I had a really excellent skype chat with Dan Kaplan yesterday, and among many other things, it got me to thinking about my harmonica influences, and who I've learned from over the years, and why my sound is the way it is... There's a ton of non-harmonica influences that have definitely shaped my sound, but I really got to thinking about the harmonica world. Right of the bat, the two biggest influences, especially in my formative years, were Adam and Chris Michalek. Without a doubt, the base of my sound comes from these two guys. But clearly I've added to that sound over the years, and I'd say I've borrowed heavily from Son of Dave, and Brendan Power. To a lesser extent, Madcat Ruth and Dave Barrett have also had an influence at one point. More recently, I've been heavily influenced by Lee Sankey, Todd Parrot, and Dave Ferguson. And now most recently, it's Dan Kaplan's sound that's inspiring me the most. There have been many other harp influences, but those are the ones that really stand out to me as being the big ones. The ones that when I first heard them, I just HAD to get that sound.
When I look back at that list, it's interesting to me that these are all contemporary players. I know that I HAVE been influenced by the Blues greats, but I just don't think that they've really shaped my sound much. I mean, I just don't hear Little Walter or the Sonny Boy's or Cotton, or any of that in my playing these days, even though I have most certainly listened to these guys a lot. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I've actively interacted with a lot of the folks on my list? Or that a lot of them have actually put out instructional material? That might have a lot to do with it, but I think mainly it's their sound that I really think grabbed me more than anything else. A modern sound that was unlike anything I'd heard before, and that really inspired me to pick up the harp and play it as good as I could...
What about you fine folks? Who do you cite when you think about the development of your own harmonica sound? I suppose I'm asking mainly about other harp players here, and not the other influences to your sound (which I know can have a BIG impact). I'm really interested in "lineages" of acquired skills, so it would be really cool to be able to build a kind of "family tree" of harmonica influences!
It's hard to separate the players that inspired me to play from those whose sound made me mimic them.
Anyway, my first name would probably be Wade Schuman. He made blues harmonica sound something else for me. There was a time when I was bored with the blues. His sound taught me that you could play the same blues scale with a sound that makes the whole riff universal in a way. He can change the whole language of the blues harp with his mouth (and Filisko harps of course, dunno if one should distinguish a "Filisko sound" as the harps are so rich in harmonics and tone). Schuman is also an outside-the-box virtuoso what it comes to scales, improvising and fox chasing. He also uses POG tastefully and creatively in a musical style you wouldn't expect. He's definitely in my Top-5 players in no particular order.
I think the desired sound also depends on your song / project you're playing. Sometimes I'm very much after a Levy-like sound, but when I'm playing with Ataturk that might not be the ideal approach. Then again with my arabic-influenced trio I'd love to sound something like him.
I always found Rice Miller's solos rhythmically interesting. He makes chugging sound so polyrhythmic and deep. He makes those few notes count. Rhythm Willie had an exceptional jazz sound (especially considering in the high end) that blows my mind.
From the chromatic players Hugo Diaz was and probably will always be my number one inspiration.
Going along with what J-Sin said, I dunno that I can really cite any particular harp player as a heavy influence on my playing style. I can say without a doubt that a couple players that INSPIRED me to play are Huey Lewis and Dan Aykroyd as Elwood Blues. If I had to say what influences the two have on me, Huey's articulation and licks strike home for me pretty hard, and I've adapted the timeless onstage antics and dancing styles of Elwood in my gig persona. (Not as often as I used to though. Gets hard on your knees after a while.)
I'm one of the few harp players I know of who doesn't really play harp in the traditional manner. My phrasing and articulation are more based off guitar and keyboard licks. My single note technique probably stems from my years of trumpet training. What can I say? Old habits die hard.
