March 15, 2024

Eddie Martin interview

Eddie Martin joins me on episode 106. Eddie has been described as the ambassador of British Blues, having released seventeen albums over his near fifty year career, with many of the songs self-penned by Eddie. He started out as a one-man band, but also performs as part of his own bands too. In either format Eddie makes extensive use of rack harmonica, and is one of the leading players of using a rack, while also playing some hand-held harmonica as well. Eddie gives us some great tips on playi...

Eddie Martin joins me on episode 106.

Eddie has been described as the ambassador of British Blues, having released seventeen albums over his near fifty year career, with many of the songs self-penned by Eddie. He started out as a one-man band, but also performs as part of his own bands too. In either format Eddie makes extensive use of rack harmonica, and is one of the leading players of using a rack, while also playing some hand-held harmonica as well. Eddie gives us some great tips on playing on the rack.

Eddie also had a two year spell in the US where he regularly played on Beale St, Memphis and Clarksdale, Mississippi, as well as time playing in Italy.

And he regularly teaches at workshops in the UK and Europe.

Links:
Eddie’s website:
http://eddiemartin.com

Big Red Radio:
https://soundcloud.com/eddie-martin/sets/eddie-martins-big-red-radio

Harmonica Master’s Workshop:
https://www.harmonica-masters.de/en/workshops-2024/master-workshops-diatonic/eddie-martin.html

EuroBlues week:
https://www.euroblues.co.uk/blues-week-2024/

Son of Dave interview:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com/son-of-dave-interview/

Videos:
One Man Band video from Thirst album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK6Qr9nSugw&t=18s

Birdcage Sessions video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU87CViwfJA

Harpin’ By The Sea 2024: Breakeven Blues:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S83O-scnX_I

Harpin’ By The Sea 2024: Early In The Morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fuwgMcaJ4Q

NHL festival 2006: Queen of Spades:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW-Y9JplJ4w

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS

Support the show

01:30 - Eddie was born in London and now lives in Frome, Somerset

01:47 - Has been described as the ‘ambassador of British Blues’, and has been playing since age 16, almost fifty years

01:59 - Started playing guitar a year before the harmonica

02:21 - Although is known as a blues player, Eddie thinks of himself as a songwriter, who writes mainly in the blues form

02:26 - Grew up in era of classic British blues rock, blues and folk music, including Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan

02:52 - Instrumental skills have always been to serve the song

03:31 - Example of some of the great lyrics Eddie has written: Kind Lady Moon and Like Water

05:04 - Thirst album was produced by Eddie and was influenced by The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers album

05:48 - Eddie works as a one-band, playing harmonica, guitar, vocals and percussion, as well as in his own band

06:18 - Started playing rack harmonica early on in his formative years, as a means to support song writing along with guitar

06:43 - Also played a lot of hand-held harmonica (off the rack)

07:01 - Other rack harmonica players Eddie heard tended to play simple first position stuff

08:03 - American folk rack harmonica of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, and learning for their approach to playing harmonica

08:41 - Did Eddie learn harmonica initially both on the rack, and off-rack

09:34 - Early on wanted to forge his own approach to rack playing

09:58 - Tongue blocking wasn’t used by many of the earlier rack players, and Eddie was keen to incorporate that into his playing

10:36 - Had planned to do an album entirely using rack harmonica, but the songwriter in Eddie always got in the way of that

10:52 - Eddie practised the guitar and rack harmonica together, not working on them separately

12:22 - Playing simultaneous solos on harmonica and guitar

13:00 - Doing two different things on harmonica and guitar: Eddie thinks he has the ability to do this, which not everybody has

13:34 - Importance of getting a good rack to use, that is stable, and adjustable to the correct height for you

14:05 - Modified his own racks when he started out and there weren’t so many good options as there are now

14:30 - Has adapted playing on a rack over the years to a level where he can use the cheaper ones now

15:02 - Hohner Flexirack is the one that Eddie recommends to starting rack players

15:37 - How Eddie positions the rack so it doesn’t get in the way of singing, with the height being important

16:32 - Although is known for playing harmonica on a rack, is also an excellent player holding the harmonica in hands

17:00 - What proportion does Eddie play rack versus non-rack?

17:27 - Has a showpiece where plays electric guitar in one hand while holding harmonica in the other

18:57 - Singing was the first musical pursuit when young, singing in the choir at school

19:19 - Thinks have a good tone to your voice helps in having a good harmonica tone

20:26 - Started as a semi-pro musician from age 18, turning professional in his thirties when started getting nominated for some awards

21:07 - First CD album was Solo in Soho, from 1995 (after an earlier album just released on cassette)

21:51 - First album was as one-man band, but always wanted to be in a band as well, and has done both throughout his career

22:04 - One of reasons initially took up playing the rack is because couldn’t find the musicians in Bristol to play the other parts of his songs

23:13 - Has three different outfits now: solo, trio and larger band

23:22 - Second album: Blue To The Bone album (1997) is with Eddie’s band

23:48 - Has his own record label, Blueblood Records, and released and produced all his own albums on there

25:05 - Had some other artists on the record label

25:19 - How produced and recorded own albums

25:43 - Blue To The Bone album was produced alongside Dick Heckstall-Smith, a previous member of the John Mayall Blues Band, and Pete Brown, lyricist for Cream

26:27 - Spent two years in the US, first touring with his British band in the East

27:36 - Formed a band with an American rhythm section, who also toured with in Europe too

28:33 - Played solo shows in the US and got some residencies on Beale St, Memphis and Clarksdale, Mississippi

28:54 - American audience responded well to Eddie playing the blues over there, with Eddie a humble student of the blues while in the US

30:17 - Two compilation albums of first 25 years of Eddie’s career: Blues Took Me By The Hand, volumes 1 and 2

30:38 - Spent some time in Italy, recording with a band he formed called Big Red Radio, including a gospel choir

31:45 - With this band used traditional blues instruments while bringing in the dynamics of rock music

32:32 - How the project came together in Italy

33:04 - Released seventeen albums under own name

33:11 - Thirst album with song One Man Band, played with a full band

34:04 - The Birdcage Sessions album, released in 2021 during the Covid pandemic and recorded at Eddie’s home

34:40 - Birdcage Sessions won European Blues album of the year from Mojo magazine, as selected by Tony Russell

35:26 - Happy Broke and Free song from Birdcage Sessions album

36:21 - Decision on which songs to include harmonica on

37:11 - When recording an album, Eddie might play harmonica on a rack to get a live feel, but recording on a rack can be problematic in the studio

38:31 - Recorded using the Chess technique of playing in a room with lots of natural reverb and using a second mic to capture the room reverb, as was done with some Little Walter recordings

39:36 - Has played with some great musicians, including Honeyboy Edwards, John Mayall, Paul Jones and others

41:02 - Has toured in 35 different countries

41:11 - Eddie runs lots of workshops, including a rack workshop at the Harmonica Masters in Trossingen in October 2024

41:43 - Teaching at the Euroblues Week in the UK in 2024

42:10 - Appeared at Harpin’ By The Sea near Brighton in the UK in 2024

42:43 - Appearance at the UK NHL festival in 2006

43:07 - Likes to teach and share his knowledge and does a little private teaching too

43:50 - Awards won by Eddie include Best Solo/Acoustic Artist in the European Blues Awards

44:34 - 10 minute question

46:22 - Lost mojo to write new music during the pandemic, and took up painting at this time but has got back into playing and hopes to record another album soon

47:11 - Challenge of making money back from making albums

47:39 - Doesn’t push for lots of gigs at the moment due to family circumstances, but plans to start playing out more in 2025

48:41 - Harmonicas of choice are the different flavours of Marine Bands and the Rocket

49:04 - Plays some chromatic, including on the rack (without using the button)

49:47 - Different positions Eddie uses to fit the songs he writes

50:39 - Overblows: not used much but has been playing them recently and likes the overblow on 6 blow for the minor third

51:07 - Does a little set-up of harps himself, but not too much

51:53 - Embouchre: uses some puckering and tongue block

52:15 - Amps: doesn’t play much amplified rack harmonica anymore, but still loves amped harmonica

53:28 - Sometimes plays as a sideman harmonica player, which he loves to do

53:55 - Owns several tube amps and vintage mics and likes the different varieties of vintage mics

54:52 - Lately has acquired a Shure 521 mic

55:19 - Effects: just some slap echo

55:41 - Uses SM58 vocal mic when playing acoustic harmonica

56:04 - Big fan of Son of Dave and the range of effects he uses

WEBVTT

00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:01.909
Eddie Martin joins me on episode 106.

