PASS CHRISTIAN, Mississippi (WLOX) – Driving down Highway 90, you might hear the sounds of coastal living from a musician who calls himself a world-class harmonica player.

“I like playing the harmonica,” said Shannon Williford.

Williford never goes anywhere without his harmonica and is always ready to play.

“It’s a great way to spread smiles,” Williford said. “When I do it in a restaurant or something, everyone laughs and smiles, and it’s just funny.”

Long before Williford started playing in bars, restaurants and events across the South, he first picked up the instrument as a child.

“I said I don’t want to be a musician, it’s hard, but a harmonica didn’t seem that hard to me,” Williford said. “I started hanging out in these juke joints and one thing led to another.”

A stage partnership was formed that transformed his identity into what he calls the “real fake Cajun.”

“He introduced me on stage as Shannon the Bayou,” Williford said. “I said I was a guy from Mississippi who went to Louisiana and learned to play music, but I wasn’t Cajun. He said, ‘We play this music up here, you’re a Cajun too.'”

He has recorded several music titles as “Shannon the Bayou” in Nashville. Today, he takes it easy most days and still plays harmonica on his porch in Pass Christian.

“I love it here, this is my home, a happy place,” Williford said.

The happy place is located on a property that his parents first showed him many years ago as a beach vacation spot.

“When I’m getting ready to play and I’m nervous, I can just imagine myself sitting on my pier with the waves and the wind, and I relax,” Williford said.

The harmonica is a constant in Williford’s life, but that can’t be said for many.

“It’s a lost art, a lost cause, it seems,” Williford said. “There are just fewer and fewer people playing the instrument.”

With “Blues in Schools” he is helping to bring back the harmonica. Williford leads musical performances in schools and libraries.

“It gave rise to almost all of American popular music, and I think kids need to know they’re standing on sacred musical ground,” Williford said.

“I just love playing. It gives me great joy and satisfaction.”

If you are interested in bringing “Bayou” to your school or organizing a performance, you can visit his Facebook page.

He also hosts open jam sessions every Sunday for the rest of the month at the Ground Zero Blues Club.

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