I met and interviewed Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie last night for a project that I'm working on for Alabama Tourism. He's a great guy and his harp playing has only improved with the years. Oh, and the guy can really belt out a tune.
I think he's certainly worth checking out and there are videos on YouTube of him back in the 70s and today. This is a fun one from Don Kirshner's Rock Show.
Wet Willie opened for B. B. King in a concert in Central Park--at Wollman Skating Rink, I think--that I saw back in the summer of 1975, when I'd been playing harp for about a year. I remember nooding on harp while sitting in my outdoor seat waiting for the music. "Keep on Smiling" was the big Wet Willie hit, and they played that.
His harp playing is fine. Pure lip pursing, and we MIGHT say, "Hey, tongue blocking would add some subtlety." But I'm cool with exactly what he's going here. Very strong groove and punchy attack. His singing is what they used to call "blue-eyed soul": it's very influenced by what black R&B singers of the time were doing. In that respect, it feels slightly derivative to me now, although I certainly didn't hear it that way then. But that's just me. The music, all told, is superb, and the crowd is into it. These guys were Capricorn recording artists for a reason.
Last Edited by on Aug 22, 2010 7:30 AM
Totally agree about his skill set in the video example. What I gathered from him in our very short chat after the interview about harmonica stuff is that he's certainly clued in to what his strengths and weaknesses are on the harmonica. In fact, he mentioned meeting a kid named "Jay ... something" and I asked, "Jay Gaunt?" and he lit up and said something to the effect that the kid just blew him away. Jimmy has added some tongue blocking for splits and such to his game and said he was really diving back into some wood-shedding on the instrument. Just goes to show you that life (and playing harp) are a life-long process.:^)
Last Edited by on Aug 22, 2010 9:25 AM
When I was playing with Big Al & the Heavyweights a few years ago, we opened for Wet Willie at the Crawfish Festival in Biloxi. Jimmy Hall is one soulful cat.
