Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast

Sugar Blue has certainly pushed the boundaries of the harmonica, with his rapid fire licks, lots of high end runs and gorgeous tone. It was perhaps his early jazz influences that shaped his distinctive sound, although there is no doubt that he has paid homage to the harmonica greats, spending time with some of the classic players.  As well as numerous solo albums, Sugar has recorded with many illu...

Grant Dermody first picked up the harp in Alaska, where he emulated the greats before developing his own acoustic sound playing American roots music.  He played as a session man on various albums before releasing the first of his four solo albums to date, which included harmonica duets with Phll Wiggins and Joe Filisko. In-between Grant toured for six years with Eric Bibb, and for his latest album...

Chromatic player, Antonio Serrano, is the current SPAH harmonica player of the year. And with good reason. Antonio’s father was a great influence on the fledgling harmonica player. And Antonio met Larry Adler at a young age, and performed with him for the first time, at only 13 years of old. Since that time Antonio has made a big splash on the Spanish music scene, not least when he played with fla...

Mark Feltham grew up with a love of country music and just knew he had to play harp when he heard Stone Fox Chase on the UK music programme, Old Grey Whistle test. As he entered the London music scene he found he had to adapt his style to create a fusion of melodic and blues playing, which has served him very well throughout his career.  Best known from his work with Punk Blues band, Nine Below Ze...

Mickey Raphael started out playing on the Dallas folk scene before meeting with Willie Nelson at a jam session. Forty six years later, Mickey has toured the world with Willie. Alongside that, Mickey has enjoyed great recording success as a session musician, playing with Emmylou Harris, the Highwayman Country Supergroup, U2, Wynton Marsalis, Ringo Starr, and more recently with Chris Stapleton. The...

Jerry Portnoy joins me on episode 20 of the podcast. Jerry grew up with the sounds of Maxwell street in his ears. It took him a few years to pick up the harp, but when he did he enjoyed a tremendous career. Starting out with Johnny Young’s band, he had only been playing for six years before his talents landed him the greatest harmonica chair there ever was, playing with the Muddy Waters Blues Band...

John is a harmonica repairer and customiser. Following years of experience as a toolmaker John moved into repairing musical instruments, initially for woodwind instruments, before tapping into a rich vein of work repairing harmonicas. As well as many private clients, he now does repair work for the big three manufacturers.  This has led to John now making quite possibly the only hand-made harmonic...

Mick Kinsella started out as a drummer before moving across to the harmonica to pursue his love of traditional music. Skilled in the use of both the diatonic and chromatic, Mick played on numerous sessions before releasing his own 2002 album ‘Harmonica’ with an assortment of genres and some tremendous harmonica work. He went out to tour with Rick Epping and Brendan Power under the name Triple Harp...

Gregoire Maret is a chromatic player, originally from Switzerland. After studying jazz at the New School in New York, Gregoire went on to play with some of the biggest names in jazz: from Jimmy Scott to Cassandra Wilson, Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock. Although he can also turn his hand to other genres, such as pop, funk and even opera! In 2012 Gregoire made the first of the albums under his own n...

Rachelle Plas is a French player who learnt her craft at an early age in group lessons provided by Greg Zlap in Paris. She won various competitions at French music festivals which led on to her touring Europe and beyond with her band. After making a splash at the World Harmonica Festival in Germany, Rachelle became the face of Hohner’s Golden Melody harmonicas. She has gone on to record two albums...

Michael D’Eath is the President of the American harmonica organisation SPAH. He tells us what SPAH is all about and the many benefits it brings to its members. The SPAH convention is one of the biggest events on the harmonica calendar, and this year it will be online. Allowing more international artists to be utilised, and providing the opportunity for people around the world to take part in the c...

Howard Levy is known to be the pioneer of overblows on the diatonic harmonica, but his music shouldn’t be defined merely by the use of this technical tool. Starting out as a piano player, he first started using overblows to enable him to play the music that  he wanted to play. And they have allowed Howard to take the instrument to soaring new heights across a diverse range of genres. And make no m...