00:00:02.008 --> 00:00:12.224
Eddie has been described as the ambassador of British blues, having released 17 albums over his near 50 year career, with many of the songs sell penned by Eddie.

00:00:13.147 --> 00:00:17.213
He started out as a one man band but also performs as part of his own bands too.

00:00:18.234 --> 00:00:27.109
In either format, Eddie makes extensive use of rack harmonica and is one of the leading players of using a rack while also playing some handheld harmonica as well.

00:00:27.841 --> 00:00:30.586
Eddie gives us some great tips on playing on the rack.

00:00:31.789 --> 00:00:43.549
Eddie also had a two year spell in the US where he regularly played on Beale Street, Memphis and Clarksdale, Mississippi as well as time playing in Italy and he regularly teaches at workshops in the UK and Europe.

00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:47.936
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:57.706
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:01:24.353 --> 00:01:26.260
Hello, Eddie Martin and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:27.222 --> 00:01:27.765
Hello, Neil.

00:01:27.924 --> 00:01:28.626
Nice to be here.

00:01:29.149 --> 00:01:30.292
Pleasure to have you on.

00:01:30.332 --> 00:01:32.319
So you are a British player.

00:01:32.338 --> 00:01:33.783
You were born in London, I understand.

00:01:34.043 --> 00:01:37.153
Grew up in Watford and now living, I think, in Bristol, is it?

00:01:37.409 --> 00:01:42.674
I actually live in Froome now, yeah, but I play in Bristol a lot, just an hour away from Bristol, yeah.

00:01:42.954 --> 00:01:52.242
And so you have got a fine reputation as a blues player, being described as the ambassador of British blues, so you've certainly had a great career now.

00:01:52.302 --> 00:01:53.343
How long have you been playing?

00:01:53.644 --> 00:01:56.826
I've been playing since I was 16, so that's a long time.

00:01:57.126 --> 00:01:59.168
That's like 50 years, nearly.

00:01:59.629 --> 00:02:11.082
I started playing the guitar about a year or two earlier than the harmonica, then just sort of carried on playing them both with equal enthusiasm and further for knowledge really from about that age on 16 yeah

00:02:11.623 --> 00:02:20.520
listen to your albums there's certainly plenty of blues on there but there's some you know you probably it's not entirely blues is it would you describe yourself as just a blues man or other genres too

00:02:21.506 --> 00:02:25.329
No, I mean, really, in my heart of hearts, I'm a songwriter, really.

00:02:25.348 --> 00:02:30.693
So, you know, I grew up in the era of British blues rock, you know, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin.

00:02:31.153 --> 00:02:40.222
And at the same time, I was listening quite early on to blues, electric blues, acoustic blues, but also folk music, just on the harmonica, for example.

00:02:40.442 --> 00:02:46.348
Once I discovered Sonny Terry, I traced him back to the Woody Guthrie recordings as well.

00:02:46.728 --> 00:02:49.850
You know, Bob Dylan was a big influence on my songwriting.

00:02:49.871 --> 00:03:27.129
It was still a rave of about him as a lyricist and really my instrumental skills although I'm as much of a nerd as anyone about you know I love great harmonica players and I love great guitarists but from my own point of view it was always about bringing those instruments to my songwriting rather than kind of the other way around you know songwriting wasn't a vehicle to get my instrumental rocks off it was the other way around I've always been interested in just using instrumental skills I've got to best arrange my songs that was true from right the earliest age, you know, when I was 16, the first thing I did on two chords was write a song.

00:03:27.570 --> 00:03:31.033
So I see myself more as a songwriter than instrumentalist, really.

00:03:31.354 --> 00:03:39.462
Now that comes across, you write some great lyrics, and there's one you've written called Kind Lady Moon, which I believe was written for your six-year-old son at the time.

00:03:40.403 --> 00:03:41.164
Yes, right.

00:03:41.465 --> 00:04:01.284
I was reading to him from a collection of Wessex folk tales, and it was one of his favourite stories, the Kind Lady Moon story, you know, about how in the Dark Ages there were no moon that shone over England and the moons came down to visit one night and well cut a long story short got involved in a fight with the devil and won

00:04:03.567 --> 00:04:06.810
that was the very night a kind lady moon decided to come down and take a look

00:04:06.930 --> 00:04:19.161
around disguised in a cloak to hide her lies yeah

00:04:19.261 --> 00:04:23.345
the lyrics come from a whole wide variety of sources, really.

00:04:23.384 --> 00:04:30.375
And a song I picked out from your first album, we'll get onto some of your albums later, but this is where we're talking about your songwriting.

00:04:30.735 --> 00:04:34.701
So the song Like Water, it's got real epic proportions, that song.

00:04:34.740 --> 00:04:36.843
It's kind of eight minute long.

00:04:40.668 --> 00:04:59.353
Like the rapids Yes,

00:05:00.096 --> 00:05:02.144
water keeps cropping up as a metaphor.

00:05:02.593 --> 00:05:05.355
for different things and uh you're on about the on the first album

00:05:05.576 --> 00:05:06.216
yeah first yeah

00:05:06.476 --> 00:05:38.065
yeah that that album i had a sort of producer angle on that one really in that in fact i was just i just mentioned rolling stones you know i grew up in the year when the rolling stones were most popular and i loved them and it was that album the um sticky fingers album which has been probably one of the most uh influential albums on my music and uh when i did the first album i had actually in my an album which is a kind of a dedication to the production of that album of Sticky Fingers

00:05:38.726 --> 00:06:25.456
so clearly this is a harmonica podcast so we'd like to see how you use the harmonica in the songs that you write and the music you produce so you're an all-rounder definitely you talked about obviously you play guitar you pick that up first and then the harmonica about a year later you also sing obviously writing your own lyrics and singing those you also do a one-man band show where you do use percussion and various percussion as well so so yeah you sometimes play solo as a kind of one-man band and then you also play in a band and yet you've been in a few bands yes so you have you're probably well known for playing harmonica on a rack you know and playing harmonica at the same time although you do play solo harmonica as well but so when you started getting into harmonica were you just playing harmonica you know by itself or when did you start playing rack harmonica

00:06:25.697 --> 00:07:25.279
yeah I started playing rack harmonica pretty early on as I said I was writing songs from the earliest and so the harmonica harmonica it's not impossible but it's not a brilliant instrument to write songs on and so I was using it alongside the guitar you know straight away and so I learned to play on the rack pretty well straight off you know that's not to say that I haven't also played a lot off the rack you know and enjoyed the whole world that using your hands can open up to you know the harmonica sounds that of course you can't do on the rack you know you can do everything else on the rack but you can't use your hands so that was pretty well from the earliest really and so I'll listen to the other rack players I mean there's not I hope it doesn't sound too arrogant there's not a lot that a lot of the early rack players can interest you really if you're interested in the harmonica instrument and getting the most out of the instrument so the 60s blues boom rack harmonica players tended to play quite simply you know a lot of first position a lot of blow bend stuff

00:07:25.540 --> 00:07:29.904
in the sort of Jimmy Reed mould yeah a lot of people copied that didn't they and it didn't get much beyond that

00:07:30.065 --> 00:08:03.670
oh right yeah the Jimmy Reed thing as well yeah that's interesting as well because that's mainly first position and second position but beautiful stylist Jimmy Reid but technically not that difficult either once you've got your blow bends down you can do it music I love that lovely Jimmy Reed, and I'd love to get into grips with that to start off with as well.

00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:12.459
Even the simple blow-bent stuff of the American folk harmonica, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie when he plays the harmonica.

00:08:24.612 --> 00:08:25.833
It's nice, it's interesting, and...

