12/18/08: I've just uploaded a new lesson on "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," a soul-jazz standard composed by Joe Zawinulfor the Canonball Adderly quintet. I've run into this one at many jam sessions:
....I've just agreed to give an introductory blues harmonica clinic on TUESDAY, MARCH 2 (7-9 PM) at my hometown music store, Rebel Music on West Jackson Ave. in Oxford, Mississippi...Don't forget about the Jon Gindick jam camp in Clarksdale, MS in late March, where I'll be coaching with Jon, Jimi Lee, Billy Gibson, and Cheryl Arena (www.gindick.com for more info)...I just took delivery of a Harpgear 2 amp and it sounds GREAT!
11/30/08: The new Adam Gussow and Charlie Hilbert album, Live in Klingenthal, has just been released. 10 concert tracks recorded during the 2008 Mundharmonika-live Festival, plus a 14+ minute bonus track in which Gussow goes head to head with NYC harp legend Nat Riddles at a 1990 jam session in Richmond, VA. All the tracks have been professionally mastered and saved in high-quality (150+ kb/s) mp3s, ready for instant download. Check out the preview below, or click the album link just above the photo to read a fuller description, including track names, lengths, and harp keys:
11/27/08: A Canadian friend writes: "Thought I'd drop you an email to let you know, Randy Bachman (The Guess Who, BTO) has a show on CBC radio called "Vinyl Tap". He recently did a show just on the Harmonica, recordings of famous players and tracks, two hour show. Right off the top, the first name mentioned was the famous Adam Gussow! He urged his listeners to check out your YouTube site." Here's the link; it's Part I of the episode aired on November 22:
11/26/08: Brandon Bailey tells me that he's appearing in the "Smokin' Bluz Youth Showcase" (representing the Memphis Blues Society) at the International Blues Challenge. The date is Friday, February 6 at 1:30 PM at Club 152 on Beale Street. I hope you'll join me there to cheer him on!
11/19/08: I've uploaded a new lesson on Junior Well's "Early in the Morning," off the Hoodoo Man Blues album. It's an introductory lesson for INTERMEDIATES (and ADVANCED INTERMEDIATES) at a fire-sale price. Only $3 for video AND tab sheet, it focuses on somewhat less material than my lessons usually do: the five-bar harmonica intro. But it spends extra time explaining how my tabbing system works, and the video is almost 23 minutes long. Although designed for those who haven't previously sampled my wares, this lesson gives the rest of you a really useful bit of material, perfect as a lead in for any slow blues:
11/18/08: I've just reserved a room at the Benchmark Hotel in downtown Memphis (164 Union Avenue, a couple of blocks from Beale Street) on Feb. 5 and 6, the Thursday and Friday of International Blues Challenge weekend.....The semifinals take place on those nights; my buddy Jimi Lee will be doing his thing, and one thing I'm hoping to do is pack whatever venue he's playing with MBH folks, so we can clap and howl him on to victory.....If you're thinking about coming to Memphis for the IBC, here are two things I can do for you:
1) I'm going to host a BYOB cocktail party / jam session on at least one of those evenings, perhaps both. I've invited Jimi Lee and I'll certainly hope that other harp players--including guys & gals performing in the IBC--will show up. Y'all are invited. No charge. This will be a great way of making our virtual community real. (When I say "jam session," I mean a totally informal scene, not a stage with drums and amps.) NOTE ADDED ON 11/19: Jimi Lee, Billy Gibson, and Brandon Bailey have all given me the word that they'll definitely be dropping by!!
2) I'm planning to make myself available for a limited number of private lessons during the day. My rates are reasonable.
No invitations needed, but if you want to attend this little shindig or set up a private lesson, I'd appreciate if you'd email me (asgussow@aol.com), just so I'll have a general idea.
10/25/08: I've uploaded a new lesson for ADVANCED BEGINNERS and INTERMEDIATES on Slim Harpo's swamp-blues, "I've Got Love If You Want It."
10/23/08: I'm happy to announce that I've just released a NEW album of jam tracks entitled "Blues Harmonica Play Along Sessions." This is a cooperative endeavor--the result of a profit-sharing arrangement with the Hills Blues Collective, a Dutch trio that released "Play Along Sessions, Vol. 1" as a CD just last year. I've ripped the CD into a digital download (with their permission!) and bundled it into a zip file with a 58-minute video in which I take you through every single cut, showing you how to milk it for all it's worth. I LOVE this set of jam tracks! It includes every important urban (amplified) groove you're likely to confront at jam sessions and gigs: swing, shuffle, rock, rhumba, boogaloo, funk, soul, and slow blues.
