Video of the day 14 May 2012: Steve “West” Weston
Steve Weston is London-based, and as this video shows, he knows his Chicago blues. The nine-plus minutes in this video include a lengthy Little Walter-styled uptempo boogie, plus parts of two other pieces. It appears at first glance that Weston is accompanied by guitar and...
Video of the Day 2 May 2012: Son of Dave
Mike Fugazzi wrote recently on Harp-L that people should listen to Son of Dave, and provided the link to the video featured today. It's a very interesting clip. Pay close attention to his mic technique in particular. He's using a Shure 545SD or SM57 in...
Video of the Day 17 April 2012: Barcelona Bluegrass Band
This video contains almost a full hour of music by a terrific band with harmonica right up front and center. Joan Pau Cumellas is the harmonica player. His playing on the diatonic moves easily from traditional styles to full-on chromatic lines. Like, wow.
Video of the Day 11 April 2012: Marcos Coll with Los Mighty Calacas
Marcos Coll is a Spanish harp player with great chops and ideas. He's been running his harp through a Digitech RP200A equipped with our patch set for years, and we LOVE his sound with this rig. Check out some other videos of Marcos with this...
Help Scott Albert Johnson make his second record!
Scott Albert Johnson is a fine singer, songwriter, and harmonica player from Jackson, Mississippi. His harmonica work is unique and original, often dazzling, and always evolving to new places. His first CD, “Umbrella Man,” got plenty of rave reviews, including one from me–in fact, I…
Video of the Day 28 March 2012: Toots Thielemans, “Imagine”
Toots Thielemans plays the John Lennon composition "Imagine" at a 2002 festival in Azerbijan. If the way Toots plays the first notes of the melody doesn't break your heart, nothing ever will.
“Video” of the Day 17 March 2012: Noah Lewis, “Chickasaw Special”
Noah Lewis was born in the 1890s, and we're lucky that recording technology arrived soon enough after to capture his harmonica playing for eternity. I don't know when this piece was recorded, but from the sound of it I'd guess the late 1920s-early 1930s. There...
Video of the Day 7 March 2012: Boris Plotnikov + Looper
Boris Plotnikov is based in Ekaterinburg, Russia, and he's a potent musician; we've featured him previously in our blog. This clip, rough edges and all, shows that Boris is doing some pretty cool things with his looper and various FX devices (one of which, we're...
Video of the day 29 February 2012: Lonesome Dave Ferguson
Dave Ferguson is originally from South Africa, and now lives in Europe. He's inspired by Son of Dave (no relation), and this live performance shows his unique approach to solo performance with harmonica, a bag full of FX, and a looper. Click here for an...
Video of the Day 16 February 2012: George “Harmonica” Smith
This video highlights George "Harmonica" Smith's stellar chromatic harmonica work on a slow blues with the Big Mama Thornton band, for which Smith played harmonica at the time. And wow, is it ever stellar. Great tone, subtle rhythms, no-fooling-around lines that spell "blues" in letters...
