In the mid-1800s, a German harmonica manufacturer named Hohner started exporting his product to North America. Being relatively inexpensive, relatively easy to play and extremely portable, the ...

Most nights, you can walk into a blues club and find a harmonica player blowing their heart out onstage. The wailing, honking sound associated with Western movies and juke joints is what many harp ...

When it comes to blues harmonica, it’s all or nothing at all. In the wrong hands, the harp becomes a weapon of mass distraction, a screeching annoyance that can completely destroy any song. But, as ...

Phillips released two singles from Cotton, “Straighten Up Baby” in 1953 and “Cotton Crop Blues” the following year. Cotton was still a teenager working as a regular on the Memphis music scene when ...

Blues harmonica master Carey Bell died on May 6 of heart failure in his hometown of Chicago. He was 70. Bell – the 1998 winner of the Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Artist Of The Year – was a ...

Mark Hummel’s 20th annual Blues Harmonica Blowout came blowing into town the other night at SOhO Restaurant and Music Club with Rod and Honey Piazza, Sugar Blue, and Billy Branch with Mitch Kashmar.

Among the harmonica’s many wonderful and unique traits, there is this: You have to really suck to be good at it. As one of America’s finest and busiest harmonica players, Denver’s Ronnie Shellist ...

To broach his uncertain future, Johnny Sansone first had to relinquish his familiar past. Photo by Timothy WhiteJohnny Sansone's new CD is an early contender for one of the best local albums of the ...

Most musical instruments are not primarily associated with one particular style of music, especially in these days of cross-cultural collaborative adventures. Sure, notable harmonica artists can be ...

When it comes to music, you only need one instrument. Members of the Rubber Capital Harmonica Club believe that. In fact, they are so devoted to the music of that one instrument that have structured ...