10/15/08: A number of people have asked me over the years for a chart that gives the harp keys for the songs on the first three Satan and Adam albums: HARLEM BLUES (1991), MOTHER MOJO (1993), and LIVING ON THE RIVER (1996). Here it is. And it's free:
10/13/08: Thanks for all who came out to say Hi at this weekend's Satan & Adam gigs in Nashville, Helena AR, and Waterford MS. I've got some cool video from Helena, where we played the streets as well as the festival stage, and I'll be uploading it soon. (Those on my mailing list--see above--will be getting a special email with a preview.).....I've just uploaded the most recent batch of mp3s ripped from my YouTube videos 135-144. It's actually a zip file of 17 mp3s, including lessons on James Brown's "I Feel Good," "Muddy Waters's "Walking Through the Park," and "Playing Fast." Also included are a number of recordings of Satan and Adam in performance at various juke joints and festivals across the South during the summer of 2008. Here's a link to Tradebit:
10/8/08: I've just uploaded a new lesson entitled "Adam's Warmup Exercises (with overblows). The description at Tradebit reads as follows: "For ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE blues harmonica players, or INTERMEDIATE players who are developing the ability to overblow, this video tutorial works through a half-dozen different exercises created by Adam Gussow for his own use. (Three of them are featured in the preview.)These exercises develop speed, fluency, and the ability to transition smoothly from the bottom to the top of the harp and back. They help players integrate overblows within a traditional diatonic blues context. They also provide a workout on upper octave bends. Gussow shows you a series of variations on triplet phrasing--not just standard eighth-note triplets (three to a beat), but sixteenth-note triplets (three to an upbeat) achieved through a rapid slur. This particular trick is one of Gussow's characteristic moves; he decodes it for you here."
9/27/08: I'm delighted that the folks at the Amsterdam Harmonica Meetup got some video of me jamming with Ben Bouman's band, The Marbletones. I rarely get a chance to work the Little Walter groove, but these guys had the right feeling for it. Note to traditionalists: I'm mixing lip-pursing with tongue-blocking, I'm adding overblows, and I'm using a Shure PE-5 dynamic mic through a digital delay pedal. Impurism rules!
9/22/08: And now for something completely different: "Stone Fox Breakdown," the first harp-hop single from Modern Blues Harmonica:
It's a Dutch-American collaboration. After teaching and playing for a week in Klingenthal, Germany at "Mundharmonika-live," I'm hanging out in Holland with Ben Bouman, a local legend. When harp guys have spare time, they get creative. We think we've come up with something that will hook you bad. See if you can figure out what--and when--each of us is playing.
9/21/08: Here's some footage of Charlie Hilbert and me playing "Cold Shot" at the Mundharmonika-live Festival in Klingenthal, Germany a few days ago:
9/9/08: I've just uploaded a lesson on Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me." Y'all know the song, and the solo. I've broken it down in a way that will let you dig down into the master's machine language.
9/8/08: To my French friends: On September 27th, I'll be participating in "Blues a Chateauvieux," a harmonica workshop/concert at Saint Aignan sur Cher. Voila le website:
8/29/08: I've just uploaded a new video entitled "Amping the Harp." It's a long (56 minute) video that carefully takes you through each of the core elements you need to understand--including mics, grips, speaker configurations, large vs. small amps, even vs. odd harmonics, and each amp's distinctive power curve--in order to create a powerful amplified sound for yourself. Please check out the description at Tradebit, especially the preview:
8/27/08: From time to time I send out a brief newsletter to folks on my mailing list, generally entitled something like "New Uploads at Modern Blues Harmonica." Earlier this week I switched to a new emailing service and sent out a newsletter entitled "Hello! + 'Sugar Ditch' upload." If you got that email and didn't know it was from me, or assumed it was kinky porn, or have never gotten a newsletter from me and are curious, you can read it here:
8/22/08: One of my new friends from "Blues Week" in the UK, the redoubtable Will Greener (aka, Captain Bliss), has asked me to spread the word about a fundraiser he's hosting for Grant Dermody and Grant's ailing wife. (I was Grant's sub when he was forced to stay home.) Will writes, "I'm putting on a benefit gig for Grant Dermody (fine player, great guy, his wife is recovering from cancer) on Friday 29th August upstairs at Edward's, Hammersmith, London. All proceeds are going to Grant and Eileen, we've got 7 hours of acoustic music (6pm - 1am) for £10 on the door, more information (plus a couple of Grant's tunes and some music by the bands playing) is available at http://www.myspace.com/eileenstock - if not, no worries, but thanks if so! Acts include the marvellous Matthew Ord, the brilliant Barker Band, the thumpingly great New Rising, the awesome Andy Sharrocks (feat. yours truly), the bearded nutter that is Robert James and more..." Will is a mojo man of sorts, with some pretty mean overblows thrown in. Please support the cause.
