The music scene around Columbia in those days was pretty rich, especially in harmonica talent. Dave Waldman, who has lived for many years in Chicago, was a student there and even then was a phenomenal talent. Today all the top-rank blues harpists rank Dave as among their favorite players. Mark Wenner, who went on to form the road-warrior-legend band The Nighthawks, was also on the scene with his band B-Town Slim and His Rhythm Review. Even at that tender age Mark was covered in tattoos. He usually arrived on campus astride his Harley Davidson, which also impressed me. But what really knocked me out about Mark was that he would do costume changes in between sets at frat-party gigs. To me, that was real dedication.

     

 

Paul Oscher, who had recently left MuddyWaters' band, also played occasionally around the Upper West Side in those days and after a show at Barnard College I pestered Paul for a harmonica lesson. Paul had been explaining the mysteries of tongue blocking to Dave Waldman and I was determined to take advantage of Paul's presence in New York and pick up some similar tips. After a few phone calls, we finally arranged for me to meet him at a music store in Brooklyn, where Paul lived. I showed up at the music store right on time after a 90-minute subway ride. The owner pointed out the window to a bar across the street, the Pink Pussy Kat Lounge (see photo below), and told me I could find Paul there. I walked out of the brilliant sunshine of a summer day and into the darkest bar I had ever been in. It was literally five minutes before my eyes could make out the few figures at the bar. Paul was at the far end telling  a story about a magic flying ashtray he had once encountered at a bar where he had played with Muddy. I sheepishly introduced myself and reminded Paul that we had a date for a harp lesson. Oscher took me back across the street to the music store, where we entered a converted broom closet lined with acoustical tile. There were no preliminaries. "Play something," he said. I pulled out a D Marine Band or some godawful key and tentatively tooted away lamely for about twenty seconds before Paul pulled out his own harp and said "No, no, no--like this!" The rest of the lesson was Paul playing acoustic blues harp about six inches from my face. I learned more in the next half an hour than I had learned in the couple of years I had been playing. This was the first time I had heard that Chicago harp sound right in front of me with no amplifier in the way. Paul introduced me to tongue blocking that day and diagrammed out the first two verses of Little Walter's "Juke" for me on a piece of paper.

 

Paul's Oscher's career is in full swing these days. Paul won Blues Music Awards in 2006 for "Acoustic Artist Of The Year" and "Acoustic Album Of The Year." Check out Paul's great Web site, http://www.pauloscher.com, for stories, photos, and Paul's wonderful music.

 

 

Left to right: Cliff's Pink Pussy Kat Lounge, Brooklyn, 1970s; me and Paul Oscher, 1974; Paul Oscher and me after a recent gig by Paul at the Triple Door in Seattle--amazingly, neither of us has changed at all over the years.

 

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Seattle: Isaac Scott

 

Left: Isaac Scott at the San Francisco Blues Festival, 1977 (photo by Jeff Fereday), right: The Isaac Scott Band, 1977--Twist Turner, Isaac Scott, me, and Mark Dalton.

 

I moved back to Seattle in 1975. I didn't know any players there, so I put an ad in the Seattle Times. That led to a call from Twist Turner, a local blues drummer. He invited me over to his house and took me down to his basement, where he had a few thousand pre-war blues 78s--pretty incredible stuff. Twist told me that he was working with a guitar player named Isaac Scott and invited me to jam with them the next weekend down at the Pike Place Market. I went down there and played a couple of tunes with them. They had no p.a. system so Isaac did no singing--just played one Freddy King instrumental after another. Isaac really had Freddy King down cold; I was really knocked out by his playing. I got together with him and Twist a few days later at Steve's house, where I heard Isaac sing for the first time.

 

That's when I realized that Isaac was a truly unique blues talent. Originally from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Isaac had come up in the gospel quartet side of show business, and he had a beautiful and powerful gospel vocal style. Isaac's singing, combined with his jaw-dropping guitar prowess, enabled him to create a very unique sound. Isaac also played a mean Hammond B3; he spent a couple of years playing organ behind Tom McFarland when he first arrived in Seattle in the mid-70s. It was clear to anyone in those days that Isaac could go places in the music business, and I worked with him for two years in a band with Steve and bassist Mark Dalton. A raw--and I mean raw--live recording of us was issued on the Red Lightning label out of the U.K. and Isaac was approached many times to play at festivals around the world, but his aversion to travel kept him a local favorite  in the Northwest for 25 years. Isaac passed away in November of 2001 from complications associated with diabetes. He really was one of a kind.

 

There is a Web site devoted to Isaac that includes an interview with him and Albert Collins: www.isaacscott.com.

