Video of the Day 7 January 2012: Maria Joao Mendes with Wim Dijkgraaf
Wim Dijkgraaf is the Dutch-born jazz chromatic harmonica virtuoso behind the Effortless Harmonica Blog. He’s also a key member of Portuguese jazz singer Mario Joao Mendes’s topnotch Brazilian jazz band. This video is a promo for Mendes’s new CD; Wim’s harmonica kicks in at about…
Video of the Day 31 Dec 2011: Climb Jacob’s Ladder, “Do the Funky White Boy”
This isn’t the first time I’ve featured a video from Climb Jacob’s Ladder, Paul Messinger’s killer band from North Carolina. This tune has a humorous lyric, but there’s nothing whimsical about the harp. Messinger uses at least three different sounds on this piece: he starts…
Gear Review: Tech 21 Blonde v2 Fender Amp Modeling Pedal
The Tech 21 Blonde (v2 in this case) is a stompbox amp modeling pedal designed to emulate a range of Fender amps, a role that it fills very well. It’s one of a series of “Character” pedals from Tech 21, whose experience building analog amp…
A few thoughts on the failure of Harrison Harmonicas
Our post on Harrison Harmonicas going out of business provoked more comments from visitors than any other post we’ve written. One recent post said in effect that HH was a great idea that was killed by greedy market forces–an interesting idea, but one we take…
Video of the Day 8 December 2011: Climb Jacob’s Ladder
Climb Jacob’s Ladder is a North Carolina band that does a hot mix of rock, reggae, and world music. Harp player Paul Messinger is up front and center, and he sounds killer with this crew on both acoustic and electric harp. You can hear his…
Videos of the Day 3 December 2011: Huey Lewis and the News
I loved Huey Lewis and the News for their hard-rockin’ precision and their joy. Huey’s a great front man and solid harp player, and Johnny Cola knocks me out with this band each and every time he puts the sax to his lips–his ideas and…
Video of the Day 25 Novermber 2011: PT Gazell and Shine
This is a recent performance by PT Gazell with Shine in Barcelona. PT starts by playing the melody in his easygoing style, then ramps up the heat as he goes along. PT’s smoothly swinging approach to jazz on the diatonic harp is unlike anyone else’s,…
Why I Hate “X-Factor”
I’ve written before about how and why I love “Glee” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” I’ve also talked about why I keep watching “American Idol.” I haven’t mentioned “The Voice” and “Project Runway” in this blog, but by now you probably get the…
Arggh! 3 Pedals is 2 Much!
I love the sound of my three-RP setup, but it’s time to admit the ugly truth: all that hardware is damned hard to manage in performance. It looks like a lot of work to set it up and make it go, and it is. And…
Huntersounds RP250/255/350/355 patch set update released
I’ve just shipped the latest updates to the Huntersounds patch sets for Digitech RP 250/255/350/355 to current subscribers. This set contains patches designed for vocalists as well as a couple of new amped blues harp patches. The RP is a surprisingly capable vocal processor, and…
