It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
I record myself practicing as a matter of habit, and the piece linked below is the first thing I play on stage and in practice: Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.” This arrangement is mine, and is…
RP Tip #10: Make the PA louder before you up the output on the RP
Ideally, you want at least two things from any gear: you want it to sound great, and you want it as loud as you need it, when you need it. The same applies to the Digitech RP or any other effects device, and it’s pretty…
New Digitech RP patches coming soon, and they’re loud and tough
While I was in Idaho I spent some time working with my Digitech RP355, creating a series of patches in the Dark Blue series that began with the Dark Blue Champ. The new series includes a wider range of amp models, all programmed using the…
The Dusty 45s Rock, and the Drummer Plays Harp
I went to a free concert in Jackson Wyoming tonight. The headliner was Wanda Jackson, a nice lady in her mid-70s who used to be a singer, and who had some interesting stories to tell about the days in the mid-1950s when she toured with…
Harrison Harmonicas is Out of Business
Several members of the Harp-L internet mailing list have written to the list to say that they’ve received messages from Harrison Harmonicas, makers of the much-heralded and unquestionably innovative B-Radical harmonica, to the effect that the company has been sold. Many of the people who…
Richard Hunter with One Ton Pig: “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down”
I played last night (August 2 2011) with One Ton Pig, my bluegrass friends (actually, they refer to what they do as “Chicken-Fried-Prison-Music,” but bluegrass is easier to place in context for most people) at the Silver Dollar in Jackson, Wyoming. I recorded the first…
Video of the Day 3 August 2011: Hendrik Meurkens, “Mundell’s Mood”
Straight-ahead jazz by one of my favorite jazz chromatic players, NYC-based Hendrik Meurkins. Beautifully clear tone in the Toots Thielemans style, great lines that go faster and faster until they get all the way to Wow!, and a wonderfully bouyant feeling throughout make this piece…
The Zoom G2NU patch set is almost ready!
I announced a few months ago that I was working on a patch set for the Zoom G2NU, and the first release is almost ready to go. This device has some features that should be very interesting to harmonica players. I’m thinking of it as…
Dark Blue Champ in action
I’ve recently released an amped-amp blues harp patch for the Digitech RP250/255/350/355 called Dark Blue Champ (DKBLCH). My brother Mark, who plays slide guitar, came to visit, and while he was here we did some sloppy recordings of us jamming. A clip from that jamming…
RP Tip #9: It’s a really good audio interface, especially for harp
UPDATE: At this point we don’t just think an RP is a “pretty good audio interface”; it’s the one we use for harmonica whenever we have the chance. See this post for a discussion of how we recorded a session for the big-budget BBC series…
