A Modern Harpo in 29 Palms
by Barbara Renton
July 29, 2010

29 Palms, CA - Besides the great food and ambiance of the Inn in 29 Palms, there is a great performer everyone should hear, Patti Hood. With the voice of an angel and her perfect renditions of songs, it can be quite an uplifting experience.

While working as a waitress, a long time ago, Hood had a dream. Harpo Marx was going to teach her to play. A few months later a customer had introduced her to an instructor and a decade of learning began. Combined with her vocal lessons, made for a heavenly combination.

“I started studying the harp,” says Hood, “for 10 years with Muriel Donnellan who hailed from Toronto and was a child prodigy on the piano.”

Hood recounts her instructor‘s amazing history, “She taught piano at the Toronto Conservatory when she was a teenager. In her 20's she took up the harp. I looked for one to rent for a year and a half back then, but at the time there were none to rent and I couldn't afford to buy one on a waitress's income. So when I met my teacher she said I could rent one of her two, which I did for 10 years while studying. When she got too old to live alone and her son wanted to move her in with his family in Texas, she gave me the harp and told me the story about when Harpo played it.”

You can see Harpo Marx play a similar one for over three minutes, beautifully, in the MGM classic “Horse Feathers” from 1932. But for all her concerts, Hood plays a Carmac Blue harp and has a mini harp she calls “Little Red.”.

“There was a TV show that had been filmed for MGM and Muriel was in the orchestra with the harp she gave me.” Hood recalls, “They had prearranged for Harpo to jump into the orchestra pit, slide her over on the bench, do a glissando which she had set the pedals for, give her a hug and a kiss, then jump back onstage. That was it. I don't know if it was a That's Entertainment thing or what. She didn't remember when she told me about it at the time she gave me the harp.”

“I'm originally from LA,” says Hood “the San Fernando Valley.” Hood also has quite a few cats as “people are always giving away kittens. We've had a lot of cats adopt us as well.” Lola and Wolfgang are two which were given to her and her boyfriend, Mike Lindsey.

Not exactly the kind of instrument you can transport in a VW bug, Hood has a truck. Mike helps her with their transport, “Mike built a "gurney" of sorts so that I'd be able to play when he's working in LA and load and unload by myself. It works with a fulcrum off of the tailgate. Otherwise the truck is too high for me to load. A mini van would be much better but I don't have one.”

Hood began harp therapy work for a year at the Daniel Freeman “Marina” Hospital for addicts detoxing in the recovery unit. Hood’s music relieves stress, depression and anxiety for patients there. She is also a subscriber to The Harp Therapy Journals which was started in 1996.

When asked why the harp? Hood responds that this instrument has the purest tone, the largest pitch range and widest range of sound. She writes about it in her website, www.pattihood.net which also lists her many tours and appearances through the years with such accomplished musicians Jon Anderson of the group Yes, and the Australian group The Church. She’s on Harold Budd's album Candylion that he did with Clive Wright."Hood can also be heard playing on “This I Love” from Guns N Roses’ latest CD, “Chinese Democracy.” She plays now with Ted Quinn at his ‘open mics’ at the JT Saloon in Joshua Tree or Pappy & Harriet’s whenever she can.

The act of gliding up and down many strings is called a ‘Glissando.’ So, the stressed or the travel-weary of the Morongo Basin should glissando out to the Inn every third Sunday from 6-9pm to hear this desert magic. The food is always divine there (the desserts homemade and salads fresh from their garden) and the music is food for the soul. Reservations can be made at 760-367-3505.