Blues Harmonica Episodes

Grant Dermody first picked up the harp in Alaska, where he emulated the greats before developing his own acoustic sound playing American roots music. He played as a session man on various albums before releasing the first of ...

Mark Feltham grew up with a love of country music and just knew he had to play harp when he heard Stone Fox Chase on the UK music programme, Old Grey Whistle test. As he entered the London music scene he found he had to adapt...

Jerry Portnoy joins me on episode 20 of the podcast. Jerry grew up with the sounds of Maxwell street in his ears. It took him a few years to pick up the harp, but when he did he enjoyed a tremendous career. Starting out with ...

Rachelle Plas is a French player who learnt her craft at an early age in group lessons provided by Greg Zlap in Paris. She won various competitions at French music festivals which led on to her touring Europe and beyond with ...

A grammy award winner, Peter Madcat Ruth has enjoyed a long career, from playing jazz with the Brubecks, to numerous solo projects and playing in various bands and duos and trios. Madcat has loved Sonny Terry from the start a...

Always looking to push himself in new directions, Carlos has released an eclectic mixture of genres across the range of his albums. But each song is underpinned with his great sounding fusion of blues / jazz harmonica, with a...

Charlie McCoy is the leading figure in Country harmonica playing, where he joined the Nashville scene in 1961. With over 13000 sessions to his name, Charlie is probably the most recorded harmonica artist of all time. Although...

Rod Piazza developed his exciting brand of West coast jump harmonica in Southern California, where he formed his own band before joining forces with George Harmonica Smith, to form Bacon Fat. Two harps, what a sound! Rod has ...

Kim Wilson is without doubt one of the great harmonica players around today. He grew up within the vibrant music scene in California, learning his chops on the bandstand, which he hasn't got off since, touring extensively all...

Joe Filisko has made the study of the harmonica his lifelong passion. His detailed knowledge of early recordings has helped him become the pre-eminent pre-war harmonica player of our time. He built his knowledge of the harmon...

Billy Branch is a Chicago blues harp player who grew up learning directly from some of the classic generation of Chicago players, such as Carey Bell, James Cotton and Junior Wells. And he played in Willie Dixons band for 6 y...

Today I talk to Giles Robson, who released two highly successful albums in 2019. Giles started out with a more blues rock fusion approach before returning to a more traditional blues style, but with a modern twist, which has ...

Steve West Weston is the man in the hot seat in episode two. Steve grew up among the vibrant music scene in Essex, listening to Dr Feelgood among others. He started out playing in various bands on keyboard before finding his ...

First up in the podcast I'm delighted to welcome a certain Mr Paul Lamb. Paul is a living legend of blues harmonica. He's been performing for over 45 years now, would you believe. He has a multitude of great albums to his nam...