…and they took me up on it
I heard back from SPAH today. Looks like I’ll be working with them on some stuff, exact nature of projects TBD. I can think of a few things that would be fun, but I’m not going to get ahead of myself. Stay tuned.
I made an offer…
I’ve had some heated debates about the future of harmonica festivals with various members of SPAH’s‘s board in the last few days. The point they keep making is that anyone who wants to improve SPAH’s conventions should volunteer. Okay. So I posted the following to…
What’s new in harmonica festivals? Not a lot…
A few people have written recently to Harp-L to complain that they’re not getting enough information about the programs for harmonica festivals. Festival organizers generally write back to say, in effect, that the customer should chill out. I don’t think that’s a good way to…
Video of the Day October 2 2010
Pretty close in on the last one, but I couldn’t resist when I saw this. Howard Levy at the 2010 SPAH convention playing “Nuages” (clouds for you non-French speakers) on diatonic harmonica and piano–all at once. Like, wow.
Video of the Week October 1 2010
And now for something completely different from the rock, blues, and jazz we usually choose for the Vid of the Week… Here’s the Fresco Harmonica Ensemble, a harmonica quartet based in Malaysia, performing the piece that won them the 2009 World Harmonica Championship in the…
Kudos for my RP patch set
In the last few days, people have been writing to the Harp-L list to talk about how much they like the patch set I put together for the Digitech RP 250/255/350/355. Glenn Woodhouse of the ColdRail Blues Band said some very nice things, which we…
Lowlands “Gypsy Child” released
I’ve just learned that the Pavia, Italy-based Americana band Lowlands has just released their second album, “Gypsy Child”. I’m playing diatonic harp on one cut, “Gotta Be”. It’s a ripper. The album can be heard and purchased here. The songs are great and the playing…
Video of the Week Sep. 18 2010
Here’s one of my favorite players, Steve Baker, with Dave Goodman (guitar) and Martin Roettger (cajon) playing Goodman’s song “Tiger by the Tail,” recorded in performance in Alsace, France on Aug. 7 2010. Killer. Check out Steve’s Youtube channel for more great harp.
Country swing session today
For Bobby Flores, a producer from Austin Texas that I met at a jam session a couple of years ago. I’ll do it in my home studio with a Fireball V mic direct into the audio interface on the computer. I could use some of…
What’s the best embouchure for harmonica?
A novice harmonica player posted this message to the Harp-l list: As a beginner, I pucker for everything, and find tongue blocking to be very difficult. Is it true that the great Chicago blues tone can only come from tongue blocking? I think I read…
