One more time: what’s the best choice for your first (harp) amp?
Every year around Christmas we re-publish our piece on choosing your first harp amp (and the rest of your amped setup). It’s that time again, folks. Click here to get the straight story on how to set yourself up to play harp, loud. One wickedly…
#28 Ever? We’ll Take It
I found out today that I’m listed as #28 on “The Top 100 Harmonica Players To Ever Walk The Planet” at harmonica.com. Seriously. See for yourself. I’m glad to be in the company of the kind of people that populate this list, and it made…
Why is Harmonica Not a Foundational Instrument? Because You Can’t Sing While You Play It
There are a few instruments–or roles, perhaps–that you hear in just about every band that’s playing anything related to roots or any popular style. Something is making a bass line. Something is percussively pounding out a rhythm. Something is playing chords or adding color above…
“Widow’s Walk” Live October 29 2014
This performance was delivered live to an audience of Chief Information Officers, most of them Brazilian, at Gartner’s Brazil Symposium on October 29, 2014. I played into a Shure 58 mic, which was amplified via a small PA system (I don’t think the woofers were…
“Comin Home Baby” Live with Wim Dijkgraaf, 29 October 2014
I’ve known Dutch-born harmonica virtuoso and composer Wim Dijkgraaf since the late 1990s. Wim now lives in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and I joined up with him there at Gartner’s Symposium ITXPO conference to perform this duet on Ben Tucker’s “Comin Home Baby” in front of…
Why We Make Big Cool Sounds for Harp Players: History is On Our Side
There was a recent discussion on Harp-L of FX, which I found revealing of all sorts of things. It’s chronicled here, and be warned: gotta lotta words. (The boldface emphases I put on certain lines in that discussion were added by me, and were not…
In the Studio: Keepers of the Streak
I did a session earlier this week with Brian Keane, a composer/producer I’ve worked with on a number of occasions, for a TV movie titled “Keepers of the Streak”, which is about four photographers in their 70s/80s who’ve photographed every Superbowl from the start. (The…
RIP Jack Bruce
Harp Keys and Tunings for My Recorded Solo Repertoire
I’ve had a few requests recently for the harmonica keys and tunings that I used to record the pieces on my CDs “The Act of Being Free in One Act” and “The Second Act of Free Being.” So here, for your pondering pleasure, is a…
The Gartner Symposium/ITXpo CIO Harmonica Orchestra, October 2014
Some of my readers know that I have a career as an analyst at Gartner, Inc., the world’s largest IT advisory services company. We just held our flagship conference, Symposium/IT Expo, in Orlando, FL, where I delivered the keynote presentation to an audience of about…