J-Sin: That's an interesting point you make about how your influences change from song to song. I definitely see that in my little catalog too... I mean, a lot of the time I'm sort of playing something and it clicks in my brain that I'm citing some one particular with that sound... ---------- == I S A A C ==
IMHO rice miller belongs in any top 10 harp player list...he was a big influence on howlin` wolf who learned and used a lot of sonny boys riffs...it was his throat vibrato that would so wish to approximate some day...not the best harp player but my number 1 bluesman of all.....
@Hawkeye and harpdude: Really interesting to hear that! Hawkeye: I'm not sure if I've heard much of your playing before? I know I subscribed to your YT channel at one point, but I don't recall there being any performance videos (just a gear review or two?). I'd like to see if I can hear those two in your sound! Harpdude: I can definitely see the influence of the three folks you cited in your playing (from what I've heard of it). You've got a really sweet single note style, and the way you use overblows in the melody definitely shows your JR influence!
@groyster: Are you saying that Rice Miller is YOUR biggest influence, or just an influence in general? I agree about his vibrato (and the rythmic qualities pointed out by J-Sin above), but I'm confused if you are claiming him as a direct influence or just as a general harmonica influence on lots of people? I'd really like to know who you cite personally as an influence! ---------- == I S A A C ==
This is one of our better performances. The energy we got from the crowd had me on my game that day. My A harp had a slightly unresponsive 7-blow, but I managed. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Jun 07, 2012 3:57 PM
I guess I could say Stevie Wonder is an influence too....in case the scream I let loose at 3:19 didn't jump out at you from Superstition. LOL. I also suppose Norton Buffalo should be credited since he was doing the dance moves long before Elwood Blues was.
Evidence of the Huey Lewis influence is taken to the extreme here since I virtually duplicated his licks (rather inferiorly). This....
...came from this....
...and we use mine as the intro for Little Red Rooster. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Jun 07, 2012 4:19 PM
Isaacullah, I'm crushed that I didn't make your list of influences. Lmfao. For me, first attracted to Rick Jeffery. Rick was the harp player for Dutch Mason here on Canada. I think I referenced him before. Unfortunately he passed at a young age. He had a great tone and played with passion. Others with a huge influence, Cotton, Portnoy and Musslewhite. Those guys really did it for me and still do. ---------- "Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
Picked it up because of Bob Dylan. Learned cross harp because of Magic Dick on "Whammer Jammer": i never knew harp could be played like that. Taj Mahal had a big impact on my sound, then came Paul Butterfield, Sonny Boy I, now i'm gettin into Little Walter. As far as licks go, i try to mimic a lot of keith richards' guitar riffs, which is almost like backwards progress cause he was just lifting horn licks...but i digress...mainly taj and robby z
I'd say sonny boy 1 since I'm in country blues player mainly in Jackson tn ....his influence is biggest reason I picked up harp....terry McMillan , delbert mclinton on country ......on amplified harp..loved pat Ramsey saw him a lot in the early 90s on beale early in my playing years along with jr wells. And billy Gibson
I think early on it was Howlin' wolf and Sonny Boy II (Rice Miller), also I listened to a lot of Junior Wells (actually I still do). I learned a lot from Adam and Chis M. from the internet but not sure much of their sound can be heard in mine.
Later on I was really in to what Wade Schuman was doing with Hazmat Modine, and I think I also picked up a lot from Will Greener (who pasts here as Captain Bliss) – His performance on the "Hey Nergrita" album "Burn the whole Place Down" was a definite eye opener for me. – http://www.myspace.com/heynegrita
I didn't start playing until my senior year of college. I was a huge John Popper fan, so he was my first influence, but then I heard, "Born in Chicago", during the Blues Brothers movie and got into Butterfield.
While trying to teach myself, I came across Sugar Blue from a JP interview, so I got into him...so that would be influence #3. In researching both of them, I came across Jason Ricci and overblowing (he had mentioned both JP and SB in an interview).
I had read a lot about JR and Feel Good Funk before ordering the CD and even hearing it...when I did, that became influence #4.