Lee Oskar left his native Denmark to move to the US at age 18, and was soon enjoying phenomenal success with the rock funk band War, interweaving soulful harmonica lines into the horn section. Lee also has numerous solo albums, releasing some of the most downright catchy harmonica melodies ever recorded. On top of all this, he set-up his own harmonica company, leading the way with innovations such...

A grammy award winner, Peter Madcat Ruth has enjoyed a long career, from playing jazz with the Brubecks, to numerous solo projects and playing in various bands and duos and trios. Madcat has loved Sonny Terry from the start and has really mastered the style, and gives some pointers during the podcast. Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version...

Brendan Power is my guest today. A true visionary of harmonica design, Brendan takes us under the hood of the instrument he has revolutionised with his alternative tunings and new designs, all helping him make some great harmonica music across a range of different genres. Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only). Brendan's website...

Always looking to push himself in new directions, Carlos has released an eclectic mixture of genres across the range of his albums. But each song is underpinned with his great sounding fusion of blues / jazz harmonica, with a great tone. Carlos is also known for his overblowing technique, and he shares how to use this to compliment his sound. Carlos is also a passionate teacher of the harmonica, a...

PT Gazell developed his melodic style of harmonica through playing a range of genres, from Bluegrass, to Pop, Country and Jazz. After his iconic first album, Pace Yourself, he became a session musician and toured with Country bands before taking a prolonged break from playing due to his frustrations at the limitations of the diatonic harmonica.  This led him to develop his Gazell Method half-valve...

Charlie McCoy is the leading figure in Country harmonica playing, where he joined the Nashville scene in 1961. With over 13000 sessions to his name, Charlie is probably the most recorded harmonica artist of all time. Although best known as a country harmonica player, along with his 40 solo albums, Charlie has played with some of the truly legendary names in popular music, from Roy Orbison, to Bob...

Rod Piazza developed his exciting brand of West coast jump harmonica in Southern California, where he formed his own band before joining forces with George Harmonica Smith, to form Bacon Fat. Two harps, what a sound! Rod has an extensive discography, both as a solo artist, and also with his long term band, the Mighty Flyers, alongside his wife Honey. Rod talks us through his evergreen career and h...

Kim Wilson is without doubt one of the great harmonica players around today. He grew up within the vibrant music scene in California, learning his chops on the bandstand, which he hasn't got off since, touring extensively all his life. Kim's long term band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, has brought him commercial success, and he has also maintained his own dedicated blues band for many year...

Joe Filisko has made the study of the harmonica his lifelong passion. His detailed knowledge of early recordings has helped him become the pre-eminent pre-war harmonica player of our time. He built his knowledge of the harmonica from the inside out, producing revered custom harmonicas still used by some of the big names in harmonica today. Joe has been playing in his duo with Eric Noden since 2003...

Billy Branch is a Chicago blues harp player who grew up learning directly from some of the classic generation of Chicago players,  such as Carey Bell, James Cotton and Junior Wells. And he played in Willie Dixons band for 6 years. Billy has been nominated for three Grammy awards. He has become a real ambassador of the blues and takes great pride in maintaining that legacy with his long term band,...

Today I talk to Giles Robson, who released two highly successful albums in 2019. Giles started out with a more blues rock fusion approach before returning to a more traditional blues style, but with a modern twist, which has won over audiences across Europe and America. He has done this with a real dedication to the art and a keen sense of how the music industry works. This led to Giles winning an...

Steve West Weston is the man in the hot seat in episode two. Steve grew up among the vibrant music scene in Essex, listening to Dr Feelgood among others. He started out playing in various bands on keyboard before finding his harmonica mojo as the front man in West Weston and the Bluesonics, and he hasn't looked back since. He has become the harmonica player of choice for Mud Morganfield when...

First up in the podcast I'm delighted to welcome a certain Mr Paul Lamb. Paul is a living legend of blues harmonica. He's been performing for over 45 years now, would you believe. He has a multitude of great albums to his name, and is inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame. Paul tells us how it all unfolded, meeting greats such as Junior Wells and his harmonica hero Sonny Terry along the way...