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Bleeding Harp Band
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Grey Owl
1011 posts
Nov 12, 2019
9:08 AM
Just found this great cover of Little Sonny's Creeper Returns by a band named Bleeding Harp.The Harp player is Paul Vallis and he does a good job in mimicing the machine gun vibrato of Little Sonny's original but with a modern spin thru the solo (neat guitar solo in the middle as well).


Don't know if any of you guys have heard of him/them? I couldn't find much info online but here is something I found from a while ago "Paul Vallis came to LA in 2001 from London, UK where he had fronted his own band Bleeding Harp for 10 years and was a mainstay on the UK Blues Circuit. They played mainly London based Blues venues but also did the occasional European tour including opening for BB King at the Czeck Republic’s first ever Blues Festival in 2000.

Vallis and fellow founding member Tony Horkins formed a US crew of the band in 2002 with Jeff Marshall who is now the band’s MD. Bleeding Harp is now LA based and plays mainly on the SoCal Blues Circuit.

Bleeding Harp has just released a new 7 track EP available on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon and CDbaby."





Grey Owl
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ted burke
785 posts
Nov 12, 2019
10:43 AM
I've known about Vallis for a number of years now, ever since I came across one of their albums on CD Baby. Theoretically he is everything I should like in a harmonica player, given the a noticeable slant of harp players CDs I own--Sugar Blue, Jason, Butterfield, Ford,Carlos, etc--but Vallis, skillful, fast, clean, gutsy, just misses it for me. For all of what he can do, which is a lot, he sounds like he's trying too hard, like he's trying to impress a band during an audition. His playing sounds off. His harmonica work makes me think of the way Richard Dreyfus acts--too animated, too emphatic, too aggressive. That said, the man can indeed play the instrument.
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snowman
513 posts
Nov 12, 2019
11:24 AM
I like it a lot---I really like his tone

Ted I know what yr talkin about
"he sounds like he's trying too hard, like he's trying to impress a band during an audition"

I hear that a lot at harp clinics " harp players trying to impress other harp players" Im probably guilty as well
To me if u really want to hear someone play give them 2-3 12 bar go arounds and maybe more at end of song

I really like this version and I like most versions
of this song a lot

Thanks for post:its one of those instrumentals, I like to make backing tracks for
The Iceman
3957 posts
Nov 12, 2019
12:03 PM
appropriate name - sounds like he's trying to make his harp bleed.

wonder what he would do if someone took away his vibrato.....
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The Iceman
DanP
434 posts
Nov 14, 2019
1:16 PM
This is the first I've heard of Paul Vallis and the Bleeding Heart band. I dig it. Thanks for sharing. Grey Owl.
nacoran
10192 posts
Nov 14, 2019
6:19 PM
I'd be interested in looking at that in some mixing software. I kind of like it, but at the same time it sounds a little overproduced. I like the harp bits but wish there were some non-harp bits to break it up. The bass line is so stuck on the groove that it's really not adding much.

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Nate
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