For those of you who don't know quite what you're getting into with the whole Hill Country Harmonica thing, here's some video of Charlie Sayles. As far as I'm concerned, he's the dark horse in this particular competition. Sugar Blue, Jason Ricci, and yrs. truly are fairly well known to most of you. but Charlie Sayles is underexposed, and one of my great pleasures as a promoter who has shared the stage with him is knowing just what he's going to do to y'all on Sunday evening in Mississippi.
Here he is with Tony Fazio. He is not a highly technical player, as many of us casually use that term--i.e., as a synonym for fast & furious--but the truth is, he is a deep and dangerous player who knows how to work the ENERGIES of the harp as well as anybody out there. He has plenty of technique, but he's also a guy who makes lots of music in the realm beyond technique. He is a shaman, not just a harp player. (I, on the other hand, am just a harp player, not a shaman. I'm working on it, though. Give me twenty years.) And on Sunday evening at HCH, I'm looking forward to kicking back with a glass of....you know. And enjoying this:
35 years ago or more, I used to see Charlie Sayles in Times Square, playing by himself with just the top of a high hat cymbal under his foot; blowing thru 2 pig nose amps,( sometimes in dead o' winter) he always had a crowd around him and making money...in Time Square NYC that's a tuff one holding an audience for more than 2 seconds.
I used to have an LP with him playing an instrumental "Banjo" it's frkn incredible
He's gotta whole lotta soul, and a sense of humor to match. A Real Deal Bluesman
I don't know if he would remember me or not, but when I was first starting out on harp, Charlie would let me sit in with him, and we had a lot of long and very interesting conversations. He's a great guy as well as a great harp player.
