Giles Robson and Jim Basnight join me on episode 136 for a retrospective on Alex ‘Rice’ Miller (aka Sonny Boy Williamson II). Information on Sonny Boy’s early life is sketchy. Sonny Boy was likely born in 1912 and had a hard upbringing working on a plantation before becoming a travelling musician. Arriving in Helena, Arkansas, he found fame performing on the King Biscuit Time radio show before making his first recordings with Trumpet Records at age 38 in 1951. Sonny Boy made his classic...

John Sebastian joins me on episode 135. John had considerable chart success in the 1960s as part of the folk rock band, The Loving Spoonful, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the year 2000. John was also inducted into the songwriters Hall Of Fame. Probably better known as a singer songwriter and guitar player, harmonica was John’s first instrument, inspired by his father, also called John Sebastian, who was a renowned classical harmonica player. And we discuss som...

Ronnie Schreiber joins me on episode 134. Ronnie runs The Electric Harmonica Company, producing the Harmonicaster, which is an alternative to the traditional harmonica microphone, using guitar style pick-ups to create “the first practical true electric harmonica”. Ronnie first came up with the concept some thirty years ago and has been developing it in earnest over the last ten years. Ronnie tells us the story of how he developed the idea, from the need to use steel reeds, the custom ha...

Kim Field joins me on episode 133. Kim’s 1994 book ‘Harmonicas, Harps and Heavy Breathers: The History of the People’s Instrument’ was the first book released on the history of the harmonica. And Kim has recently written the book: The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold, telling the story of Billy Boy in his own words. Ever on the lookout to meet and learn from the great players, Kim shares the time he spent with Deford Bailey and also when he played on stage with Walter Horton. Kim has bee...

Tom Ellis joins me on episode 132 for another look into the life and career of the legendary Paul Butterfield. Butter gained access to the Chicago blues scene at a young age when his lawyer father carried out pro bono work for some of the musicians there. The black blues musicians took a paternal interest in Paul’s musical development, none more so than Muddy Waters who knew Butter from around the age of sixteen. Butter later returned the favour after having made his own name. He gave s...

Rick Estrin and Nathan James join me on episode 131 for a retrospective on James Harman. James ‘Icepick’ Harman was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1946. After moving between various locations, including Florida, New York, New Orleans and Chicago, he settled down in Southern California in the early 1970s where he established himself in the vibrant blues scene there. Harman was a formidable song writer and had his own unique view on life which he delivered through his powerful singing voice. His ...

Mikael Backman joins me on episode 130. Mikael is from Sweden where he started playing blues harmonica, recording six albums with the band Ramblin’ Minds. He then joined the band John Henry. Initially a bluegrass band, they went on to play country, honky tonk and western swing. Mikael is truly a doctor of the harmonica, having conducted various academic studies with the harmonica at center stage, as part of his work at the Piteå School of Music. One of these resulted in a music thesis o...

Corky Siegel joins me on episode 129. Corky played was central in the emergence of the popularity of the blues to a white audience. His Siegel-Schwall band gained a residency at Chicago’s Pepper Lounge, sharing the stage with blues giants such as Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Walter. The band were also part of San Francisco’s 1967 Summer of Love, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. Corky has a unique place in harmonica history with his blues / classical...

Ross Garren, Rob Paparozzi and Liam Ward join me on episode 128, to discuss the harmonica playing of Bob Dylan.The early part of Dylan’s career is chronicled in the current biopic, A Complete Unknown.Ross and Rob were the ‘harmonica coaches’ for the movie. Ross recorded most of the harmonica used in the movie and the soundtrack, with Rob contributing one song and also providing support on the East Coast. Ross shares the painstaking process of recording for such a major music movie, how he stu...

Sigmund Groven joins me on episode 127. Sigmund is a chromatic player who is a household name in his native Norway. He was inspired to take up the harmonica after hearing Tommy Reilly on the radio. After taking some lessons with Tommy they formed a lifelong friendship, with Sigmund even becoming his manager.Sigmund has released over thirty albums in his own name through his illustrious career and has played in venues and orchestras around the world, including Carnegie Hall, th...

