I have became a huge fan of first position blues..Reed, Cotton, Kashmar, Wilson, the list goes on of those that play some killer first position.
Although I use the middle octave, I still love to hear old traditional style first position blues..... the guys that jump from the high end of the harp to the low end.
I know I've seen Andy's name mentioned before, but I never really looked him up....my loss.
I found seven videos that Andy posted himself a couple of months ago that have barely been viewed.
No overplaying by anyone in this band...just good ole blues with 1st position harp.
I cannot say enough good things about Andy J. Forest. I first saw Andy at the Free Crescent City Blues and Barbeque Festival shortly after I moved to New Orleans. I was blown away by his Harp Playing and his stage presence. We have since become friends, and he is an active member of the Crescent City Harmonica Club
At our first annual Harmonica Blues Review, last year he impressed everyone so much that the Voodoo Blues Krewe (New Orleans Blues society) that they hired him to play at the intermission of one of the legs of the local IBF blues challange. He does a lot of Washboard stuff, but he forgot his washboard, so he grabbed a step stool. Look at what he does.
Andy does some comedy stuff with a persona of Willie Pay of WHRP TV. Here is one that is on my website thats pretty funny, and sort of a commercial for my harmonica.
OK one more. Here is another Willie Pay video that he shot during MardiGras this year. He caught me coming out of a gig at BMC. He has his daughter in this one. He also has Smoky Greenwell in this one.
Andy was one of my first real mentors. He has a very unique style with a sense of humor which, along with Delay and Musselwhite, really solidified my belief that I could play what I was hearing, even if it wasn't what Little Walter had been playing.