00:08:26.658 --> 00:08:40.490
you tend to get blues players who just want to play blues but you can learn a lot and get different sounds and different colours out of the instrument by interrogating that American folk tradition on the harmonica and you know I quite enjoy that because it's easier to do on the rack as well

00:08:41.071 --> 00:09:20.269
So yeah explore your rack playing in some detail today I mean like you say quite a lot of the rack playing is pretty simple but I think your rack playing is really excellent and you know you do push it you know and you're probably one of the leading rack players I've heard certainly in this country in the UK but so yeah interested on that so you talk there about how you know the some of the rack players you'd looked at jimmy reed's an obvious example duster bennett was a uk player and dr ross and yeah and these guys so when you were learning rack earlier on you know were you learning the harmonica as a rack player or did you learn it more you know like playing with sonny terry and little walter etc when you when you started out how did you approach it initially

00:09:20.590 --> 00:09:29.158
yeah both i mean i was doing both sonny terry wasn't being a massive influence but because the the hands are so integral to his style.

00:09:29.198 --> 00:09:31.581
I wouldn't try and get Sonny Terry down on the rack.

00:09:31.802 --> 00:09:33.442
I'd just play that with the hands.

00:09:34.043 --> 00:09:44.975
I think pretty early on, really, I kind of felt that the kind of rack playing that had already been done wasn't really what I wanted to do, you know, and I just wanted to push it in a different way, really.

00:09:45.336 --> 00:09:47.859
So really, for example, I love Dr.

00:09:48.038 --> 00:09:49.240
Bennett, I love Dr.

00:09:49.419 --> 00:10:51.466
Ross and Jesse Fuller and Joe Louis, you know, lots of the rack players of the past, but I wanted to do a little bit more and for example even tongue block skills weren't used by hardly any of those players you know and so the whole range of tongue blocking techniques that you can do on the harmonica I wasn't hearing them on the rack and I love those techniques you know if we get into detail the chord flutters and the slap sound and just the bigger tone of just playing single notes I wanted to do that on the harmonica as well so when I was playing in my electric three piece you know I wanted to use those techniques and get some of those sounds happening even though i was playing on the rack yeah and then after doing that for for a while i realized there was other things that you could do on the rack that i don't think anyone else had done and i had it in mind at some at some point to do as an album that focused on just the rack but um the songwriter in me has always carried on taking precedence really and i've always ended up writing albums about the songs rather than about the instrumental skills

00:10:52.047 --> 00:11:10.506
when you were practicing i mean earlier on maybe when you were first learning but then since then in the whole your whole career have you practiced you know the two together and you know and how have you approached practicing the two together because you know you're doing two things at once right it's like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach right so it's difficult to do those two things how have you approached that

00:11:10.586 --> 00:11:22.019
well I just started off with the simpler stuff you know doing a simple backing and then just developed technically on both and just carried on with the two really so

00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:30.711
as part of that question did you get your guitar chops up to speed before you started getting more sophisticated on the harmonica and vice versa?

00:11:31.192 --> 00:11:33.677
Or were you able to develop it at the same time?

00:11:33.937 --> 00:11:35.019
Both at the same time, really.

00:11:35.038 --> 00:11:40.769
I've just carried on playing, writing songs, performing, all the way through using both instruments.

00:11:41.390 --> 00:11:47.061
So they've both got technically more advanced, just kind of organically, really, over the years.

00:11:47.081 --> 00:12:07.035
ORCHESTRA PLAYS And that's involved both copying the greats, you know, on both instruments.

00:12:08.193 --> 00:12:31.094
I play both acoustic styles and electric styles that's meant both of those do you know so for example finger picking on the guitar and pre-amplified styles on the harmonica playing them both and just developing them as and then trying to find new areas as well for example like simultaneous soloing I've done that quite a bit really I suppose and I'm still finding new things to do now with the rack and the guitar together

00:12:31.293 --> 00:12:39.741
yeah so picking up on that point like you say there's various approaches you can make so were you playing the unison or the notes on guitar on on harmonica, that's something that you do.

00:12:39.822 --> 00:12:42.625
There's a song called Yo-Yo Blues where you do that.

00:12:53.738 --> 00:12:55.419
So that's really effective, obviously.

00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:59.965
But then you're doing the same thing, which when I'm trying it, that's doable because you're doing the same things.

00:13:00.264 --> 00:13:03.028
It's doing the two different things that I find really difficult to do.

00:13:03.087 --> 00:13:07.653
So any tips about how you're able to get your head around that?

00:13:08.162 --> 00:13:10.923
Yeah, I mean, I think some people find it harder than others.

00:13:11.225 --> 00:13:14.086
It's that, you know, can you pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time?

00:13:14.366 --> 00:13:23.375
Some people have more difficulty doing two things at once with their brain, and I do seem to be quite lucky in that respect, you know, that I've developed it quite a lot.

00:13:23.634 --> 00:13:25.996
Yeah, I mean, obviously you've practiced it a lot as well, haven't you?

00:13:26.077 --> 00:13:27.239
I mean, that's a crucial thing, right?

00:13:27.259 --> 00:13:28.360
You've been doing it for years, right?

00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:34.245
So you've really got it down, that you're comfortable, that you can play the really good, solid rhythms on the guitar while she's soloing on the harmonica, yeah.

00:13:34.504 --> 00:14:20.734
One of the things that I do mention when I do courses on this is that it's really important that you get a good rack as well quite early on in the game because you can't play accurately on a rack harmonica with half the racks that are available you've got to find the right rack for you it's got to be a stable framework you know that doesn't lead you leaning forwards or doesn't move when you're playing and that sounds kind of obvious but it's surprising how few racks can actually give you that you know it's changed a bit there's better racks available now than there used to be but I used to modify racks when I that was when I did early on, I suppose this may have helped me early on as well, is that I did modifications to the racks that I bought off the shelf to make them more reliable as a framework to play more technical stuff on the harmonica.

00:14:20.974 --> 00:14:24.817
So I understand your rack of choice is the Holner Flex rack now.

00:14:24.898 --> 00:14:26.119
Is that still the one you like?

00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:28.361
It's changed quite a bit.

00:14:28.402 --> 00:15:37.475
This is kind of a difficult subject really because the odd thing is that as I've got older and more experience as a player, without me thinking about it now, I don't press down on the rack as hard as I used to my mouth tends to hold the harmonica and I don't have to press down so much on the actual metal frame of the rack so I can now play on sort of cheaper and not very good racks as long as they're the right heights I can play on a cheaper one that hasn't got for example all of the all of the belt and braces fastenings of the flexi rack than I used to now that the flexi rack is out I do recommend that for people who are starting off on the rack because it's got the strongest framework it doesn't move you know and it's also the most adjustable of the racks because the physiognomy thing is making the angles of the harmonica and the height of the harmonica on the frame match your body you know your own physiognomy is one of the key things really in starting off with the right sort of gear you know to develop your skill as a rack player that's what the Flexi rack sort of ticks all the boxes in really

00:15:37.655 --> 00:15:42.980
yes So another question about the rack, which often you see is that it gets in the way when you're trying to sing.

00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:52.631
I saw a video of you playing, it was a good few years ago now, where you kind of had your rack on an angle, so you had a space for your mouth to sort of go around it, so it wasn't getting in the way.

00:15:52.672 --> 00:15:55.315
So how do you deal with singing while you've got the rack there?

00:15:55.774 --> 00:16:13.153
Yeah, the rack is kind of, I suppose it's like an inch in front of my chin, so that I can lift my head up to a microphone and sing, and then the harmonica is actually near enough to the microphone if I'm using the same mic as the vocal mic for the harmonica also, that it picks up the harmonica as well.

00:16:13.214 --> 00:16:19.801
So yeah, it doesn't get in the way, but it's close enough to the zone to be picked up by the vocal mic too.

00:16:20.061 --> 00:16:23.404
So you've got to try different heights of racks.

00:16:23.985 --> 00:16:24.905
Some of them are too low.

00:16:25.287 --> 00:16:26.467
Some of them are too high.

00:16:26.488 --> 00:16:28.009
So you've got to find the right one for you.