8/21/08: I've just uploaded a new lesson: "Sugar Ditch" by Hank Crawford. Crawford, an alto sax player, was the leading instrumental voice in Ray Charles's orchestra for many years; this jazz-blues head is perfect for the intermediate and advanced intermediate harp student who wants to take a step beyond the familiar sounds of Chicago & West Coast harmonica. In terms of technical challenges, "Sugar Ditch" is relatively tame; it uses 2, 3, and 4 draw bends, but nothing very fast or tricky, and NO OVERBLOWS! The challenge lies in the unfamiliar phrasing--very bluesy but also distinctive, and NOT the way that harp players usually do it. Check out the previews:
I'll be uploading several other lessons over the next few weeks, including Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me," Slim Harpo's "Got Love if You Want It," and "Tequila" by The Champs......I'm back in Mississippi after more than three weeks on the road that took me from gigs in Bessemer, Alabama and Knoxville TN through clinics in Huntington WV, Frederick MD, and Philadelphia PA. After a bit of vacation up in Maine, I flew to London and spent a week at "Blues Week" up at the University of Northampton, where I made many new friends, including some who'd been following my YouTube lessons. It was great to hang out with Annie Raines, who I first saw back in 1989 when we were both "unofficial" participants at the Chicago Blues Festival, back behind the barbecue tent. Giles King, a UK harp maestro with an act called Lightning Willie, hipped me to the wealth of UK harp talent....After eight gigs in July, I can definitively say that SATAN AND ADAM ARE BACK, with Dave Laycock kicking it out as the third member of the duo. We've gotten some great airplay on our new/old album, "Word on the Street," and we're planning on recording another album over the winter. We've got a new booking agent who will be working hard to put us into some major festivals next summer. And of course the documentary continues to simmer along. We have every reason to think that 2009 will be our best year yet.....Don't forget: we're playing Nashville on October 10 and playing the Arkansas Blues & Heritage festival on October 11--the Houston Stackhouse stage from 4-5, then right out in the street from 6 PM onward. Make the trip!
7/23/08: I've just uploaded a new lesson, and I'm proud of it: "Messin' With the Kid," by Junior Wells. The word "classic" is overused--and I'm guilty of that!--but this particular two-chorus harp solo deserves the name, as does the whole cut. Wells's style is surprisingly difficult to get a handle on, but I've come up with a three-page PDF tab that gets the job done, plus a video--almost 45 minutes long--that works you deeply into it, step by step.
Quick reminder: Satan and Adam are playing two gigs in the next few days: a serious juke joint throwdown at Mr. Gip's in Bessemer, Alabama on Saturday the 26th, and a book publication party (for the paperback edition of JOURNEYMAN'S ROAD) at the Preservation Pub in Knoxville on Monday the 28th. 9 PM start for both gigs. We'll have copies of our new CD, WORD ON THE STREET, plus t-shirts and books and DVDs.
7/21/08: REVISED ADVISORY: The Satan and Adam show in Birmingham has been moved to Mr. Gip's, an honest-to-god juke joint in Bessemer, about 10 miles outside town. Thanks to the Magic City Blues Society, we'll be kicking in stomping in a legendary blues space. The motto of the place is, "If you can find it, you're invited." A fish fry is part of the deal, beer will be for sale, it's a private establishment--a juke house behind a guy's house--and if you live anywhere in the Southeast US and are in the mood for a blues adventure, you need to get yourself on down to Gip's.
The address of Gip's is 3101 Avenue C, Bessemer AL 35020. If you're planning on coming, it might be a good idea to email or call the Magic City Blues Society's local rep: Roger Stevenson. rjs44@charter.net (205) 215-0616. Tell him you got his contact info from my website.
