Send us a text The leader of Austin's Fabulous Thunderbirds and the great inheritor of the great Little Walter
Send us a text The great chromatic and cross harp player, bandleader, and singer, mentored by George Smith, who died (maybe broke) in 1996.
Send us a text The great living player, protege of George Smith and perhaps the greatest master of double cross harp.
Send us a text The precision, the tone, and the underlying swing! Out of Chicago, also sitting that Muddy Waters harp chair.
Send us a text Richard Salwitz of the J. Geils Band, the inventor of rock n roll harmonica. My all-time harpgod.
Send us a text The great living master and creative force of the blues harmonica, Paul Butterfield's non-evil twin.
Send us a text We have reached our rendezvous with blues harp racial destiny! The two documentaries mentioned are "Horn from the Heart" and "Born in Chicago"
Send us a text The great player and mentor of masters (Rod Piazza, William Clarke, James Harman) George 'Harmonica' Smith, never quite adequately recorded. And his astonishing friend the criminally underappreciated Big Mama Thornton. "Me and him have been scuffling a long time." Gunsmoke Blues https://youtu.be/_ATwmyuhmeY?si=-T_By5lQJvJKeqwB Big Mama Thornton and Big Walter! (and John Lee Hooker!) https://youtu.be/GX8f70FW3lU?si=_G--_fYYjF6yfSQa
Send us a text The greatest of blues improvisers, as he showed on the London Muddy Waters Sessions.
Send us a text The incredibly right player and maybe the greatest blues singer I ever experienced.
Send us a text The fine rack players, born mid-1920s, with classic songs galore. Big Boss Man. Baby Scratch My Back. Sorry about audible incoming emails. I can do better.
Send us a text The great Big Walter Horton, also known as "Shaky" and "Mumbles". Perhaps Little and Big Walter are the two greatest "classic" blues harp players
Send us a text Rice or Alex or Alec Miller, Little Boy Blue, or SBW2: A real asshole, seemingly. But one of the handful of greatest music artists of the 20th century. Help me, baby! I screwed up when I said that his band included Jimmy Rogers. Robert Junior Lockwood!
Send us a text Episode 4: The great Piedmont/country/acoustic/folk blues master Sonny Terry.
Send us a text The very different but related country/blues styles of Opry star Deford Bailey (1899-1982), an incomparable virtuoso, and incomparable influence John Lee Williamson (1914-1948), known as Sonny Boy 1 (Rice Miller, Sonny Boy Williamson 2, swiped the name, but was an even better player).
Send us a text bonus episode on why the diatonic harp is ideal for blues. country and other folk or roots genres, and a bit about how i learned to play circa 1971.
Send us a text By acclamation, the greatest blues player ever to blow a harmonica. Here are likely future episodes: Sonny Boy Williamson 1 and 2 James Cotton Junior Wells Sonny Terry Magic Dick Paul Butterfield Carey Bell Jason Ricci Charlie McCoy Mickey Raphael Deford Bailey George Smith Rod Piazza Kim Wilson William Clarke Charlie Musselwhite Jerry Portnoy Lee Oskar