00:16:28.049 --> 00:16:29.730
It depends on the dimensions of your neck.

00:16:30.192 --> 00:16:30.591
Oh, brilliant.

00:16:30.631 --> 00:16:30.812
Yeah.

00:16:30.913 --> 00:16:36.057
So, I mean, again, you're probably best known for playing harmonica on the rack, but you do play off-rack harmonica.

00:16:36.177 --> 00:16:40.241
There's a great song called Stilce Facing that fox was a sort of Sonny Terry thing.

00:16:56.258 --> 00:17:00.181
So that's a great example of you playing by holding the harmonica in your hands.

00:17:00.481 --> 00:17:06.547
What proportion, would you say, if you've ever measured it, do you play on the rack versus playing a kind of solo piece on harmonica?

00:17:07.027 --> 00:17:10.671
It depends whether you're talking about in recordings or live.

00:17:11.151 --> 00:17:21.339
So I've got about three or four solo harmonica or harmonica and vocal tunes that I do in the solo show where I don't play guitar at all.

00:17:21.980 --> 00:17:26.223
And when I'm playing in the band, there's only one number that I actually take up.

00:17:26.223 --> 00:17:58.417
the harmonica out of the rack and I do a kind of a show off thing really where I play the guitar electric guitar just with my left hand and I can do a solo with the guitar in just my left hand and holding the harmonica with my right hand it's just a show thing you know I like quite an important part of the blues performance tradition that you've got a showman gimmick you know what can you do that nobody else does so I love that you know going right back through history you know right through Charlie Patton it was one of the first ones to play the guitar around the back of his head you know

00:17:58.739 --> 00:18:14.736
definitely I talked about that in the last episode when we were talking about a lot of the greats in Los Angeles and they all had these kind of tricks which you know frustratingly that's often what people talk to you about afterwards and they forget about your wonderful playing but just remember you're kind of oh that was an amazing trick you did there yeah so yeah but yeah definitely need to do it yeah

00:18:14.855 --> 00:18:25.847
yeah especially if you're competing with lots of different acts you have to have your USP you know from a marketing point of view that was where the history of it comes from but I can't quite like that tradition really

00:18:26.067 --> 00:18:27.549
no definitely entertaining yeah

00:18:27.869 --> 00:18:57.141
yeah entertainment and so when i'm playing the guitar with with just one hand and playing the harmonica with the other it's from creatively too because you you'll play things with that sort of solo that you wouldn't you wouldn't have played with playing on the rap for example so they might start as a as a gimmick but they they can all end up in a valid sort of creative avenue you know once you embark on that route you'll find things that you want to say sort of musically that you that that limitation sort of leads you down you know developing.

00:18:57.441 --> 00:19:02.826
Yeah and singing as well it's clearly you sing as part of your act and you sing your own songs.

00:19:03.086 --> 00:19:08.133
You were singing possibly first where you started singing at school and is that the first thing you started doing musically?

00:19:08.373 --> 00:19:15.381
Yeah I guess so yeah I was in the choir and used to get picked to do solo bits in some of the school productions.

00:19:15.760 --> 00:19:19.684
My voice is kind of pleasant but it's not an amazing voice you know I wouldn't say that.

00:19:19.986 --> 00:19:32.239
It's interesting when you look at good singers and harmonica players because one of the universal questions and never-ending questions of harmonica students to professional harmonica players is, how do you get the tone?

00:19:32.278 --> 00:19:33.299
How do you get the tone?

00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:41.729
And one of the things that I've realised over the years is that quite often if you've got a good tone as a singer, you'll have a good tone as a harmonica player.

00:19:41.989 --> 00:19:51.940
People like William Clarke, you know, got a great, lovely, bassy, plummy singing tone, and surprise, surprise, that's just what happens with his harmonica tone as well.

00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:55.983
So I think it helps if you're a singer as well, if you're a harmonica player.

00:19:55.983 --> 00:20:01.172
If you think about the tone that you're making with your voice, it relates to what you do with a harmonica.

00:20:01.332 --> 00:20:11.367
And if you're blessed with a voice that has a beautiful tone, then the chances are that's going to give you a head start in terms of getting a good tone on the harmonica.

00:20:11.387 --> 00:20:19.941
¶¶

00:20:26.849 --> 00:20:30.548
And so you turned a professional I've got here at age 18.

00:20:30.730 --> 00:20:31.513
So is that right?

00:20:31.534 --> 00:20:32.076
Have you always...

00:20:32.481 --> 00:20:34.624
earned your living as a professional musician?

00:20:35.344 --> 00:20:37.987
No, I was semi-pro from the age of 18.

00:20:38.527 --> 00:20:49.856
Well, I had periods when I was just playing, just doing gigs, but I had day jobs through till about 1997 when I left all the day jobs behind.

00:20:49.896 --> 00:20:57.983
And that was when I started to get nominated for a few awards and the albums and the reviews were coming in and they were doing quite well.

00:20:58.023 --> 00:21:02.969
And so I made the leap of faith to become a professional musician and back then.

00:21:03.449 --> 00:21:06.672
So I carried on as a semi-pro all the way through until then, really.

00:21:06.893 --> 00:21:10.135
So the first album I've got you down for is Solo in Soho.

00:21:10.355 --> 00:21:11.517
Was that your first album?

00:21:11.817 --> 00:21:12.638
Yeah.

00:21:13.179 --> 00:21:14.881
I did an album only on cassette.

00:21:15.161 --> 00:21:20.967
You know, you get called I'm the band, but somebody once brought one to me at a gig, but I haven't got any anymore.

00:21:20.987 --> 00:21:25.171
That was kind of before the first CD, but my first CD was Solo in Soho, yeah.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
...

00:21:41.826 --> 00:21:51.074
So as we've touched on, you've had this combination of doing solo shows where you're playing, you know, as a kind of one-man band and also with a band and then a couple of other bands.

00:21:51.114 --> 00:21:52.694
So this first one was solo.

00:21:52.714 --> 00:21:58.961
So when you started out, you know, what was your intention, at least initially, to be a one-man band?

00:21:59.461 --> 00:22:00.662
Yeah, I've always wanted to do all the...

00:22:01.262 --> 00:22:02.604
I've always wanted to do everything at once.

00:22:02.943 --> 00:22:04.405
I've always had a band.

00:22:04.826 --> 00:23:21.948
In fact, one of the reasons why I played the rack a lot to start with was because I was looking forward to getting a band of finding musicians in Bristol when I first moved to Bristol in 1979 I wanted to get a band together but I couldn't find any musicians and I couldn't find any good harmonica players so I was writing songs and working out arrangements to songs with a trio in the back of my mind but because I couldn't find any musicians I was writing the parts on the rack harp and guitar and my girlfriend was a drummer so that was quite handy so I would even keep a basic rhythm going with my feet from that early stage you know writing songs thinking about the band and it was only really from doing that that I realised after a little while this doesn't sound too bad on its own you know I quite enjoyed then doing solo shows but I always had in mind doing both solo shows and playing in a band and once I started playing in a smaller band you know a trio or a four piece it wasn't long before I realised I really wanted to do work with a bigger band as well and so you know I've to do that over the years as well and it's got the stage now where I've got three different outfits my solo show my trio blues rock and then kind of more traditional bigger band

00:23:22.307 --> 00:23:52.846
So you did I think your next album Blue to the Bone in 97 that was with a band so that you quickly moved from the solo to there and then you sort of moved between the two right and a few albums as you went forward Yeah You also had your own record label, Blue Blood Records, yeah?

00:23:52.905 --> 00:23:56.828
So when did that start, and when did you start releasing the albums on that?

00:23:57.509 --> 00:24:02.834
Yeah, Blue Blood, I wish I hadn't called it that now, because what I meant was Blues in the Blood.

00:24:02.874 --> 00:24:05.175
That was kind of a shortened version of Blues in the Blood.

00:24:05.817 --> 00:24:08.519
But it kind of stuck as Blue Blood Records.

00:24:09.180 --> 00:24:16.226
It was basically because I realised that it wasn't that difficult in those days to find...

