Archive for September, 2009
Satan and Adam
http://www.satanandadam.com/ Satan and Adam is an unlikely guitar and harmonica duo that built up a sound and an audience playing on the streets of New York in the 1980s. The duo’s unique sound came from electric guitarist Sterling (Satan) Magee’s propulsive, funky rhythm sound and the percussion instruments he played with his feet, combined with Adam Gussow’s fat-toned harmonica playing. Magee sings with the fervor of a southern Soul shouter. In addition to recording several albums, the duo were included in U2′s movie Rattle and Hum. – Tom Heyman Harping The Blues!
Junior Wells
Simply one of the greatest bluesmen in history. Listen to the classic Electric Blues sound he helped invent, along with Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, in Chicago in the 1940s. Wells’ work paved the way for everyone from Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix and beyond. His baritone shouts, moans, soars, growls, and pleads; his harmonica solos are concise and soulful. Meanwhile his backing band grooves like few bands in history. Listen to them shuffle, stomp, riff, boogie, and rock together; listen to the piano and guitar weave in and out of each other, trading licks and choruses on occasion. Horn sections and backing vocals also make brief appearances.
Harping The Blues!
2 commentsFREE Harmonica TABS ! For 1000′s of Songs!
Hey Blues Harp Players:
For the newbies like me – here is a great website with thousands of FREE TABS to help you learn songs on your harmonica.
A TAB is like sheet music for someone who can not read sheet music. It will show the notes for a song with numbers representing each hole on the harmonica.
You can sign up and join for free. If you are an experienced player you can add tabs to share with others.
Blues Harp Harmonica !
http://www.harptabs.com/
No commentsBill “Jazz” Gillum
Bill “Jazz” Gillum was an Early Blues harmonica player best known for his work with Big Bill Broonzy. He played in a Pre-War, pre-Sonny Boy(s) Williamson style largely constructed by himself — a high-ended, keening wail and he worked as a sideman on countless records of the era. Upon his return from WWII, his sound was out of vogue, resulting in almost no recorded material dating from the last 20 years of his life.
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James Cotton
Within the realm of Chicago Blues, there were few harp-blowers more impassioned and soulful than James Cotton. His career began in Memphis where he recorded a few singles for Sam Phillips in the early ‘50s. When Muddy Waters and his band came to town, James Cotton ended up taking the place of Little Walter. Cotton began recording his own records in the late ‘60s. A notoriously animated live performer, he continues to perform although throat difficulties have caused his voice to sound like Tom Waits coughing up gravel. – Jon Pruett
Harping The Blues !
6 commentsWilliam Clarke
Clarke was a master of the blues harmonica, particularly the chromatic harp, a type of harmonica with a much wider tonal range than a regular one. He was a protégé of the great Los Angeles blues artist and chromatic harp specialist George “Harmonica” Smith. Clarke thoroughly absorbed the Chicago Blues harmonica styles of folks like Little Walter and James Cotton, and then incorporated the influence of saxophone players such as Gene Ammons and David “Fathead” Newman to come up with his own darkly sophisticated, swinging sound. Clarke was also a powerful singer and a songwriter of great originality who carefully sidestepped the usual clichés inherent to the blues form. After twenty years of developing his sound, hard touring, and recording, Clarke died suddenly in 1996 at the age of forty-five. – Tom Heyman
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Sonny Terry
Born into a musical family, the blind Sonny Terry learned how to play harmonica to earn his keep, and ended up creating a signature sound widely admired and perhaps even more widely imitated. Terry toured for years with Brownie McGhee, riding a wave of renewed interest in folk music that began in the late 1950s. He thrilled audiences with his earthy Acoustic Blues, and his blues harmonica work is still among the loveliest to be found: tightly woven, countrified, and engaged in a perpetual dialogue with other instruments. His trademark high-pitched yawps — which he emitted between phrases almost without volition — were directly imitated by countless musicians. Nonetheless, there’s nothing like hearing an original, and that he is — a down-home, down-to-earth original whose work could make a stone shed tears. – Sarah Bardeen
Harping The Blues !
No commentsBilly Boy Arnold
After a short tutoring period from Sonny Boy Williamson, Billy Boy Arnold rose to prominence for his meaty and jagged blues harmonica work. Through a convincing mix of rural Mississippi blues and more modern Chicago electric style blues, Arnold produced solid pop-oriented blues records in the late ‘50s. He also performed on Bo Diddley’s self-titled debut single, as well as on its flip-side, “I’m a Man;” furthermore, his own “I Wish You Would” was a staple of the Yardbird’s live set for some time. He faded from public view in the late ‘60s, only to re-emerge in the mid-‘90s with renewed vigor.
Harping The Blues !
2 commentsBlack Cat Bone
Black Cat Bone are very good at slipping in to a laid-back groove and driving it for all it’s worth. Swanky harmonica solos, funky chicken guitar and soulful blues wails. – Jessy Terry
Harping The Blues!
3 commentsCurtis Salgado
Hearty, soulful blues led by Salgado’s rich vocal belting and blues harp playing. Before embarking on his strong solo efforts, Salgado was also lead singer for the Robert Cray Band as well as Roomful of Blues. – Jessy Terry
Harping The Blues!
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