That held me through the first couple years of playing - it was a huge PIA as those guys are so not normal for learning harmonica from...and this was before YT and other teaching resources. It was all by ear and harmoncialessons.com.
I eventually got into Carey Bell and then Chris Michalek played Joyful Noise by The Derek Trucks Band in 2006 for me and life was over.
Derek Trucks and John Popper are by far my biggest influence over the course of my 10yrs of playing. Son of Dave has started to become a significant influence, but more for the idea of looping, which, I guess, I don't even try and copy. I pretty much try to be Otis Taylor on harmonica, lol.
Butter, Cotton and Clarke were huge in terms of listening. But I also studied the heck out of the two Walters, the two Sonny Boys, especially Miller, Smith, Reed, Lightfoot, Musselwhite, Delay and many others.
In terms of players who were kind enough to spend a lot of time helping me learn, Estrin, Primich, Andy J. Forest and Eugene Huggins.
Last Edited by on Jun 08, 2012 6:47 AM
Years before I started taking the harp seriously I played guitar in a band with a great Chicago-style player named Derek Walsh. I think a lot of Little Walter Jacobs and Walter Horton influences came to me through him. Back in those days, I was listening to the Butterfield records mostly for Bloomfield, but I've returned a lot to Butterfield since taking up the harp.
Edit: I forgot Charlie Musselwhite. One of my favorite records used to be John Hammond's So Many Roads which featured Musselwhite on harp so he's in there, too.
I've always listened to lots of Rice Miller and Howlin' Wolf so they're influences, too. I've been listening to more John Lee Williamson lately so that's creeping in.
Of the modern blues players, Carlos del Junco is the mutt's nuts as the Brits say. I listen to him a lot.
Last Edited by on Jun 08, 2012 8:09 AM
Interesting topic Isaac. I've been thinking about this lately too. I'd have to say I'm a country-style player mostly. I like amplified harp too, but I don't play that way much at all. Dylan and Young got me interested, but once I got into blues it was Sonny Terry, and the two Sonny Boys that caught my ear. Adam and Junior Wells are also influences. --------
Early on ('68) I listened to (and tried to emulate) Sonny Terry. That led me (not necessarily logically) into the blues in general, then to George Smith, Cotton, both Walters and both Sonny Boys. Now I listen to everything I can find that is blues - mostly older stuff - guys like Harmonica Fats, Rythym Willie,but also Kim Wilson, Estrin, Delay, Musselwhite, Portnoy etc. In the past two or three years as I've made more progress than in all the preceeding years, I have been infuenced the most by both Walters and both Sonny Boys, particularly Sonny Boy I. Trying to recreate their tone has been more helpful than anything else. Perhaps, eventually, I will end up with something that is "my" style/sound, but for now I am very happy when I can play one of their songs and sound pretty good. Rich
Last Edited by on Jun 08, 2012 11:22 AM
@issacullah rice miller and probably more so howlin` wolf who played simple but very effective licks...there are some who thought he overused throat vibrato but he sure made every lick count.....little walter is my favorite of all time but he is difficult to learn for me,especially since I dont play chromatic....
hmmm that is a good question. I am not sure I can point to particular influences by particular players much. Sonny Terry, MadCat Ruth, Terry Mcmillian with the chugs styles. I am primarily a rhythm player, I like to do all sorts of chugging type riffs and what not. But at the same time Adam is an influence along with others I like. Also Cotton, Big Walter, love a lot of Jason's stuff, John Popper especially some of his later stuff as well as with BT. I dunno really those are mostly players I like and I think they have all had influence on how i play. But also some guitar players I like that I try to do some similar things with harp, SRV for instance. Mainly I will hear something interesting and try to incorporate a similar technique into my own playing without totally copying what they are doing(most of the time I can't anyway hahah :) )
Never really tried to pin down specific influences. its most stylistic influences for me.