00:24:18.607 --> 00:24:52.364
it wasn't that difficult to get a record label going and luckily for me I got enough interest from a distribution company who had worldwide distribution proper records they were called and so it didn't phase me the idea of producing my own music because I really wanted to have that creative control anyway and as long as I could get the money together for a recording I had already a distribution outlet interested in what I did so I Ended up with a record label, a proper record label, you know, which was doing the business.

00:24:52.904 --> 00:24:55.748
Did you release most of your albums on your own record label?

00:24:56.167 --> 00:25:00.251
Yeah, they've always been released only on my own label, actually.

00:25:00.673 --> 00:25:03.915
And to start with, that was all I did, just produce it.

00:25:03.935 --> 00:25:05.617
So it was kind of a self-release label.

00:25:05.798 --> 00:25:18.511
But I did actually take on, because I had the worldwide distribution, I took on a couple of other artists as well on the label, distributed their stuff, before realising that I wanted to devote all my time to the stuff that I was writing really.

00:25:18.511 --> 00:25:19.214
So

00:25:19.474 --> 00:25:28.868
this involves producing your own albums and obviously were you, the recording and everything, were you going to the same recording studio presumably and then you released it on the album, how did all that work?

00:25:29.377 --> 00:25:40.488
I had to make the choice about what recording studio I was going to use, what musicians I was going to use, what recording techniques, find a good engineer that I liked to work with.

00:25:40.887 --> 00:25:42.628
You learn as you go through as well.

00:25:42.670 --> 00:26:27.294
I was lucky enough that on the first band album I did, Blue to the Bone, I had the great Pete Brown of Cream fame and Dick Hacksaw-Smith and one of their mates, Mudge, who was a great keyboard player they all co-produced it with me and that was great because they know their stuff you know they're sort of veterans of the British blues scene with loads of great albums and great creative experience in the studio for decades to help me but after that with one exception I produced them myself and chose the engineers and studios with the best production values in mind that I could afford and that's carried on through really

00:26:27.594 --> 00:26:50.337
So a really interesting thing you did as well I think around in 2000 you released an album called Live in the USA and you also had a residence in the US so you were there for two years playing the Chitlin Circuit from a base in Texas and you had a one man band residence in Beale Street in Memphis so I assume this album came from this time so tell us about those couple of years you spent in the US doing that

00:26:50.858 --> 00:27:02.031
yeah within two years I did lots of different things it's amazing thinking back on it really because the Live in the USA album was my British band that I first went over there with.

00:27:02.192 --> 00:27:07.921
We were lucky enough to have quite a long tour around a lot of the east of America.

00:27:08.281 --> 00:27:16.473
We didn't go west, but we went as far north as New York, New Jersey, and as far south as New Orleans and all around Texas.

00:27:16.954 --> 00:27:21.902
So the Live in the USA was basically collecting live recordings on that tour.

00:27:24.346 --> 00:27:24.445
MUSIC

00:27:36.130 --> 00:27:44.277
While I was on that tour, I met through the promoter in Texas other musicians on the Texas blues scene.

00:27:44.557 --> 00:27:44.938
Great.

00:27:45.498 --> 00:27:47.038
It was just a fantastic time.

00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:53.785
But as well as meeting other great players and guitarists and harmonica players, I met some great rhythm sections.

00:27:53.944 --> 00:27:58.209
And so I met one rhythm section that I then formed a band with.

00:27:58.650 --> 00:28:02.833
So I called them the Texas Blues Kings because that actually means something in Texas.

00:28:03.253 --> 00:28:06.096
There is an award called the Texas Tornado Award.

00:28:06.096 --> 00:28:15.605
which has given a voted-in award for the top blues artists, going right, right back, like a mini sort of statewide handies award, if you like.

00:28:15.905 --> 00:28:21.291
And these two guys that I started playing with were both recipients of the Texas Tornado Award.

00:28:21.553 --> 00:28:22.472
So we formed a band.

00:28:22.814 --> 00:28:31.663
And as well as me playing in the States with them, I also brought them back to Europe to tour with me for a few years after that when I came back to the UK.

00:28:31.943 --> 00:28:53.866
But also, as you're saying, at the same time, I also carried on playing solo shows in America even after I'd moved back to the UK yeah I mean I had residences in Clarksdale in the great Bluesbury cafe we're still going in Clarksdale now but also I had a residency on Beale Street in the Black Diamond which was amazing experiences yeah

00:28:54.186 --> 00:28:58.771
so how did they react to a Brits playing their their music their blues music over there

00:28:59.252 --> 00:29:13.112
the experience was a lovely it was a very warm reaction to what I was doing you know the American blues scene was so much more more sophisticated, full of so many more sophisticated players than the British blues scene had to offer at the time, really.

00:29:13.412 --> 00:29:30.942
You know, I was over there as a humble student of the music, so it was great to go down well and get good audiences and to get some repeat bookings and to play in these iconic locations for the history of the blues, you know, Clarksdale and Memphis, Beale Street, yeah.

00:29:32.481 --> 00:29:33.863
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00:29:34.304 --> 00:29:35.484
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00:30:02.448 --> 00:30:31.518
have a question or need advice just drop jonathan a line on sales at theharmonicacompany.com and he'll be happy to help the discount code and email address are also listed on the podcast page and you released a couple of albums called blues took me by the hand volume one and volume two which are kind of compilations of your previous 25 years output so they're good albums to check out so

00:30:34.529 --> 00:30:37.054
Thank you.

00:30:38.210 --> 00:30:46.537
So another really interesting project you had after obviously being in the US in 2000 there was going to Italy and spending some time in Tuscany.

00:30:46.576 --> 00:30:52.782
You had a band called Big Red Radio, an Anglo-Italian project where you mentioned working with bigger bands.

00:30:52.803 --> 00:30:54.144
So this is one of your bigger bands.

00:30:54.183 --> 00:31:00.568
You had a sort of gospel choir with you and you played over there in Italy and I guess around Europe and things, did you?

00:31:00.750 --> 00:31:04.373
Well, yeah, that was a fantastic project in loads of ways.

00:31:04.772 --> 00:31:08.115
It was kind of shorter lived than we wanted it to be in that...

00:31:08.175 --> 00:31:13.404
One of the problems with the logistics of big bands is taking them on the road is really expensive.

00:31:13.505 --> 00:31:17.432
And the blues circuit isn't the best paying circuit, you know, if you compare genres.

00:31:17.771 --> 00:31:21.419
So we didn't really end up touring it as much as we'd have liked.

00:31:21.499 --> 00:31:23.221
You know, we were all really happy with the album.

00:31:23.261 --> 00:31:26.467
In fact, I think it's one of the best things I've done, really.

00:31:41.698 --> 00:32:15.329
yeah i mean but it started with the production idea really i just had an idea a sound in my head that i hadn't heard anybody do in the blues influence songwriter world and i had an idea of um using traditional blues instruments like the you know the harmonica and the national steel guitar but also bringing in the dynamics of rock music getting charismatic arrangements that take it from the big sound of a rock band in full volume and full pelt right down to the intimacy of a solo acoustic sound.

00:32:15.871 --> 00:32:19.957
Part of the idea of the sound also was having a really good gospel choir as well.

00:32:29.794 --> 00:32:32.278
I

00:32:32.337 --> 00:32:36.183
tried a few things in the UK, but I couldn't quite get it how I wanted it to be.

00:32:36.223 --> 00:32:48.263
And luckily, a fan who became a really good friend, an Italian guy who was in Bristol and he used to come down and see me play a lot, and a guy called Bruno Bacci, who actually is now a superb luthier.

00:32:48.584 --> 00:32:50.666
He makes guitars, Bacci guitars in Italy.

00:32:51.008 --> 00:32:54.594
But he really wanted to help me realise the idea.

00:32:54.913 --> 00:33:03.826
get that sound happening Eddie said if you're having difficulty getting this together in England Eddie let me take you to Italy and we can do this and that's exactly what he did

00:33:04.097 --> 00:33:06.599
Yeah, so you've released albums all through the years.

00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:07.681
I've touched on just a few.

