MY Baby Plays the Harmonica

Kim Wilson

Send us Fan Mail The leader of Austin's Fabulous Thunderbirds and the great inheritor of the great Little Walter

William Clarke

Send us Fan Mail The great chromatic and cross harp player, bandleader, and singer, mentored by George Smith, who died (maybe broke) in 1996.

Rod Piazza

Send us Fan Mail The great living player, protege of George Smith and perhaps the greatest master of double cross harp.

Jerry Portnoy

Send us Fan Mail The precision, the tone, and the underlying swing! Out of Chicago, also sitting that Muddy Waters harp chair.

Magic Dick

Send us Fan Mail Richard Salwitz of the J. Geils Band, the inventor of rock n roll harmonica. My all-time harpgod.

Charlie Musselwhite

Send us Fan Mail The great living master and creative force of the blues harmonica, Paul Butterfield's non-evil twin.

Paul Butterfield

Send us Fan Mail 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

Send us Fan Mail The great player and mentor of masters (Rod Piazza, William Clarke, James Harman) George 'Harmonica' Smith, never quite adequately recorded. A

Carey Bell

Send us Fan Mail The greatest of blues improvisers, as he showed on the London Muddy Waters Sessions.

James Cotton

Send us Fan Mail The furiously rocking god of blues harmonica!

Junior Wells

Send us Fan Mail The incredibly right player and maybe the greatest blues singer I ever experienced. 

Racked: Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo

Send us Fan Mail 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 bett

Big Walter Horton

Send us Fan Mail 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

Send us Fan Mail 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.

Sonny Terry

Send us Fan Mail Episode 4: The great Piedmont/country/acoustic/folk blues master Sonny Terry. 

Early Masters: Deford Bailey and Sonny Boy 1 (John Lee) Williamson

Send us Fan Mail The very different but related country/blues styles of Opry star Deford Bailey (1899-1982), an incomparable virtuoso, and incomparable influence John Le

Why the Harmonica is a Great Blues Instrument

Send us Fan Mail bonus episode on why the diatonic harp is ideal for blues. country and other folk or roots genres, and a bit about how i learned to play circa 1971.

Little Walter

Send us Fan Mail By acclamation, the greatest blues player ever to blow a harmonica. Here are likely future episodes: Sonny Boy Williamson 1 and 2 James Cotton Junior