I spent a lot of time studying how Jason Ricci uses his hands when he plays acoustically. Otherwise, Rice Miller was my big early influence. Henry Whittier was a big one. I've learned a lot from non-harmonica players, my grandfather on the way he'd hit flatted notes on the mandolin, some of the tonal things Ernie Carpenter did on the fiddle- that I applied to harmonicas. Ernest Tubb and Porter Wagonner for how to front a band - lots of little things picked up here and there. On the harmonica, Tony and Dom Sgro had a big influence on me, so did Phil Caltabellotta. Wally Peterman, George Miklas, Peter Ruth...
But my greatest harmonica influence was Junior Wells. I've listened to him as a kid and and as both a kid and a young man, I played a lot of complicated lines and I'd listen to Junior and his stuff was so simple and I'd wonder, why is this so good? It doesn't seem very complex at all. Then, I figured it out and Junior Wells became my biggest harmonica influence. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
Wow, this is great! I'm reading through all these posts and I'm seeing quite a few names that I haven't heard before, or that don't come up a lot around here. Of course, there are the usual suspects in the lists too. It's cool to read how we all interpret our influences. One trend I'm seeing is that it isn't necessarily the people who you learned directly from that you get your sound from, but perhaps more who you listen to and just GOTTA have that sound! And it's not genre-specific either. Think about Dave Payne's style of music, and that that Jason Ricci plays! But clearly Dave's been hugely influenced by Jason.
Now here's another interesting thought: who do you listen to a lot, and like a lot, or even perhaps learned from, but who HASN'T influenced your playing? For me, the top of that list is Jason Ricci. Love the guy, like quite a bit of his music, watched all his instructional vidoes, learned a great deal from him, but DON'T hear much JR influence in my playing. For me, a lot of the Blues greats also fit into this category. Listened heavily, love the music, but just DON'T hear them in my own playing. ---------- == I S A A C ==
Also, I'm noting two trends here: The people that influenced you to play harmonica in the first place, versus the people who's sound you've incorporated into your own playing. Sometimes these are one and the same, but a lot of the time it seems that these are different... Very interesting stuff! ---------- == I S A A C ==
So who de we listen to who may not have influenced us? King Biscuit Boy - Richard Newell, William Clarke, but I listen mostly to those who influenced me. ---------- "Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
Jason is a brilliant acoustic player, you just don't hear him do that that often. I remember first time I noticed his prowess with using the hands for volume and tonal dynamics, he was in town and I was driving, he was in the passenger seat - it might have even been when we shot the harmonicas with the .303. I heard that tone snap in my ear and I kept one eye on the road, one eye on his hands and spent the next two years watching his hands. Jason would have to be influence No. 2. I applied more effort watching his hands than I did looking at anybody else, but the Junior Wells thing had a big impact because I stopped trying to play overcomplicated lines and concentrate on simplicity and tone. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
My initial influences were my Dad and Grandad, both typical old time harp players. Then it was the Harmonicats(don't laugh),then a myriad of players starting with Wayne Raney then Paul Butterfield and continued from there. ---------- Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
Last Edited by on Jun 08, 2012 8:57 PM
alex miller, sonny terry, hammie nixon, doctor ross, jimmy reed, billy boy arnold, little walter, howlin wolf (miller impersonator) and all the british miller impersonators keith relf/ the guy who played on psychotic reaction father/s of punk harmonica (wait sonny terry did some punky stuff too)and whoever played leaky wet harp in the memphis jug band in first position yeah ragtime is best in first also NEGRO spirituals. i know all these guys sucked shit through a straw because they played welfare marine bands out of the box and you could play circles around them, sue me i have shit taste in music.
I started playing harp in 1968 and any good sound from a harp i was turned on by. then when i decided too woodshed on the blues,i started with Sonny Terry,than Sonnyboy williamson[rm] and Little walter, these three covered a lot of blues area.but one of my favorite songs to jam on is Paul butterfield`s version of "everythings gonna be allright" do it to it...