00:33:07.701 --> 00:33:09.241
I think you've released 17 in total.

00:33:09.403 --> 00:33:14.086
Your last couple of albums, one called Thirst in 2019, we mentioned earlier on.

00:33:14.527 --> 00:33:16.269
That's a really good album.

00:33:16.288 --> 00:33:16.888
I enjoyed that one.

00:33:16.949 --> 00:33:24.055
Interesting, the song One Man Band you do on there is you playing harmonic on a rack and guitar and singing, but with a band.

00:33:24.134 --> 00:33:26.457
So why wasn't that a solo song?

00:33:28.058 --> 00:33:47.903
It started off as a solo song, actually, and I have got a recording of it as a solo song, but I've been a way of releasing it yet yeah after i'd written it i thought they're quite catchy these riffs and they would work with it what i thought was kind of a zz top sort of texas boogie backing as well so that was that was how that came to pass really

00:33:48.044 --> 00:33:50.968
everybody loves a one man band

00:34:04.226 --> 00:34:10.331
And then I think your latest album was 2021, was released, I guess, during the pandemic.

00:34:10.351 --> 00:34:11.952
It's called The Birdcage Sessions.

00:34:11.992 --> 00:34:16.155
So was this kind of you recording all solo at home when you were locked away at home during the pandemic?

00:34:16.637 --> 00:34:17.637
Exactly, yeah.

00:34:18.038 --> 00:34:24.143
So for years I've been buying bits of recording equipment, learned how to use recording software.

00:34:24.503 --> 00:34:31.188
And so, yeah, it was the first album that I've actually engineered of my own music, The Birdcage Sessions.

00:34:31.208 --> 00:34:40.137
I call it The Birdcage Sessions because I was kind of releasing a little bird of of a song every every couple of weeks from the cage of the lockdown

00:34:40.438 --> 00:34:45.003
this album won the european blues album of 2021 from uh from mojo magazine

00:34:45.244 --> 00:35:05.485
yeah i was really really really chuffed about that because tony russell i've known tony russell for a long time and he's such a quality blues journalist and i've respected his his work for years you know he co-authored the penguin book of blues recordings and it means a lot to me really what he has has ever had to say about any of the albums that I did.

00:35:05.706 --> 00:35:08.628
And so he's Mojo's blues journalist.

00:35:09.048 --> 00:35:22.684
For him to put the album in the best releases of 2021, when I looked at the list, I realised that it was the best UK, also the best European blues release of 2021 in his list.

00:35:22.764 --> 00:35:26.208
So that was very, very humbling and lovely to receive that.

00:35:26.447 --> 00:35:31.974
And there's a beautiful song on there called Happy Broken Free, which I guess is one what you wrote, right?

00:35:32.054 --> 00:35:32.454
Yeah,

00:35:32.835 --> 00:35:34.096
yeah, I wrote all the songs on there.

00:35:34.096 --> 00:35:54.295
I'm happy yeah

00:35:54.315 --> 00:36:08.228
happy broken free that sort of summed up the the first few months of the lockdown for me is that you know like other musicians we lost our money so i was broke uh no gigs but it was a beautiful weather we had in the first few months of lockdown didn't we and uh

00:36:08.409 --> 00:36:08.588
yeah

00:36:08.688 --> 00:36:20.480
we're lucky enough to have a nice garden here so i was out in the garden it couldn't go anywhere because the lockdown but the the garden was lovely and i was happy broken free for the first few months of the lockdown so that's hence the song.

00:36:20.940 --> 00:36:29.670
So what about the decision about which songs to use harmonica on because not all your songs have harmonica on you know so it's just whatever fits the song is it?

00:36:29.989 --> 00:36:40.360
Absolutely and your ideas can change as you're recording things you know so for example on Birdcage Sessions I had harmonica on lots more tracks than I actually used in the end.

00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:49.972
You toy around and tease around with arrangements and put tracks down especially on that album where I had the luxury of being able to do it all at home.

00:36:49.992 --> 00:37:00.168
I could put down a lot of different tracks of instruments that I played myself and some of them I thought no the harmonica is not really doing anything on that track so I took it off and you know vice versa.

00:37:11.445 --> 00:37:11.485
So

00:37:11.905 --> 00:37:20.172
So when you're recording an album, do you always play the harmonica on a rack or do you play it separately because, you know, you're in the studio, right?

00:37:20.211 --> 00:37:21.356
You don't have to play it on the rack.

00:37:22.242 --> 00:37:24.885
So it all depends on the production idea.

00:37:25.186 --> 00:37:31.414
So sometimes I'm going for a really live feel, a live sound, and so I'll use the rack.

00:37:31.914 --> 00:37:35.679
It can be a bit of a pain recording the rack harmonica live.

00:37:36.099 --> 00:37:44.291
You know, if you're doing a vocal track and you've got bleed into the harmonica mic, it limits your options when it comes to mixing it.

00:37:44.632 --> 00:37:48.016
But other times you just want to have that raw, live sound.

00:37:48.476 --> 00:37:52.222
For example, I think You Thrill Me, I think...

00:38:04.994 --> 00:38:17.925
I did that one live on a rack harmonica, even though it was an amplified harmonica, and that's quite difficult to do in a studio, really, to get a good vocal sound that isn't too coloured by the proximity of the rack harmonica mic, you know.

00:38:18.244 --> 00:38:20.286
It sounded like you're singing like a robot.

00:38:20.568 --> 00:38:22.588
You can get a lot of bleed into the sounds.

00:38:22.929 --> 00:38:24.391
But it worked quite well on that track.

00:38:24.751 --> 00:38:30.976
But other tracks, for example, I might have had a particular idea of a harmonica sound where I knew that I'd need to just play that out of the rack.

00:38:31.356 --> 00:38:54.728
So, for example, my big band album, Looking forward looking back I really wanted to try to do the old chess trick that Little Walter did of recording breaking up the microphones around the studio and using a big cavernous warehouse at the bottom of some concrete steps, which is one of the tricks that Chess used to do.

00:38:54.748 --> 00:39:05.719
They'd record an amplifier with a close mic, and then they'd also have a mic at the same time recording the echoey sound at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

00:39:06.221 --> 00:39:07.442
So this is a production idea.

00:39:07.481 --> 00:39:10.085
And I was quite pleased with the results.

00:39:10.365 --> 00:39:12.867
I went for a little ultrasound in a Chess studio.

00:39:12.887 --> 00:39:14.230
A track called Supermodel.

00:39:14.429 --> 00:39:14.891
Yeah.

00:39:37.217 --> 00:39:41.550
So as well as all your own albums, you've also played with lots of great names.

00:39:41.590 --> 00:39:42.411
I've got a list here.

00:39:42.592 --> 00:39:49.210
You've collaborated with at least John Mayall, Peter Green, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Honey Boy Edwards as well.

00:39:49.271 --> 00:39:51.356
So have you played, performed with these guys?

00:39:51.557 --> 00:39:52.760
What's your connection with them?

00:39:53.313 --> 00:39:55.376
Lots of different stories there.

00:39:55.755 --> 00:40:00.340
So, yeah, I played with Honey Boy Edwards and supported him.

00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:04.543
It was a great experience, fantastic experience, both in Bristol and in Italy.

00:40:05.184 --> 00:40:17.715
I used to work quite a bit with Dick Hexel-Smith, a great saxophone player, you know, central to the whole British blues explosion, the original one, in that he played with John Mayle and Coliseum and DHS.

00:40:17.815 --> 00:40:23.280
And so working with him led me to work with Pete Brown from Crane.

00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:31.873
and uh oh did yeah i've played with um with john male as well separately you know with paul jones as well fantastic paul jones

00:40:31.974 --> 00:40:32.514
peter green

00:40:32.815 --> 00:41:01.344
yeah peter green was on this on the album i didn't actually play with peter green but um he and i played on the same album that pete brown produced which was blues and beyond and that was dick hexwell smith's kind of solo album So yeah, lots of fantastic players over the years.

00:41:01.864 --> 00:41:09.452
Yeah, and so you've also toured many countries, got you down as having played in 35 countries, so you've been all around and playing.