 

Twist Turner has lived in Chicago since the late 1970s, where he has played with all the many blues luminaries in the Windy City and established his own recording studio and production company. An amazing guy. Check out the stories and photos on his Web site: www.twistturner.com.

 

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Austin: Antone's and The Fabulous Thunderbirds

 

In 1977 I left Seattle and traveled around the country looking for a place with a better music scene. I had a memorable visit with Twist Turner in Chicago, where I also met up with David Waldman. Twist and Dave took me on a tour of the Chicago blues clubs; we saw Buddy and Phil Guy at Buddy's club and Sammy Lawhorn at Theresa's, among others. I visited Louis X. Erlanger in New York and caught a great show with him and his new band, Mink Deville, that was currently making a big splash following their debut album on Capitol. I came through Nashville, where I spent an afternoon with legendary harmonica player and Grand Ole Opry star Deford Bailey. I visited Memphis for the first time before heading down to New Orleans and a few nights on Bourbon Street. I swung north after that and ended up stopping in Austin, Texas, which was probably my plan all along.

 

Austin was--and is--a real music town. Originally settled by German immigrants and Chicanos, it's always been a big town for dancing, and that means lots of gigs and, therefore, lots of great players. Given its location, it was an unbeatable roots-music town--any night of the week you could go to local bars and hear country masters like Asleep At The Wheel, zydeco stars like Clifton Chenier, great local rock acts, and norteno wizards like Flaco Jimenez. I heard more great music during the two years I lived in Austin than I have in any decade before or since.

 

Best of all, there was a new blues club down on 6th Street--Antone's. Blues fanatic Clifford Antone had taken a lease on a huge dance hall/bar, determined to create the best blues club in the world. Which he proceeded to do. Clifford was very lucky in that Jimmie Vaughan had recently moved from Dallas to Austin. Jimmie had been a guitar legend in Texas since his teens. Jimmie was attracted by the laid-back, freewheeling, music-drenched culture in Austin, and within a year he had recruited people like singer LuAnn Barton, his brother Stevie Ray Vaughan, and singer/harp player Kim Wilson to join him there.

 

I really loved the year and a half I spent in Austin. I never did play regularly in a band there, but I did some real serious woodshedding on the harmonica while I was there. A lot of that effort was inspired by Kim Wilson, whom I had met a couple of years earlier in Seattle but who now was fronting the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the band he and Jimmie Vaughan had founded. Kim's playing really lit a fire under me. Kim and Jimmie were determined to play nothing but hardcore blues and rock and roll and to become big stars in the process--which they did. I was really impressed by their focus and determination, much less their talent. Kim was, and continues to be, a huge influence on me. For my money, Kim casts the biggest shadow across the blues-harp landscape--an awesomely talented player and performer.

 

I had a lot of great times in Austin: those regular Blue Mondays with the T-Birds at the Rome Inn, seeing the Thunderbids jam with Muddy Waters and Big Walter, sitting in with Hubert Sumlin at Antone's, watching a guitar battle between Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King, sitting at the foot of the bandstand when Merle Haggard taped his first Austin City Limits appearance...

 

The truly Fabulous Thunderbirds standing in front of the original Antone's on 6th Street in Austin, 1977: Jimmie Vaughan, Keith Ferguson, Mike Buck, and Kim Wilson

 

The Fabulous T-Birds: me with Kim Wilson (left) and Jimmie Vaughan (right) backstage at the 1977 San Francisco Blues Festival. (Photos by Jeff Fereday)

 

Twenty years later: With Jimmie Vaughan and Rusty Zinn at the 1999 San Francisco Blues Festival (photo by Jeff Fereday)

 

 

Actor Bruce Willis's stated career goal in his high-school annual was to become the world's best blues harmonica player, and he has recorded as a harp player and singer. Here he is with Kim Wilson backstage at a Fabulous Thunderbirds concert in Idaho--both of them with their best "Die Hard" facial expression. (Photo by Jeff Fereday)

 

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Seattle: The Slamhound Hunters

 

Me, drummer Greg Keplinger, Big Mama Thornton, bassist John Seburg, guitarist Al Kaatz, and alto sax player Jay Thomas.

 

I was lucky enough to play behind Big Mama Thornton years ago at the Buffalo Tavern in Seattle. I showed up early for the gig to find out that Big Mama had a clause in her contract specifying that no harmonica players were allowed in the backup band. Somehow I managed to convince her that I woudn't foul up her show. Big Mama recorded the original version of "Hound Dog" and wrote "Ball and Chain," a big hit for Janis Joplin. Big Mama was one of the all-time great blues vocalists and an excellent harmonica player in her own right. The night I played with her we did harmonica duets on "The Work Song" and "Watermelon Man."  