Pierre Beauregard. I was truly fortunate to meet him at 16 and take one lesson with him. I eventually joined his Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra -wow, plenty of influence there. Proper tongue blocking was a really big deal to Pierre and the emphasis has really shaped my playing. It's all about tone -Big Walter (and everything Dave said he loves about Jr Wells). Lately its Gruenling and always more time in learning some JR speed. And, of course, the undisputed king (just try) LW.
Last Edited by on Jun 09, 2012 5:17 AM
As for getting an "own style" don't you think that former generations have exhausted the topic, at least in blues and rock? I mean is a rebirth of those styles still possible -I don't speak about new electronic devices that surround our instrument!
Sorry for dropping out of the conversation for a few days... I was up north in the woods playing harp at Lawrence's awesome cabin! Thanks for the contributions thus far, it's been really really interesting to read through them!
@ DavePayne: Yeah, I think you are right that not many folks think "acoustic" tone when they think JR. But I do recall a few videos where he was playing acoustic, and you are totally right. For me, the KING of acoustic tone was Igor Flach. I actually should have listed him up in my OP as a big influence, because his playing was the first I heard where I was like "Oooooh... THAT'S tone!"
@laurent: Nope. Certainly it gets harder to make an original voice on an instrument that's been played by a lot of great players in the past, but exhausted? Not in the least.
Anyone else want to take a crack at listing his/her harp influences? ---------- == I S A A C ==
And Igor Flach's tone.... Influenced by opera singers and yodelers. It's important to note that Igor did not have access to many of our influences. Igor was a big influence on me too with vibratto. There's one thing I do all the time when I hit a resolving blow note usually, starts off with a draw bend, then really light, blow note bent slightly, then a dam of air released with throat vibrato held. I usually do that on lower notes... That was something Igor had a lot to do with.
I talked to Mickey Raphael briefly the other day and mentioned that some of his chord rhythm stuff had really influenced my rhythm harp, he said that his influence for that was Donnie Brooks, who played harp with Waylon Jennings. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
How could I forget Igor's vibrato?!? Man, yeah, that was a BIG influence for me too (still is). He was able to get a great polyrhythm in his vibrato on songs like Yalla Magnun and One Step Ahead of the Blues where the vibrato is going something like "da-dah-dah-DAH-da-dah-DAH-DA-DAH-da-da-da", and you are like "Woah! How does he DO that?!?".... I mean talk about a unique and totally new voice on the harp. Igor defintely had it! ---------- == I S A A C ==
Igor is very, very different. Igor didn't spent any of the time copying the guys we copy because during his formative years, he didn't have access to our lovely decadent capitalist music. He looked to the music he had there in the DDR for a great deal of his influence and I believe that is why he sounds so different and also why his playing style isn't for everyone. It's very balls out, in-your-face kind of playing. He was well loved, though. Somewhere here I've got this DVD of Seydel's 160th anniversary thing, where they take a tour of the factory and stuff. Igor's playing on it. They loved him so much, he's featured at the beginning of it and at the end... doesn't matter he's playing a Suzuki. Of course, Igor played about everything there was to play. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
Yeah, Igor's style has got to be a result of the "pop cultural" seclusion from "typical" western musical influences. Perhaps Igor's music can be thought of as one of the more positive results of that seclusion? He truly was one of the most unique harp players I've ever heard, and his music, the very very very very small amount of it that I have actually heard, has had a profound affect on me. ---------- == I S A A C ==
Huey is one of the very few harp playing rock n' roll frontmen who's first instrument is HARP. He learned it while thumbing his way through Europe. And although he's classified as a rock harpist, almost all of his licks are blues based. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Jun 12, 2012 8:13 AM
Thought I was wrong, picking Huey's album "Four chords and several years ago" where all in all 5 minutes harp is played: I was willing to forget the name Huey Lewis, so thanks for the video. Now could you recommend any other album of him, worth to listen to?
