About OhPapa Music

Taj Majal

My introduction to blues was a record by Taj Mahal called “Oh So Good and Blue.” A friend turned me on to it in college and the blues bug bit me hard! From the moment I heard that record I knew that all I wanted to do was play the guitar like that!

I had an old Guild guitar stowed under my bed that I had bought as a youngster and never learned to play. With a copy of Taj’s record and my dusty ax, I went down to the Music Department and started knockin’ on doors until I found my first guitar mentor, Carl Dimow.

During my first lesson, Carl introduced me to a Mississippi John Hurt tune called “Oh Papa”. It took me weeks to play this passably (a fact that drove my poor roommate to the brink of psychosis)! But from that point on I was guitar crazy. I quit the football team (not to mention much of my studies), and dedicated myself to learning tunes by all the acknowledged masters of “country blues” guitar.

I’ve learned a lot of tunes since I first started plunking around with “Oh Papa.” But like your first kiss, you never forget your first tune, and so when it came time to “go legit” with my musical endeavors there was only one choice for it’s name, Oh Papa Music!