I do a lot of sitting in with bands and solo performers, and it’s a big part of the pleasure I get from music.  Sitting in is also a big part of developing good musical skills–learning to listen in particular–and it’s something every player should…

Over a year ago I announced that I’d put a new piece up on Broadjam featuring my brother Mark on slide guitar, called “Ridin Blues.”  That piece was done in a hurry as a spec piece, and I’ve just put a new version up on…

Over a year ago I announced that I’d put a new piece up on Broadjam featuring my brother Mark on slide guitar, called “Ridin Blues.”  That piece was done in a hurry as a spec piece, and I’ve just put a new version up on…

I attended the Howard Levy seminar arranged by Zvi Aranoff in NYC yesterday, and it was a thoroughly inspiring 2-plus hours.  With about a dozen people in attendance, and beginning with an illustration of first position blues played on a C-harp (a Filisko with rock…

I’ve been hanging out in Driggs, Idaho for the last few weeks, and I decided to look up Ben Winship, a nationally known bluegrass mandolinist, guitarist, and banjoist, who I last played with in a jam at the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival in August 2001 (the…

Hohner has a new amp designed especially for harp players, the Hoodoo Box.  You can find the specs online at places like Musiciansfriend.com, so I won’t bother listing them here.  What’s interesting is what this signals about the harp gear market. This isn’t the first…

I got an invitation from a harmonica player named Harmonica Boris, who’s based in Ekaterinburg, Russia, to listen to a solo piece of his called “Ad Libitum” at his Myspace page.  I checked it out tonight, and man is it cool stuff.  The playing is…

I get a lot of questions from beginners about what gear they should buy to get started with a decent recording setup for as little money as possible. I thought it might be useful for those beginners to put together a few inexpensive but decent…

In September 2007 I worked as a coach at Jon Gindick’s Harmonica jam camp in Natick, MA alongside Dennis Greunling and Richard sleigh.  At the end of the camp, Dennis and I exchanged CDs–he took a copy of my “The Second Act of Free Being,”…

I first recorded my piece “Put The Lever Down” in 1981.  I wrote the hook while jamming alone in a parking lot outside a rink where my dauighter was competing in a skating competition.  I recorded the whole piece, from first note to final mix,…