Last Edited by on Jun 12, 2012 12:57 PM
Charlie McCoy. Later, Sonny Terry and Buddy Greene. However, I play more like Piazza and wished I played like Mike Nazerenko (Naz)! I'd have to say that the pure tone of Lee Oskar was a big influence on my playing too. (Ok, I don't play LIKE Piazza, just like his style of playing)
Last Edited by on Jun 13, 2012 4:40 AM
Yeah. Check out "Soulsville". Not an enormous amount of harp, but it's a great tribute to the music put out by Stax Records in the '60s.
I'll say this for Huey. He gets a helluva lot more license to display his harp chops in concert than in the studio. Check his solo in this as opposed to what you get in the original album or the Garth Brooks collaboration.
---------- Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Jun 12, 2012 1:19 PM
@Iceman....Yeah, I'd have to say that Corky Siegel was my biggest influence, not comparing him to anyone else, please understand. I saw the Siegel/Schwall band perform live a dozen times in the sixties and maybe once in the early seventies. They ALWAYS brought the house down. When I bought the albums, I realized that the stuff Corky was playing was not all that technical, but he is a helluva a performer, singing, harp and keyboards, playing to the audience. So when I started playing it was just me, my Siegel/Schwall albums and several chromatic harps. I couldn't figure out why the sound wasn't the same until I finally visited You Tube. Uh-oh.
Honorable Mention - Adam Gussow - because I like his style and tone and attack, enjoy listening, and whose playing may influence me in the future.
In that order.
The player whose style first got me interested in playing the harmonica at all is Jerry Portnoy.
As to who I enjoy listening to, but do not influence my harmonica playing, they are:
Sugar Blue, Kim Wilson, Toots Thielemans.
People whose playing I like, and may influence my playing in the future are:
Mitch Kashmar Phil Wiggins Annie Raines
I think the following must be stated: We all listen to artists that we like but where it takes a while to get to the point where they are an influence. That's the great thing about playing the music that we do in general. And when it finally hits you that this person really has a hold on your musical direction, and you wallow around in it and absorb it and revel in it, that is when your game EXPANDS the most, even on a par sometimes with practice.
Last Edited by on Jun 13, 2012 7:10 AM
I have really been thinking about this for days now. Biggest influence is Jason Ricci and it was an influence of acoustic tone and manipulating the hands in specific ways to get that tone. Jason got me overblowing, taught me how to overblow, but the big thing was the hands. The ELk River Blues played at the beginning of the Theodore Roosevelt Jr. at D-Day video I did was all Jason. Most everything tonewise in my rendition of that is from Jason and the way he can make each note cry, as if he were actually himself crying through the harmonica... that... and the hands. That was ALL Jason. I spent a lot of time studying and thinking about his hands. There's no question in my mind now about this, Jason Ricci is my biggest influence.
I agree with you both on the Cork. He's seldom brought up on this forum, but he's a great, great contributor to the harp community. When I was first starting to play out at open mics with my guitarist buddy Fred, Fred turned me on to Siegel-Schwall because he used to party with them back in their heyday. He showed me this video, and it really inspired my blues tastebuds at a point when I was pretty deeply ingrained in country and folk.
Since then I've developed a fairly regular correspondance with Corky. I don't know that I'd necessarily say he's an influence on my playing, but as I said, he really gave me that kick in the pants to start playing blues. He's given me many good outlooks on playing and how the music business can work for a harp player. He's also mentioned to me that a lot of the prominent blues community consider him to be kind of an oddball, what with his playing styles and the Chamber Blues act. Maybe that's why his name doesn't get thrown around a lot? I dunno. At any rate, Corky's still got it if you ask me, and I try to keep an eye out for Siegel-Schwall performances in my driving range today.
---------- Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Jun 13, 2012 8:52 AM
