Richard Hunter with Lowlands
This performance of Big Walter Horton’s chromatic harp instrumental “Have Mercy” was recorded live at Alpine Wines, Driggs, ID on the night of 31 August, 2013. I use two patches on the Digitech RP355 for this piece: a double-octave-down patch to lay down the bass line on the looper, then a Blackface Deluxe patch with slapback delay for the rhythm and solo lines. This latter patch is included in the Huntersounds v16 RP355 patch set under the name of “BDBlue.”

The harmonica mic is an Audix Fireball with V element, and the harmonica is a Hohner CX12 in the key of C. The piece is played in D minor. The RP355 goes into a Digitech JamMan Stereo looper, and from there to a Peavey KB2 keyboard amplifier. The performance was recorded on a Zoom H4 positioned a few inches from the grill of the KB2.

This piece was written to take advantage of the strengths of the chromatic harp, and does it ever. I’ve been playing this piece since the late 1970s, and I find that on any given night it can bring out anything from jazz to hard blues. This night was on the bluesier side, and I like the groove. I hope you do too.

Have Mercy performed by Richard Hunter, 31 August 2013