summit, a day’s worth of jam sessions, teach-ins, and workshops. Kids were invited free of charge — the event kicked off with a workshop just for them, on playing the blues — and the first 100 attendees went home with a new mouth harp courtesy of Hohner. The summit wrapped with a big concert and dance, where the likes of Johnny Long, Little Joe McLerran, Jon Gindick, RJ Mischo, Levee Town, and Markham himself played the blue notes while winter, so aggrieved, dug in her heels for one last show.