Les Lindy

In blues legend, the intersection of highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Miss., is believed to be the crossroads where the legendary musician Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil in exchange for a preternatural talent. In "Crossroad Blues," one of his most famous songs, Johnson is sinking down and pleads with the Lord for mercy.

Les Lindy Jr. left the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival in Helena, Ark., last weekend and was driving through Mississippi when excitement suddenly infused his voice. "There it is," he said over the phone. "There's the crossroads."

Lindy didn't make any deals with the devil to become a bluesman. The harmonica itself taught him that no one is ever too old to learn something new.

He played the trumpet in school and rhythm guitar in a rock 'n' roll band in the late 1960s, but he was 47 years old before picking up the harmonica for the first time. Lindy now plays with Bruce Zimmerman and the Water Street Band. He also has a role as a harmonica player in the upcoming production of the musical "Big River" at the River Campus. In "Big River," Lindy, guitarist Zimmerman and fiddle player Steve Schaffner will play their instruments onstage in costume.

Don Greenwood, the conga player for Bruce Zimmerman and the Water Street Band, gave Lindy his first harmonica seven years ago. Lindy had mentioned to Greenwood that he "kind of wanted to get back in the music business."

Les Lindy uses a variety of harmonicas with different pitches. (Fred Lynch)

"He figured I'd just go away," Lindy said.

Instead, he started listening to harmonica players and learned to play a children's song. "I started figuring it out a little bit at a time," he recalls.

A year later he walked into the Water Street Lounge in downtown Cape Girardeau and asked Zimmerman if he could sit in on a song. He wasn't suddenly brilliant like Robert Johnson. "I'd do OK. Every time I came back I'd do a little better," he said.

Finally Zimmerman invited him into the band. "He was just sitting in but kept getting better and better," Zimmerman said. "It's rare to see someone at the age he was take up an instrument and excel at it. It usually doesn't happen."

Lindy, Zimmerman said, "was like a sponge."

Zimmerman plays harmonica himself and thinks he and other members of the band helped Lindy some in the beginning. "In the early stages I could show him some stuff," Zimmerman said. "Now he knows way more than I do."

Aside from Brian Jones, who plays locally but not with a particular band, Lindy is the primary blues harp player on the local music scene. "Nobody wants to put in the time and effort," he explained. "It's not an easy instrument to learn."

A blues harp has 10 holes. The player can blow or draw each one, creating a different note. Notes also can be bent, the signature sound of the blues harp. The instrument has another requirement.

"You've got to have a good wind factor behind you," Lindy said.

That factor will be needed in "Big River," when Lindy plays the first 16 bars of music in the show by himself. He knows that playing with a band at clubs and dances is different from being onstage in a big musical production. He's thrilled about having the chance to learn something new.

Live it and breathe it

Helena drew beginning blues musicians and famed musicians alike. Pinetop Perkins performed. He's in his 90s.

Before and after the stage shows, Lindy walked from campsite to campsite listening. "If you like the blues, you live it and breathe it here," he said.

Learning is still part of playing the instrument for Lindy. Recently, he traveled to a music festival in West Virginia to take a workshop with noted blues harmonica player Annie Raines.

He will always be grateful to his parents, both recently deceased, for having music around the house when he was growing up. His father, Les Lindy Sr., played the trumpet. Wanda Lindy was a church pianist. Both listened to Big Band music.

Three weeks before she died, Lindy's mother told him that both of his grandfathers had played the harmonica. "I didn't know that," he said. "I guess it's in your blood."