Winslow Yerxa joins me on episode 126.Winslow is originally from Canada, now living in San Francisco. He started out playing blues harmonica before becoming interested in the traditional music of French Canada and British origins, among others. Winslow plays in harmonica ensembles and produces his own compositions using a wide variety of harmonicas, including the diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, the Pentaharp, XB40 and the recent Gamechanger harmonica.Winslow created the Harmonica Information Pu...

Paul Lamb, Joe Filisko and Adam Sikora join me on episode 125, for a retrospective on one of the legends of the diatonic harmonica, Sonny Terry, whose real name was Saunders Terrell.Sonny was born in 1911 (or 1912), in Greensboro, Georgia (or it could have been North Carolina). Growing up on a farm in a rural community, Sonny was left blind by two accidents in his youth. Unable to work on the farm he turned to music, with his harmonica playing father giving him his early lessons.Sonny first r...

Shima Kobayashi joins me on episode 124.Shima is a classical chromatic player originally from Japan, who has been living in the UK since 2004.After winning the World Harmonica Championship in 1995 she was awarded a bursary by the Japanese government to study with the great Tommy Reilly over a twelve month period. Shima has two albums to her name. The first has a number of pieces composed for chromatic harmonica. Her second album, Chromatic!, contains some pieces written for Shima b...

Jerry Portnoy, Steve Guyger and Louis Erlanger join me on episode 123, for a retrospective on Paul Oscher.Paul was born in Brooklyn in 1947 and has a place in history as the first white player in a major black blues band, with Muddy Waters. Joining Muddy’s band gave Paul the best grounding in Chicago blues, he lived in Muddy’s house where he also learnt from the great Otis Spann. After leaving Muddy’s band Paul moved to New York and became a pivotal figure in the blues scene there. Paul put o...

Ross Garren joins me again on episode 122. Ross lives near Los Angeles, where he has established himself as a leading session musician for harmonica recordings on movies, including Marvel’s Logan and the new Joker film, as well on albums with numerous pop artists, including recently on Beyonce’s album, Cowboy Carter. Initially a piano player, Ross came to love the harmonica from the age of twelve and plays a wide range of harmonicas, from diatonic to chromatic, bass, chord and...

Jim Zeller joins me on episode 121.Jim is from Montreal, Canada, and first starting playing harmonica at age twelve after stealing one from a school friend. He ran away from home at age fifteen and learnt harmonica as he hitch-hiked around North America.Jim has a very distinctive energetic style of playing on both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica. He developed this style by emulating guitar riffs and the percussive elements of Indian music.He has played with and supported some famous blue...

Grant Dermody, Ross Garren and Pete Dammann join me on episode 120 for a retrospective on Paul DeLay.Paul is a harmonica player who may go under the radar for some but his unique approach to both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica, as well as his powerful vocals and his insightful and humorous songwriting have placed him firmly in the hearts of harmonica and music fans in the know.Paul was from Portland, Oregon in the north west United States where his first outfit was the Brown Sugar Blues...

Yeore Kim joins me on episode 119.Yeore is from South Korea, where she first picked up the tremolo harmonica at the age of six. Her mother is a piano teacher, so she also learnt piano and other instruments, including trumpet, before focusing on the chromatic harmonica from age 18.Yeore has released two albums of duets with different pianists.She moved to France in 2018 after meeting her guitarist husband, Antoine Boyer, with whom she has released an album, Tangram. This contains a great mix o...

David Barrett joins me on episode 118.David is based in San Jose, California, where he took lessons from Gary Smith from age 16, in addition to learning from great harmonica recordings. He started teaching harmonica himself from age 18 and has become one of the foremost harmonica educators around, with his BluesHarmonica.com website an invaluable resource. He ran the School of Blues for twenty years and has written over seventy instructional books, DVDs and CDs.David has four albums to...

Yvonnick Prene joins me on episode 117.Yvonnick was born in France and has been resident in New York for seventeen years after first moving to the city to study at the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music.He started out playing blues and jazz on the diatonic and took lessons with some of the great French players, before focusing his attention playing jazz on the chromatic.Yvonnick is a bandleader and has released seven albums under his own name as well as numerous sessions as a sidema...