There's an opener at 9. Satan and Adam hit at 10. They tell me the music lasts until late. Alrighty, then!
7/21/08: ADVISORY: The Satan and Adam show at The Burl Earl in Birmingham, AL this Saturday night (7/26) has been CANCELLED. The good news is, a local blues person has come forward with a substitute gig at a juke joint in nearby Bessemer called Mr. Gips. We're working out the details, but it appears to be a 95% sure deal. I'll let you know......I drove up to Memphis last night to catch Jason Ricci's show and it was worth the loss of sleep. He is HOT, folks. I sound like a broken record where this boy is concerned, but every time I turn around he's paving new ground. Last night it was a surreal version of "Rocket Number 9" with theatrics like Screaming Jay Hawkins, a beautiful sweet jazz-fusiony song in 12th position (5 draw is the tonic note), and, to finish up, John Coltrane's "Afro Blue." Jason was nice enough to get me up to play; when we jammed on "Cissy Strut," he covered every single lick I threw at him and upped the ante repeatedly. No mas! Back to the woodshed for me. Meanwhile, Memphis local Brandon Bailey, just 17 a couple of days ago, sat in on "Scratch My Back" and proved that he's somebody we'll be hearing much more from.
Oh: I'll be uploading two new lessons soon: a three-page tab of Junior Well's "Messin' With the Kid" (a note-for-note transcription of his two-chorus solo, plus the familiar ensemble riff on the turnaround) and Hank Crawford's jazzy blues, "Sugar Ditch." I'll be on the road for three weeks starting on July 26th, but will upload at least a couple more lessons during that period, including Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me," "Tequila" by The Champs, and Slim Harpo's "Got Love if You Want It."
7/11/08: GREAT NEWS! Satan and Adam have just been added to the program of this year's Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival (formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival) in Helena, Arkansas. We're playing Saturday, October 11th, 4-5 PM on the Houston Stackhouse Acoustic Stage.
7/1/08: I've just uploaded two new lessons: "Night Train," a classic R&B instrumental (James Brown and King Curtis both did it), and "John Lee Hooker's Boogie Blues," a fleshed-out version of an instrumental in the style of Hook's "Boom Boom Boom Boom!" that I worked through on YouTube a few months back ("Boogie Blues Lick").
6/25/08: I've just uploaded a new lesson on one of the most challenging harp solos I've ever recorded: the first chorus of "Sunday Driver," which is the lead track in Adam Gussow and Charlie Hilbert: Blues Classics. It's a power shuffle in B-flat, played cross harp. In order to nail it, you'll need to hit two overblows (5 and 6) and combine them with fast triplet runs in all three octaves, including a 9 blow bend--all on an E-flat harp!
I'll upload another lesson--and a slightly easier one!--soon.
6/17/08: I've just uploaded a new lesson that I'm really excited about: Bending the 3 Draw. It's for BEGINNERS through INTERMEDIATES. (Beginners should not attempt this lesson until they are already producing a decent bend on the 4 draw or 2 draw or both.) I explain, in the clearest possible language and at length--almost 40 minutes--the three half-tone bends that can be produced on the 3 draw, and why the "blue third" is actually a quarter-tone bend.
For those of you thinking about attending the 3rd annual North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in Potts Camp, MS on July 4-5, please stick around on Sunday, July 6th, when you can join Satan and Adam at "Blues in the Barn" at Foxfire Ranch. This is a fantastic NEW weekly blues event that takes place every Sunday from 5-9 PM on an 80-acre horse ranch in rural Lafayette County, MS, only 20 miles north of Oxford. I took the family up there a few days ago to check it out and had a blast. Bill and Annette Hollowell, owners of the ranch, began this weekly party in early May, only a month or so ago. We're talking homemade BBQ, fried catfish, baked beans, coleslaw, three kinds of pie, cold beer, and live blues in an open-sided barn overlooking the back 40, with lots of local folk relaxing. $7 cover charge at the gate on the dirt road, $2 Buds, very reasonable prices for huge helpings of food--and great local talent, including (this past Sunday) Bill Howl-n-Mad Perry. Please tell your friends. If you missed out on Junior Kimbrough's jook in Holly Springs--or if you remember it and miss it--this is the next best thing, and only five miles south of Junior's, just off Rt. 7 North. Here are a couple of links:
5/6/08: For those of you within driving distance of Clarksdale, Mississippi: this Friday, May 9, from 2 PM to 1 AM, Delta Groove Records is going to have one heck of a 12-hour showcase going on at Ground Zero. Jason Ricci will be headlining, late in the evening, and although I can't stay--I've got Ole Miss graduation at 8:30 in the AM Saturday--he and I will be hanging out, along with Randy Chortkoff, Mikey Jr., and various other harp guys. Better yet: there's going to be a jam stage set up in the Ground Zero parking lot, with heavy jamming action from noon till dusk. I'll be onstage somewhere between 5:30 and 7:30, and I hope I see you there.
