MY Baby Plays the Harmonica
A history of blues and country harmonica (harp) in 20-or-so profiles of the great players.
Episodes
18 episodes
Kim Wilson
The leader of Austin's Fabulous Thunderbirds and the great inheritor of the great Little Walter
William Clarke
The great chromatic and cross harp player, bandleader, and singer, mentored by George Smith, who died (maybe broke) in 1996.
Rod Piazza
The great living player, protege of George Smith and perhaps the greatest master of double cross harp.
Jerry Portnoy
The precision, the tone, and the underlying swing! Out of Chicago, also sitting that Muddy Waters harp chair.
Magic Dick
Richard Salwitz of the J. Geils Band, the inventor of rock n roll harmonica. My all-time harpgod.
Charlie Musselwhite
The great living master and creative force of the blues harmonica, Paul Butterfield's non-evil twin.
Paul Butterfield
We have reached our rendezvous with blues harp racial destiny! The two documentaries mentioned are "Horn from the Heart" and "Born in Chicago"
George 'Harmonica' Smith and Big Mama Thornton
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 scu...
Carey Bell
The greatest of blues improvisers, as he showed on the London Muddy Waters Sessions.
Junior Wells
The incredibly right player and maybe the greatest blues singer I ever experienced.
Racked: Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo
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.
Big Walter Horton
The great Big Walter Horton, also known as "Shaky" and "Mumbles". Perhaps Little and Big Walter are the two greatest "classic" blues harp players
Sonny Boy Williamson II
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 J...
Sonny Terry
Episode 4: The great Piedmont/country/acoustic/folk blues master Sonny Terry.
Early Masters: Deford Bailey and Sonny Boy 1 (John Lee) Williamson
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 ...