00:41:10.713 --> 00:41:17.038
And you mentioned earlier on that you do lots of teaching, lots of workshops, so this is something that you definitely like to do, right?

00:41:17.057 --> 00:41:23.583
So you've appeared at the World Harmonica Festival in Germany, where you've been a judge for the blues competition.

00:41:23.923 --> 00:41:31.311
This year, I understand in October, end of October, you're appearing at the Harmonica Masters workshop in trottingen the hona festival there is that that right

00:41:31.612 --> 00:41:37.878
that's right yeah so i'm doing a course actually on rack harmonica this year over in germany yeah looking forward to that

00:41:38.358 --> 00:41:53.655
yeah so there we go anyone wants to get full details from you think they can go along to the harmonica masters workshop you're also uh appearing at euro blues which is a uk workshop um that runs for a week in the end of july i think you're doing a separate harmonica class and a separate guitar class there

00:41:54.076 --> 00:42:07.907
yeah i'm not sure i over the years i taught harmonica and also slide but I think this year I'm just doing harmonica actually that one that's usually the first week in August in north of Gloucester yeah

00:42:08.268 --> 00:42:45.242
yeah yeah so that's Euro Blue so you got these coming up and you appeared at the great Harping by the Sea event in February near Brighton this year there's some great YouTube videos which Russ puts on yeah and so yeah people can check you out playing live yeah there's some good ones on there you playing music I've been at the NHL Festival in the UK as well.

00:42:45.262 --> 00:42:46.804
I think I saw you there in 2006.

00:42:46.824 --> 00:42:49.648
I've got a clip of you playing the Queen of Spades.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:42:58.914 --> 00:43:07.233
But yeah, lots of festivals and the workshops, so yeah.

00:43:07.635 --> 00:43:10.059
So you like to do this teaching and workshops.

00:43:10.079 --> 00:43:12.306
That's something you really like to share the knowledge.

00:43:12.673 --> 00:43:13.235
Absolutely.

00:43:13.255 --> 00:43:21.947
I love sharing it and I love being able to pass on the knowledge, meet young, new players, not necessarily young players, old players as well.

00:43:22.128 --> 00:43:32.822
People who have got a passion for the instrument or people who are open to me trying to get them inspired and passionate about the instrument and helping them along with their discoveries.

00:43:32.902 --> 00:43:34.164
And I love it.

00:43:34.224 --> 00:43:34.786
Yeah, I love doing it.

00:43:35.106 --> 00:43:35.746
love teaching

00:43:36.106 --> 00:43:38.068
Do you do private teaching as well as workshops?

00:43:38.628 --> 00:43:49.778
I've got a few students I don't like to take on too many really I don't want to end up just being having my time dominated by teaching but I just like to do a little bit of it just to help people along

00:43:50.119 --> 00:44:14.621
Cool and you mentioned awards so you won in 2018 the Best Solo Acoustic Artist in the European Blues Awards and you've been nominated for Best Blues Harmonica Player and Best Blues Guitarist in the British Blues Awards and I think numerous times since 1999 yeah so you got some awards under your belt all helps with the profile especially early on does it sounded like when you were starting out getting those awards you know helped kickstart your career

00:44:14.661 --> 00:44:33.581
yeah yeah that's right that really did help to start with when you can start putting a few reviews quotes from reviews it makes some of the promoters pay you a bit more attention that happened quite early on and getting nominated for some of the awards sort of helped kickstart the decision to go pro yeah

00:44:34.043 --> 00:44:42.431
so a question I ask each time it is if you had 10 minutes to practice what would you spend those 10 minutes doing so maybe have this as a focus on the on the rack playing

00:44:42.811 --> 00:45:32.766
so improving the rack playing one of the things I like to practice at the moment is I've been playing guitar and harmonica solos like single note solos on the guitar and doing the same notes on the harmonica for quite some time you know so one of the things I might practice is playing both together just doing scales for example and the scales I'll do would be the scale will be the mixlodium mode those are the main ones really I use but I'm practicing harmonizing as well so if I'm doing a single note on the guitar I'll play the harmonica a third note above it I haven't actually recorded this at all yet or even done much of it live but that's one of my new practice goals is to be able to harmonize with myself doing simultaneous soloing do you know what I mean

00:45:33.425 --> 00:45:44.018
yeah so it's an exclusive you're heard it here first, so are you using a different keyed harmonica there than what you'd normally use, so you can harmonise a kind of third up?

00:45:44.378 --> 00:46:06.742
No, I'm just using the usual harmonica, so usually second position harp is the starting point, but of course you can play the major scale at the top end of the harmonica easier than the bottom end, so mainly using the third interval, so if the guitar's playing the one, the harmonica's playing the three, the third note in the scale.

00:46:07.322 --> 00:46:10.646
And they're just developing a harmonising technique.

00:46:10.666 --> 00:46:12.068
It's just an interesting sound.

00:46:12.648 --> 00:46:18.974
I haven't heard anybody do it before, so I'm just interested in what it will sound like, and so that's kind of a bit of a rehearsal goal.

00:46:19.456 --> 00:46:21.797
Sounds good, look forward to that on your next album.

00:46:21.838 --> 00:46:24.240
So, have you got plans to release another album?

00:46:24.300 --> 00:46:27.664
I think it was your, the Birdcage session was your last album, was it?

00:46:27.824 --> 00:46:28.085
Yeah.

00:46:28.485 --> 00:47:11.411
It's funny because at the end, although I released the Birdcage session at the beginning of lockdown, I'd come of lost my mojo a bit with the end of lockdown I think a lot of musicians did the longer it went on the more difficult it got to carry on playing and I didn't write for 18 months I'm usually pretty prolific I'm usually writing most of the time and I actually took up painting towards the end of Covid and I spent a lot of time painting during the day rather than playing any instruments so it was kind of a mental block developed about playing my instruments for a while but I'm overcoming that now and I am writing more songs again now so I'm hoping that by the end of the year I might have a repertoire of songs to take into the studio.

00:47:11.851 --> 00:47:32.733
Yeah and of course there's a challenge that you know I'm sure you don't sell CDs like you used to right because nobody buys CDs very much these days they're sold streaming so there's that side to the challenge as well right you don't really make your money back so much but do you still see it's important to you know having an album out helps you get other work and gigs and things is it still even at your stage of your good career?

00:47:33.233 --> 00:47:35.396
I'm not really worried so much about about that really.

00:47:35.896 --> 00:47:38.820
You're very well established right so you don't necessarily need it so much do you?

00:47:39.201 --> 00:47:39.902
I don't actually push

00:47:39.942 --> 00:47:44.425
for lots of gigs anyway really at the moment but I probably will from next year.

00:47:44.465 --> 00:47:46.268
You know personal circumstances change.

00:47:46.307 --> 00:47:49.452
I've had a lot of family illness that's kept me at home as well lately.

00:47:49.891 --> 00:47:53.456
I've got a really poorly brother I look after a couple of days a week.

00:47:53.596 --> 00:48:21.981
He's in a wheelchair and so these sort of sometimes your own personal circumstances conspire to stop you getting out on the road as much as you were and as you get older you get a bit more discerning about where you wanted to devote your effort you know I'm not going to sleep on floors and tour in the back of transit vans anymore no definitely not but yeah so I will be doing more stuff next year yeah

00:48:34.114 --> 00:48:37.137
And so let's get on just finishing off talking about gear then.

00:48:37.237 --> 00:48:40.882
So we've already talked about harmonica rack, so we covered that one.

00:48:40.902 --> 00:48:43.385
So what about your harmonica of choice?

00:48:43.425 --> 00:48:45.289
Which types of harmonicas do you like to play?

00:48:45.750 --> 00:48:51.737
So I'm a honer man and I get on well with a whole different range of honer harmonicas.

00:48:52.257 --> 00:48:55.101
So I'll play a marine band straight out of the box.

00:48:55.822 --> 00:48:57.105
I love marine band deluxes.

00:48:57.184 --> 00:48:58.286
I love the crossover.

00:48:58.346 --> 00:49:04.094
Those are the main ones I play really, you know, crossover, rocket, marine band and marine band deluxe.

