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Paul Barry joins me again on episode 105, for another look at the life and career of the great William Clarke. Paul has now released his biography: Blowin’ Like Hell: The William Clarke Story, writing it from insights he gain...
Episode 100 is a retrospective on the greatest ever blues harmonica player, Marion Walter Jacobs, aka Little Walter. Little Walter was born in 1930, probably, and started playing harmonica age 8. He was busking on the streets...
Dennis Gruenling joins me on episode 99. Dennis is originally from the New York area, where he began his love affair with record collecting, listening to a wide range of music, from country to rhythm and blues and beyond bef...
Steve Guyger joins me on episode 82. Steve is from the Philadelphia area of the US and he absorbed the blues harmonica players when he first got into playing, with John Lee Williamson a big early inspiration. Steve was also g...
Paul Barry joins me on episode 64. Paul is our resident expert on William Clarke, and is currently writing a biography about him. Bill (as he was known to his friends) was born in a suburb of Los Angeles, and starting going t...
Rick Estrin joins me on episode 52. Rick grew up in San Francisco and starting sitting in with bands in the city. He was friends with Jerry Portnoy, who persuaded him to spend some time in Chicago. Here he met many of the ha...
Mark Hummel joins me on episode 36. Mark is a West Coast blues harp player who has put out some great harmonica songs in his catalogue of over 30 albums. A real connoisseur of the Blues, he has drawn inspiration from a wide r...
Charlie Musselwhite grew up in Memphis, rubbing shoulders with Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Work took him north to Chicago were he discovered the South Side blues scene, where he befriended several legends of the blues harm...
Sugar Blue has certainly pushed the boundaries of the harmonica, with his rapid fire licks, lots of high end runs and gorgeous tone. It was perhaps his early jazz influences that shaped his distinctive sound, although there i...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...