5/5/08: Big news! I'm flying down to Gulfport, Florida to join Sterling Magee at his 72nd Birthday Bash on Tuesday, May 20th at the Peninsula Inn (2937 Beach Blvd.) Satan and Adam with Dave Laycock on drums--live!
5/3/08: I've just uploaded a bundled (zip) version of five of my most popular Intermediate / Advanced Intermediate lessons under the title "Top 5 All-Time Blues Harp Sampler." For a price of only $25, you get five videos totaling more than 75 minutes, PLUS six tab sheets thrown in for free. Included are Little Walter ("Blues With a Feeling"), Big Walter Horton ("Have a Good Time"), James Cotton ("How Long Can a Fool Go Wrong"), John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson ("John Lee Williamson's Blues"), and Sonny Boy "Rice Miller" Williamson ("Sonny Boy's Blues"). For any serious player, this represents the core of the blues harmonica tradition. All in one easy-to-download zip file. (100 mb.......takes five minutes on a high-speed connection, because I just tried it.)
4/29/08: I've just confirmed my harmonica workshop at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Here's the info:
Modern Blues Harmonica Workshop
Sunday, May 25, 3:00 PM -- 4:50 PM
with Adam Gussow
Extract the best possible sound from your axe, and get new ideas about the idiom and the instrument. Gussow will talk about ways of using overblows in first, second, and third-position playing. Also work on your embouchure, enhance your vibrato, get closer to mastering the blues scale, navigate 12-bar blues changes, expand your rhythmic possibilities; fit into a band, and work on high notes. Well-versed in traditional techniques, Gussow’s own pedigree--which includes half a decade as a Harlem street musician in partnership with bluesman Sterling “Mr. Satan” Magee--has helped him update his approach beyond the usual traditionalist mindset. Gussow is one of the first diatonic blues players to incorporate Howard Levy’s overblowing technique on tunes such as “Watermelon Man,” “Blue Monk,” and “Thunky Fing.” Although beginner players are welcome to sit in on this workshop, it is oriented towards those who would place themselves in the “advanced beginner to advanced intermediate” spectrum, as described here. http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/page/page/4514503.htm Call for special info and prerequisites.
Call 773.728.6000 to register | Price: $30
4/28/08: Satan and Adam have just been booked into a Tuscaloosa, AL venue called Little Willie's on Thursday, July 3rd. Three sets, 9-1.
4/23/08: I've just uploaded a new set of YouTube audio tracks to lessons 113-122. These cover three installments of the "Iron Harp Challenge"; Sugar Blue, Billy Gibson, and Chuck "The Cat" Morris; Jon Gindick's jam camp in the Mississippi Delta, the 36 blow octave, and a video I called "Whammer Jammered":
4/14/08: For my YouTube fans: I've just uploaded free tab sheets to YT videos 007, 008, 017, and 032, courtesy of the tireless Wayne Snyder. If you visit these lessons--and you can easily google them--you'll find a link to the tradebit page with the free download icon.....
4/12/08: Hey juke joint fans: to celebrate the release of our new double live album, "Word on the Street," Satan and Adam (with Dave Laycock on drums) will be playing Red's Lounge in Clarksdale, Miss., on Saturday, July 5, 2008. Red's is a REAL Mississippi juke joint. Here's what one aficionado said on line:
"Red's Lounge? It's the definition of a real-deal Mississippi juke joint. Don't expect to be spoiled with amenities. All you need is a been-there-done-that owner, some beers as big as your head and some "live" blues you'll never forget. (Oh, and MAYBE something out front on the grill.) This is how blues became blues... how the music grew up out of the cotton fields and onto a round piece of vinyl. Speaking of which, the building itself was called "Levine's Music Center" back in the day, and it's where Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm bought the instruments that played the first rock 'n roll song. Yeah, Red's is the real thing for sure..."