00:49:04.193 --> 00:49:05.996
And do you play any chromatic at all?

00:49:06.617 --> 00:49:13.126
Yeah, I've got chromonic as I've got in lots of different keys, but three, three, but of course you don't use the button on the rack.

00:49:13.186 --> 00:49:17.273
That's one of the restrictions, you know, you're playing a guitar, you can't push a button in as well.

00:49:17.733 --> 00:49:19.436
I play that on its own a bit.

00:49:19.476 --> 00:49:20.597
I love, I love the chromatic.

00:49:20.697 --> 00:49:25.525
I have used the chromatic in played in the rack, you know, just third position style.

00:49:28.750 --> 00:49:28.829
Yeah.

00:49:46.306 --> 00:49:48.686
What about different positions?

00:49:48.746 --> 00:50:00.018
You know, obviously you talked about first position being a pretty uh standard use on the rack from jimmy reed style and you talked about second position are you the you know do you use those two mainly any other positions

00:50:00.677 --> 00:50:09.525
yeah first and second are my most used and a little bit of third position but yeah that's that's my main thing is it's the first and second position really

00:50:10.025 --> 00:50:21.737
what about you know with your songwriting if you say writing a minor song do you think about a earlier mode fourth position you know do you think of it in that terms when you're thinking about the harmonica as well and what might fit you know to fit at the songwriting

00:50:22.237 --> 00:50:38.534
yeah I mean I do think about the scales and the keys but the minor blues I don't use very I haven't written many many minor blues but I'd use third position for that if I did and you know when I'm jamming in a minor blues for example I'd use third position more yeah that's the main thing really

00:50:38.855 --> 00:50:42.898
and what about any overblows do you use any of those it's funny I've

00:50:42.938 --> 00:50:54.271
just got back into overblowing again I haven't really I don't think I've used anything on anything I've recorded but I do like the overblow on on six, you know, to get that minor third above six.

00:50:54.632 --> 00:50:55.753
That's the main thing, really.

00:50:56.032 --> 00:51:01.559
I'd have to reset up my harps if I wanted to do more overblows using some of the other overblow notes.

00:51:01.980 --> 00:51:07.144
But yeah, I'm a fan of overblow on six increasingly in my later years of playing.

00:51:07.505 --> 00:51:09.427
Do you do your own setup of harps?

00:51:09.927 --> 00:51:13.351
I'm probably a bit lazy, much lazier than I used to.

00:51:13.452 --> 00:51:20.318
So if there's a bad buzz or, you know, a tuning issue, then I'll do it, especially if I'm on the road.

00:51:20.679 --> 00:51:45.385
And that's I've got my little repair kit to do those sorts of repairs but I've never set up a harmonica just for overblows for example because overblows hasn't really been part of my technical toolkit that much really so I think if I wanted to use more overblows I would look at how to you know modify my harps to do that myself yeah I'd have to read up a bit on it so much expertise out there you can tap into there

00:51:45.786 --> 00:51:58.351
yeah it's all time though isn't it I'm the same I'm always I love doing the harp maintenance but it just takes time What about your embouchure?

00:52:05.250 --> 00:52:08.114
I like the range that both give you.

00:52:08.735 --> 00:52:15.304
So I just intersperse the two, really, just for the different vocabulary that it brings to your playing.

00:52:15.706 --> 00:52:20.353
And so amplifier-wise, I think clearly you play kind of acoustic and electric, right?

00:52:20.373 --> 00:52:26.021
So are you using a tube amp when you're playing electrified, you know, when you're playing harmonic on the rack?

00:52:31.130 --> 00:52:31.230
MUSIC

00:52:41.762 --> 00:52:54.045
yeah I mean I must admit I've become less interested in amplified rack harmonica playing over the years Just because it's just such a hassle having to set up two rigs all the time.

00:52:54.065 --> 00:52:54.646
I'm getting old.

00:52:54.706 --> 00:52:58.271
I don't want to bring two bloody great amps to every show, you know.

00:52:58.952 --> 00:53:10.731
So I tend really to play acoustic harmonica just in the vocal mic if I'm doing a band show as well as playing acoustically when I'm doing a solo show.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:53:22.498 --> 00:53:27.688
But I love amplified harmonica and I'm always experimenting with sounds.

00:53:28.188 --> 00:53:33.518
You know, every now and then I get a chance of just being a harmonica player in someone else's band, which I love to do.

00:53:33.539 --> 00:53:39.329
But also from a recording point of view, I do a lot of amplified, just solo harmonica recording.

00:53:55.617 --> 00:53:57.440
Any particular amps you like to use then?

00:53:57.780 --> 00:53:58.960
Well, I've got a range of them.

00:53:59.001 --> 00:54:05.146
I've got the Fender Bassman, and I've got a little mod on it to make it sound even crunchier.

00:54:05.626 --> 00:54:11.713
I've got a Fender Twin, which has got a Tweed modification on it so that it sounds very old.

00:54:12.153 --> 00:54:15.396
I've got a lovely little Fender Vibra Champ, which sounds lovely.

00:54:15.737 --> 00:54:18.960
And I've got a whole range of vintage microphones that I love to use.

00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:21.222
I just bought a new one a couple of weeks ago.

00:54:21.262 --> 00:54:23.744
So I'm still into all the nerdy stuff of...

00:54:25.378 --> 00:54:26.778
you know, of how to get a good sound.

00:54:26.838 --> 00:54:28.940
And, you know, I try new stuff that comes along.

00:54:29.340 --> 00:54:35.487
Up till now, I'm still a fan of the old school approach to amplified harmonicas, the gear that you use.

00:54:36.226 --> 00:54:38.028
I love the sound of the old mics, really.

00:54:38.048 --> 00:54:42.713
Are you a fan of the Crystal or the CMs?

00:54:42.972 --> 00:54:45.655
Well, yeah, both, really, and ceramic.

00:54:45.715 --> 00:54:50.579
You know, they've all got their purposes and they've all got their sounds that sound great for me.

00:54:50.719 --> 00:54:52.081
You know, I love the sound of them all.

00:54:52.541 --> 00:55:17.648
Lately, I've just got a, you think of it as a Shure 5 21 which is an early it's neither a crystal nor a cm uh or a cr or a ceramic but it's a different element in these early sure vocal mics that sounds great for harmonica and so i'm pleased to have just got one of those microphones to just to play around with at home and maybe show a few students what it can do as well

00:55:17.907 --> 00:55:21.771
yeah nice to hear you like your gear what about any effects when you're playing a harmonica

00:55:21.992 --> 00:55:35.914
no not really no no just and maybe a little bit of slap echo but not a big fan of the effects approach to harmonica playing, although lots of players do it to great effect, and I wouldn't be too purist about it.

00:55:36.476 --> 00:55:41.005
Anything that makes good music is fine, and if you use pedals, then that's great too.

00:55:41.324 --> 00:55:44.030
When you're singing, as you say, using the vocal mic, is that...

00:55:44.161 --> 00:55:46.284
Are you using a particular mic there for harmonica?

00:55:46.304 --> 00:55:48.144
Is it just the vocal mic and an SM58?

00:55:48.206 --> 00:55:48.405
Yeah,

00:55:49.005 --> 00:55:51.487
just the SM58, just straight through the vocal mic here.

00:55:51.929 --> 00:55:55.371
Although having said that, now I've got this new old school chore.

00:55:55.592 --> 00:55:58.233
I might try that as well a bit more, just as a new experiment.

00:55:58.835 --> 00:56:05.981
Of course, I love, although I suppose it's a pedal in a way that I like, I'm a big fan of Son of Dave.

00:56:06.141 --> 00:56:40.653
Son of Dave, like me, he's a songwriter first and foremost, but he uses the harmonica to great effect, using loops and lots of different percussion techniques Your queen Call me the king and, you know, I might even practice a little bit every now and then using some effects on the harmonica just from a songwriting point of view as a soloist, you know.

00:56:41.034 --> 00:56:42.416
Yeah, I've interviewed him on the podcast.

00:56:42.436 --> 00:56:48.143

Eddie Martin interview

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