Chris O'Leary won. Here's Jimi's comment plus the five nominees:
We left off a ton of harp players from our list, not as an oversight but again to get some light on some others who are out there. Our winner had a release this year that was so damn good on so many levels it will make you jump up and say hell yeah.
Harmonica Player Award:
Omar Coleman Fabrizio Poggi Jason Ricci CHRIS O'LEARY Jay Stollman
It's a brave new world of blues harmonica, clearly. A generational passing of the torch. Please post videos--apart from Jason's, which are already in evidence on other threads--that illustrate why these five players dominate the contemporary scene.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Nov 20, 2015 3:39 AM
I enjoyed the Chris O'Leary videos. Nice playing, though not what I would consider world class playing. I would go hear that band.
I question the whole issue of "dominating the scene." If this is about harmonica and not vocals and band overall, why is Jay Stollman even part of the group of 5? There are 5 or 6 harmonica players performing within 20 miles of my home who have equal or better harmonica technique and delivery than that in the video. He didn't mess up on harp, he was OK, but one of the top 5 dominating the scene???
If the contest is actually about bands with harmonica and the whole issue is the overall performance of the group I can see Jay Stollman being included in a larger group of participants, but I would expect more players in the world class category to be in the top 5. ----------
I'm guessing 411 awards are kind of regional and it's their lil ol' opinion. Apart from JR all the others are ok to one degree or another nothing bad but nothing great also to my ears. May have been different if it was a W.C. Handy award!
Should add I have listened to few Chris O'Leary numbers on YT a while back but I was thinking, in respect to his vocals he was trying a bit too hard to sound like Kim Wilson and his harp playing was ok. ----------
"Those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do"
Last Edited by marine1896 on Nov 20, 2015 11:04 AM
Blues 411 is a website run by a really nice guy named Chefjimi Patricola. A serious blues booster who attends a lot of shows and gives quite a bit to the community.
