By KRIS CAPPS
Mike Stevens
When Raymond McLain and Mike Stevens play music together, it’s hard to believe there are only two of them. It sounds like there are more instruments at work.

That’s what happens when old country music blends with bluegrass and the blues, and two renowned musicians make it all come alive.

McLain is a bluegrass legend who has performed around the world with his family and on his own. Stevens is a self-taught harmonica virtuoso who virtually invented a new way of playing the instrument.
They met at the Grand Ole Opry in 1989.

“I was playing at the Opry,” recalled McLain. “Mike Stevens came down from Canada to do a special. We were supposed to back him up.”
“We had heard people play before, but when Mike played, it was unlike everything I had ever heard before,” he said.

Stevens plays a Marine-band style harmonica, with no buttons. A diatomic harp has 20 notes.

“But Mike has learned to play those harmonicas so he can play three and a half chromatic octaves, like half a piano keyboard, all the black and white keys,” said McLain. “And he makes it into music.”

Stevens admits it seems a weird career, playing harmonica for a living.
But it is all he has wanted to do since he picked up a harmonica at the age of 6 or 7.

By the time he was 16, he was totally absorbed, practicing 16 hours/day, listening to the blues so prevalent in his neighborhood just outside Detroit.

“It’s something I really wanted to do,” he said. “I never had any instruction. I invented a style of playing because I learned in a vacuum. I didn’t realize it was anything special.”

Harmonica players were not in high demand, but he eventually joined a band, performed at a big festival and caught the eye of the Lewis Family, a famous bluegrass group. They invited him to follow them across the country, plant himself in the audience, and play when called upon. Then, they’d pass the hat and Stevens would collect that money, as pay.

It wasn’t long before he made more money in those collections, than the main headliner.

He was tapped for the Grand Ole Opry, where he got a standing ovation and recognition for developing a new way of playing the harmonica. That still surprises Stevens, who said, “It was the same way I played in the basement for years and years.”
“It’s been an odd career trajectory,” he added.

For McLain, visiting Alaska brings back fond memories of touring Alaska for months at a time in the 1970s and 1980s. He and his family performed from Klawock and Craig to Kivalina, Noatak, Norvik and Kotzebue.

They happened to be in the Far North during Easter, amid much singing and dancing.

“That was one of the most magical experiences I ever had in my life,” he said. “I’ll never forget that feeling, being included in that wonderful celebration.”

He returned every year for the next 15 years.

A winter performance at Hering Auditorium is particularly memorable.
At intermission, everyone in the audience left – to start their cars and warm them up in the 70 degree below zero temperatures. He was happy- and relieved - they all returned for the rest of the show.

The duo is here as part of the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, sharing their talents with others.

“People really seem to like our music, but if you try to explain… there’s a guy who plays the banjo and a guy who plays the mouth organ…”
McLain shrugged his shoulders.

“Really it’s an effective duo, “ he said. “I don’t know why our styles fit together, but they do.”