We're playing for the door--something I would only do in exceptional circumstances, but this is an exceptional circumstance. So please drive on down to the Mississippi Delta and support the band. There's a great blues festival in the hill country that weekend--the Mississippi Hill Country PIcnic in Potts Camp, about 90 miles from Clarksdale--so I encourage you to make Mississippi your 4th of July destination.....go to the festival on Friday and on Saturday day, then drive over to the Delta for Satan and Adam on Saturday night....
4/8/08: Apologies for the problems some of you had in downloading "Funky Revival" from the link below. The problem has been fixed! And I've got BIG NEWS. I got a call yesterday from Sonny Payne, the dean of American blues DJs. He has agreed to host me on "King Biscuit Time" on WEDNESDAY, MAY 14TH for the world premiere of the new Satan and Adam live album, Word on the Street. 12:15 - 12:45 on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. I'll have a link when the day approaches; you can certainly download the show after it airs--I just did that with yesterday's show, which plays beautifully through a Real Player--but you may also be able to listen in real time. I'll letcha know!
4/5/08: Satan and Adam have added another gig this summer: The Preservation Pub, Knoxville TN: Monday, July 28, 2008....it's a publication party for the paperback edition of my new book, Journeyman's Road: Modern Blues Lives From Faulkner's Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York (U of Tennessee Press).....I'm delighted to report that the U of Minnesota Press has just decided to republish my first book, Mister Satan's Apprentice; I'll share more news about that when I have it....Please take a look at my YouTube channel, when you get a chance. Over the next several weeks I'll be uploading a number of videos that preview each song in the new MBH jam tracks CD and show you how to work with them.
3/30/08: A big shout-out of thanks to Jon Gindick for making me a part of his first annual blues harmonica jam camp in Clarksdale, Mississippi last weekend. I got to meet and hear several of my MBH customers, including a gentleman from Holland, and this was terrifically gratifying. Some of you also got to meet my wonderful wife, Sherrie, and now understand why I am a happy homebody who would rather teach via video than tour the world as touring blues performers must.
For those of you who missed this year's camp, Jon has already decided that he's going to offer a 5-day camp next year, also at Hopson's Plantation in Clarksdale (March 2009), and the extra day will give us a chance, I'm sure, to see a bit more of the Delta--a magical, bluesy world indeed. I'll be there. If you're interested, please let Jon know via his website: www.gindick.com
Finally, on a more personal note: I was humbled and blown away by the playing of all my fellow coaches, including Cheryl Arena and Billy Gibson, but I was particularly challenged by a little blowing session I had one evening in the Hopson Commissary with Jimi Lee and Jon Gindick. Jon's third-position playing put me to shame--I gotta practice that stuff more!--and Jimi Lee's improvisations, particularly on rack-mounted minor-key harps while he was playing terrific guitar grooves, were the best I've heard in a long, long time. We harp players sometimes get so caught up in discussions about technique that we forget the whole point of technique is to communicate feeling and musical ideas through notes and silences. Stevie Wonder has prodigious harp technique, but what we hear when he plays is his musical spirit. I had that same feeling when listening to Jimi Lee. Good blues harmonica should not be about recycling a familiar set of stylized moves, but risking whatever it takes to create a brand new voice on the instrument. Jimi has done this. I salute him. I look forward to more head-to-heads with coaches AND campers at future clinics.
3/12/08: I've finally uploaded the long-awaited album, "Blues Harmonica Jam Tracks, Vol. 1." Charlie Hilbert and I have been working on this for months. It's Charlie on guitar and vocals, your truly on production. 10 classic blues grooves--fast, slow, swingy, two-beat--for beginning and intermediate players.
A number of these songs were featured on our album "Blues Classics." In response to repeated requests, we decided that harp players needed a jam tracks album stripped down to essentials: just Charlie singing and playing guitar, with NO harp from me. That leaves space for you. We also decided to include duplicate, all-instrumental versions of two cuts, "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Mojo" (our version of "Got My Mojo Working"), so that you could try your hand at singing. Harp players who can carry a couple of tunes get to have much more fun at jam sessions.
Other cuts include "Good Morning Little School Girl," "Checking Up on My Baby," "Messin' With the Kid, "Key to the Highway,"..... Lots of good stuff.
