Well I'm presuming that by "JR" you mean Jason Ricci. I can only say I don't hear what you think you're hearing that is reminiscent of Jason Ricci at all. All I hear is heavily amplified harp and a few attempts at fast flurry's. Which to my ear come across as pretty poor attempts at doing so. Maybe you'd care to enlighten us all further as to what you think here is Jason's 'style'. Because I for one am certainly at a loss to hear any reference to Jason's signature style in this track.
Hoy boy. Not wanting to get into a big JR discussion, as there are so many that LOVE him here.
It's not in your face, but I hear this player working a few speed patterns - not the same patterns JR uses or as frequently, but the concept is similar.
In advance, I don't expect many to hear what I do and don't wish to argue or defend positions. Just thought it was an interesting solo and worthy of posting here.
Good tough blues rock tune with good harp IMHO. Production has a bit of that modern cheese engineering with splashy upfront drums/cymbals, but there are way worse sounding things out there. Nothing to do with Jason Ricci, though, to my ears... I hear more of a glissando technique and he or she probably went to that technique a few too many times during the solo if you want to get picky but it was still in the pocket. I hear JR playing much more inventively/technically difficult over a single chord than this, but that's just me. I think a more accurate description would be "Rock Style mixed w/ Chicago"....
I don't hear the Jason Ricci thing as you do, but I think it's a fantastic bit of harmonica playing and I thank you for bringing it to my attention. He is definitely trying to push the envelope and find a new sound within a fairly straightforward Chicago shuffle groove. Extremely creative use of Rod-Piazza-type glissandos and tone. One of the best, fullest sounds I've heard on a recording in some time. Whatever he was doing in the studio (mic placement, amp choice, etc.), it works.
I'd like to invite him to Hill Country Harmonica in 2016, if we have it. He's an exciting player.
I can't access the above video but title reads Studebaker John and the Hawks. I came across him some years back when I viewed this vid and dug the solo (@1:30) and sound he was getting from the rig behind him Fat with force....
First time I ever heard Studebaker John And The Hawks was on the 1990's Blues Harp Summit CD, I had known about him through blues magazines and I now own a good few of his CDs but to be honest I always thought he used that glissando (I used to call that a 'rip' until I learned it's proper name with the birth of the net) a bit much on a lot of his solo's here is a similar sounding but good track from earlier from the blues harp summit CD....
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"Those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do"
Great tone from John, and I like the he pushes beyond the expected root notes and tone centers. He is a mite too slurry on the fast riffs for my tastes, though;it sounds almost as if he's trying to something like VanHalen tapping on the harp. For me, I prefer my fast harmonica players to be fully articulate in their execution. That's what makes that kind of playing exciting. ---------- Ted Burke tburke4@san.rr.com
