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Tom Ellis joins me on episode 132 for another look into the life and career of the legendary Paul Butterfield. Butter gained access to the Chicago blues scene at a young age when his lawyer father carried out pro bono work fo...
Rick Estrin and Nathan James join me on episode 131 for a retrospective on James Harman. James ‘Icepick’ Harman was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1946. After moving between various locations, including Florida, New York, New O...
Mikael Backman joins me on episode 130. Mikael is from Sweden where he started playing blues harmonica, recording six albums with the band Ramblin’ Minds. He then joined the band John Henry. Initially a bluegrass band, they w...
Corky Siegel joins me on episode 129. Corky played was central in the emergence of the popularity of the blues to a white audience. His Siegel-Schwall band gained a residency at Chicago’s Pepper Lounge, sharing the stage with...
Ross Garren, Rob Paparozzi and Liam Ward join me on episode 128, to discuss the harmonica playing of Bob Dylan. The early part of Dylan’s career is chronicled in the current biopic, A Complete Unknown. Ross and Rob were the ‘...
Winslow Yerxa joins me on episode 126. Winslow is originally from Canada, now living in San Francisco. He started out playing blues harmonica before becoming interested in the traditional music of French Canada and British or...
Paul Lamb, Joe Filisko and Adam Sikora join me on episode 125, for a retrospective on one of the legends of the diatonic harmonica, Sonny Terry, whose real name was Saunders Terrell. Sonny was born in 1911 (or 1912), in Green...
Jerry Portnoy, Steve Guyger and Louis Erlanger join me on episode 123, for a retrospective on Paul Oscher. Paul was born in Brooklyn in 1947 and has a place in history as the first white player in a major black blues band, wi...
Ross Garren joins me again on episode 122. Ross lives near Los Angeles, where he has established himself as a leading session musician for harmonica recordings on movies, including Marvel’s Logan and the new Joker film, as we...
Jim Zeller joins me on episode 121. Jim is from Montreal, Canada, and first starting playing harmonica at age twelve after stealing one from a school friend. He ran away from home at age fifteen and learnt harmonica as he hit...
Grant Dermody, Ross Garren and Pete Dammann join me on episode 120 for a retrospective on Paul DeLay. Paul is a harmonica player who may go under the radar for some but his unique approach to both the diatonic and chromatic h...
David Barrett joins me on episode 118. David is based in San Jose, California, where he took lessons from Gary Smith from age 16, in addition to learning from great harmonica recordings. He started teaching harmonica himsel...
Yvonnick Prene joins me on episode 117. Yvonnick was born in France and has been resident in New York for seventeen years after first moving to the city to study at the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music. He started out...
Isabella Krapf joins me on episode 116. Isabella is from Vienna, Austria, where she started teaching and performing concerts in her late teens and has had a career in the harmonica ever since. Isabella is a collector of harmo...
Pat Missin joins me on episode 115. Pat’s knowledge about the harmonica is unsurpassed, with his website at patmissin.com , a definitive source of information for over twenty years. He gives us an insight into some of this kn...