 

 

Left: Mark Dalton, me, Louis X. Erlanger (foreground), Otis Rush, Leslie Milton, Dick Powell. Right: Otis Rush and me at the Fabulous Rainbow

 

I worked for several years with The Slamhound Hunters. One of the highlights of my time with that great group was a three-night gig at the Fabulous Rainbow in Seattle backing up the unbelievable Otis Rush. Standing next to Otis on stage was a mind-blowing experience. One of my all-time favorite singers and guitarists. As a southpaw myself, I was fascinated watching him play his right-handed guitar upside down.

 

 

With the Slamhound Hunters opening for Stevie Ray Vaughan at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle. Left to right: Louis X. Erlanger, Mark Dalton, me, and Leslie Milton.

 

 

Louis X. Erlanger

 

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Louis X. Erlanger was the creative force behind the Slamhound Hunters. Louis achieved fame and fortune as the lead guitarist with Mink DeVille, with whom he recorded three albums for Capitol. After leaving Mink DeVille, Louis moved to Seattle and he and I formed the Slamhound Hunters. Louis is the most musical and creative person I've ever worked with.

 

Onstage with the Slamhound Hunters at the Fabulous Rainbow in Seattle.

 

For many years The Fabulous Rainbow was the premier music club in Seattle--not in terms of decor, but because of all the great acts that played on that stage. Sun Ra, Clifton Chenier, Robert Cray (who shot his first music video at the Rainbow), Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Delbert McLinton, the Neville Brothers--that's just a small sampling of the acts I saw there. I played a set with Big Walter Horton there one night, which still ranks as my biggest musical thrill.

 

Leslie Milton in the studio.

 

The Slamhounds went through a half dozen drummers until we found Leslie "Star Drums" Milton. Leslie is one of those great New Orleans drummers and has more energy than anyone I've ever run across. The man can play anything--it's all music to him.

 

 

Bassist Mark Dalton listening to a playback during a Slamhound Hunter recording session.

 

Mark Dalton hails from Lincoln, Nebraska. Before he could even vote he'd played on a #1 hit--Zager and Evans' "In The Year 2525." Mark's a great player and a bluesman all the way. 

 

In the studio recording the Slamhound Hunters' second album, "Private Jungle." Rear: Leslie Milton and Mark Dalton. Front: Louis X. Erlanger and me.

 

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Me and James Cotton, backstage at The Backstage

 

When I was 17 years old I caught a James Cotton show at Eagles Auditorium in Seattle. I was a trumpet player in those days, but I went right out the next day and bought a Marine Band harmonica. James' surpassingly beautiful tone is still one of my primary inspirations as a player. I opened for him at the Backstage once. Backstage between sets my wife Christine asked James if she could take a photo of the two of us together. James was resting on a backstage sofa and he said he was cool with the photo idea but that he was damned if he was going to get up off the sofa, so I plunked myself down next to him.

 

 

Me and Luther Tucker

 

Backing Cotton on guitar on the same show that night with Cotton was the fantastic Luther Tucker. Luther was in the band the first time I saw Cotton and it was thrilling to see them together again. Luther was a beautiful human being as well as an incredible guitarist.

 

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Boston

 

With Troy Gonyea at the Plantation Club, Worcester, Massachusetts. (Photo by Tom Hazeltine)

 

In 1990 my family and I moved to Massachusetts when my wife took a job as a professor at Holy Cross College in Worcester. The first year I was there I finished my book on the history of the harmonica: Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers.

 

When I was going to college in New York, I used to hitchike up to Boston occasionally to see blues legends like Big Walter Horton and Otis Rush (who for some reason rarely if ever gigged in Manhattan) at Joe's Place, a great nothing-but-the-blues bar in Inman Square. So I was aware of the great music scene in Boston. During my time in Massachusetts I got to work with a lot of great players.

 

I first met Troy Gonyea at the Blue Monday jam sessions at the Plantation Club in Worcester. He was only sixteen at the time and just getting around on the guitar, but he was incredibly passionate about the blues. A couple of years later I was telling another harp player in Worcester, Chet Williamson, that I was thinking of putting a band together, and he suggested that I check out Troy, who Chet claimed had come a long ways. That was an understatement. Troy had become a pheonomenal blues guitarist. We worked together for a couple of years in Massachusetts clubs, after which Troy formed his own trio. He later worked with Jerry Portnoy, Paul Oscher, and Kim Wilson and for two years he held the coveted lead guitar chair in the Fabulous Thunderbirds. More recently, Troy has been working with his own rock band, The Howl (see http://www.churchofthehowl.com).  

 

The Diamondbacks: Charley Baum, Steve Ramsey, me, and Dave Clarke

 

While I was in Massachusetts I worked for several months in a band called The Diamondbacks. The other members of the band were all great players and veterans of the Boston blues scene. Guitarist and singer Charley Baum had worked and recorded with Jerry Portnoy and Duke Robillard; Steve Ramsey went on to become the drummer for Bluestime, featuring Magic Dick and J Geils; and Dave Clarke had played bass for Portnoy and Troy Gonyea. Dave is also a topflight blues harpists, and he gave me some good harp tips during the time we worked together.

 

The Four Harp Players of the Apocalypse at the House of Blues, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Chuck Morris, Sugar Ray Norcia, me, and Curtis Salgado. (Photo by Alan Dines)

 

Sugar Ray Norcia has been the figurehead of the Boston blues scene for several decades. He spent several years as the front man for Roomful of Blues. An unsurpassingly smooth and soulful vocalist, Ray is also one of the world's premier blues harpists and a talented songwriter. Ray was very close to Walter Horton. Norcia's recordings and live shows are testaments to his commitment to topflight musicianship and his love for--and mastery of--all the may forms of the blues.

 

With Magic Dick at the publication party for the first edition of Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers at the Rizzoli Bookstore in Boston

 

Boston's biggest contribution to rock and roll during the '70s was the hard-charging, blues-drenched J Geils Band. I caught a couple of their high-energy shows when I lived in New York, and after I moved to Massachusetts I got to know Dick Salwitz, aka Magic Dick. Dick and J Geils met as engineering students at Worcester Polytechnic in the '60s, and Dick's incredible musicianship is amplified by his total grasp of the physics involved in playing the harp and the mechanical design of the instrument. I was lucky to live in Massachusetts during the period when Dick and J Geils formed Bluestime and became active again on the Boston scene.

 

With Chuck Morris (blue shirt), Annie Raines, Pierre Beauregard (wearing beret) and the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra at the publication party for the first edition of Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers at the Rizzoli Bookstore in Boston

 

I was living in Massachusetts when the first edition of my book--Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers--came out. The publication party, held at the Rizzoli Bookstore in Boston's Copley Place, was an amazing collection of harmonica talent: Magic Dick, Annie Raines, Mike Turk, the Norm Dobson trio, and Jerry Portnoy all performed, and the gala culminated in an appearance by Pierre Beauregard's 30-person-strong Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra,.

 

 

With Jerry Portnoy and Pierre Beauregard at the Rizzoli Bookstore in Boston

 

Jerry Portnoy is one my favorite harp players. Jerry grew up on Maxwell Street in Chicago, where many of the city's bluesmen performed, and he spent many years holding down the ultimate blues harp gig--the harp chair in Muddy Waters's fabled band. More recently, Jerry spent several years recording and touring with Eric Clapton. Jerry is a very creative player who has mastered the classic Chicago harp sound. He's also a very intelligent, well-read individual who has a wide-ranging taste in music and literature. As Jerry once told me, "Rock and roll is a sprint. Blues is a marathon."

 

 

Onstage at Johnny D's in Cambridge with Mike Turk (left) and Howard Levy (right)

 

Boston-based Mike Turk is one of the world's finest jazz players, and it's a great thing for all of us that Mike chose the chromatic harmonica as his instrument of choice. Mike first made his reputation as a superbly melodic diatonic player, but he fell into the gravitational pull of jazz and picked up the chromatic. His first solo CD, Harmonica Salad, was a brilliant travelogue of blues, jazz, and standards, and Turk's Works, his next recording, is an inspired, exhilirating and very live set of sterling jazz assisted by a stellar backup band. His newest release, A Little Taste of Cannonball, is a tribute to the great Cannonball Adderley. Mike is really at the top of his game these days. You can learn more about Mike and order his recordings through this Web site: http://www.aahome.com/turk/.

 

Years ago my friend Jim McLaughlin invited me to his house near Seattle for a workshop led by Howard Levy. I had never heard of Levy, but Jim kept insisting that this guy was something truly unique and that I owed it to myself to check out the workshop. After a brief introduction in Jim's living room, Howard picked up a G Golden Melody diatonic harmonica and proceeded to play "Summertime" in all twelve keys. Astonishing.

 

Howard grew up playing the piano and became enamored with blues harp during college. But where the rest of us harp players accepted most of the technical limitations of the diatonic harmonica, Howard was hellbent from day one on getting the full chromatic scale out of this purposefully limited instrument. After spending years developing a completely original approach to the harmonica that includes a mastery of the difficult overblow technique (bending blow notes as opposed to draw notes), Howard has done just that. Best known for his stint with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Howard is also a regular on NPR's Prairie Home Companion program. Howard has also managed to become an expert player on all the fretted instruments, too. Check out Howard's Web site at: http://www.levyland.com/.

 

While I was living in Massachusetts I attended a show at Johnny D's in Somerville featuring Mike Turk and Levy. Howard had arrived in Boston a couple of days before the show, so he and Mike had had the opportunity to work out some material together--not that they needed that prep time. The performance was predictably mind-blowing, with a great combo enabling Mike and Howard to offer up one virtuostic display after another. I was drinking in the music from the front row and on my third beer when Mike introduced me from the stage and invited me to come up and sit in. It was like having Picasso and Matisse ask you to draw something--very intimidating. Neither Mike nor Howard sing, so I seized the only window left open to me and sang a blues shuffle, let the two masters do their magic around me, played a one-verse solo in first position, and got the hell off the stage.

 

 

Three harmonica heavyweights: Pierre Beauregard, Mike Turk, and Kim Wilson. (Photo by Tom Hazeltine)

 

Another highlight of my time in Massachusetts was getting to know Pierre Beauregard. Pierre has only been featured on a handful of recordings and he rarely performs live, but he is one of the the finest harp players I know. But what sets Pierre apart is his knowledge of musical theory and of the mechanical inner workings of the harmonica. Pierre and former J Geils harp player Magic Dick spent years designing a line of new tuning schemes for the diatonic harmonica that enable players to play in modes that were out of reach of nearly everyone but Howard Levy and to achieve chords like 9th chords that had not been previously possible on the instrument.  Really brilliant, creative work.

 

 

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Back to the Northwest

 

Mark Hummel, me, Paul deLay, and Peter Damman (photo by Tom Hazeltine)

 

I've known Mark Hummel for longer than I care to admit. Mark is a great player and a guy who has done a lot for the instrument. In his touring Harmonica Showcases, Mark brings together some of the greatest aggregations of mouth organ talent ever assembled.

 

I first saw Paul deLay in Portland, Oregon, in 1975. That time, and every time I caught his act thereafter, Paul knocked me out. Great songwriter, great singer, great harmonica player--that was Paul. Paul inspired many of us to pursue our own individual sounds and material. 

 

 

With Pinetop Perkins and Paul Oscher in San Francisco, 1999 (photo by Jeff Fereday)

 

I saw Pinetop Perkins play dozens of times with Muddy Waters over the years and have been privileged to back  him up in recent years during his stops in Seattle. Pinetop is now in his 90s and still playing--an inspiration to us all.

 

 

Sitting in with Rusty Zinn at Larry's Greenfront in Seattle (photo by Susan Waterworth)

 

I first saw Rusty Zinn when he played guitar behind Mark Hummel. A few years later I got to know Rusty when he came through Massachusetts with Kim Wilson's blues band. You knew immediately that you were in the presence of a guitarist and singer so talented and legitimate that he was going to give the blues a fresh shot in arm, and Rusty has proved that with his recordings and concert dates. Rusty loves to play behind harp players, which makes him a vital national resource.

 

 

With Rick Estrin in Portland, 1994 (photo by Tom Hazeltine)

 

I first saw Rick Estrin perform in 1975, when Little Charlie and the Nightcats first visited Seattle. Rick and the band still knock me on my ear every time I catch them. Rick has long been in the first rank of today's blues harp players and singers, and he's one of the most accomplished of today's blues songwriters. Rick's also one of the sharpest dressers on the music scene. A fantastic musician, a very funny guy, a real pro.

 

Sitting in at Joe's Pub in New York City with Hazmate Modine and Wade Schuman (left).

 

Last year I visited New York City and finally got a chance to see the band Hazmat Modine in action and to sit in with them on a couple of tunes. The group is the brainchild of frontman Wade Schuman, a great and truly innovative harmonica player, guitarist, and singer. Also front and center in the band is another world-class harmonica player, Randy Weinstein. On any given night the band ranges from five to ten players--Wade tries to have two of everyone--but the usual lineup is drums, tuba, two guitars, two harmonicas, sax and trumpet. You can't describe Hazmat Modine's music in print--at least I can't--which should give you an indication of how go0d they are. Check out their videos on YouTube. Wade has a unique musical concept that he's successfully brought to the stage and to the studio. They have a great new CD out and are generating a lot of industry buzz right now. Check out their Web site at: www.hazmatmodine.com.