We've stolen a term from Adam: "Biker Bar Harp." He meant it as being simple harmonica playing requiring little talent. TNFrank took it to mean a certain style. The rest of us took off & ran with it. I LIKE IT!!
Now, let's define it. I hear a certain sound in my head. It could be rock (but not just any rock), it could be boogie. Could it be some blues? (Yeah, I guess so....If it's played a certain way.) I hear a really gritty sound, I hear music with a raw something...something that feels primal, and the level of chops needed for it is of little concern. Little chops is fine; lots of chops is fine. Is that the take y'all have on it?
But there's a certain guy with great chops who was pointed out in the other thread....I'd like to coronate HAKAN EHN, KING o' BIKER BAR HARP!!
...and this is but one example...
Anyway, can y'all help put a good definition to "Biker Bar Harp?"
Last Edited by on Oct 24, 2010 9:11 PM
I think that Gene summarizes what I had in mind when I used the term. Biker-bar harp is about energy, not subtlety, and that's OK: it's not pretentious, it just is what it is. It's about wailing. It's about bad embouchure being okay. It's about not worrying whether you're playing single notes of double stops or chords. It's about knowing enough about bending notes that you can bend a few--and bending 2, 3 4, 5 and 6 draw with exactly the same technique. It's about not really worrying WHICH of those notes you happen to be wailing on. It's about never sustaining the 6 blow as a melody note. Biker-bar harp has no idea that tongue blocking exists. It's about gloriously indiscriminate tongue-work against the palate; about bent notes bent ALL the way down. It's not about light attack. It's about an attack that is an ATTACK.
It's about gunning the Harley. Ah, I mean the Hohner.
None of this is to say, BTW, that bikers don't appreciate good harp playing. They appreciate that, too--as long as it attacks. I've played for many bikers in my time. I'm sure that Deak has played for many, and I know they appreciate the muscularity of his playing.
I had a private student in NYC who was a biker. He had shades, a scraggly beard, a mini-helmet--a skull-crusher--and he always smelled of tobacco. Turned out it wasn't tobacco. He got nabbed by the feds and got sent upstate to a prison near Au Sable.
Last Edited by on Oct 24, 2010 7:05 PM
Marlboro smoke, PBR's, a rebel flag and a big can of whoopass! Rack up the pool table and unplug the juke box, It's time for sum Biker Bar Hermonica y'all! ----------
Last Edited by on Oct 24, 2010 7:05 PM
I don't think Hakan should be put in that category ; the choice of tunes he's covering semms to suggest that, but my view of it is that he plays those more subtle than it seems. I love his version of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", I've never heard a harp sounding heavy metal like that !
A "biker bar harper" would just play harp OVER those songs, but Hakan goes further than that, he rearranges the songs to be played with harp only, and that's great.
Sorry, I missed the start of the conversation, so I don't know what points have been made. Biker bar harp describes a phenomenon perfectly, I like it! I don't know if it's meant to be purely derogatory. Obviously, some people have never played anything else in their lives. And some of those only do it badly. They deserve derogation (I made that word up). But good biker bar harp is a skill worth having, and I'd certainly want to include it in my repertoire one day, if I get around to mastering all kinds of harp playing. Or perhaps Adam only means bad chugging and grinding when he uses the term.
Biker bar harp may save your life one day. Imagine, you've strayed by accident into a biker bar, and they take offence to your tattoo that says "camomile can be as refreshing as beer". You whip out your Hohner (they ain't gonna be impressed by a Suzuki) and play some good harp, and they'll put those knives away and even offer you their girlfriends.
(I wanted to reference PeeWee's Big Adventure, but it would have been even more tenuous) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKsd8z6scw ---------- Andrew, gentleman of leisure, noodler extraordinaire.
Last Edited by on Oct 25, 2010 3:25 AM
Andrew, Adam originally meant harp playing that is...uhm...less than masterful, but Frank took it to mean a certain style of music or harp, and the term caught on with that meaning pretty quick. That's what I meant by "stealing" that term from Adam.
Hakan DAMN sure doesn't fit with Adam's original meaning. He's GOOD, and much of his music fits, I believe, with the style we have in mind.
Last Edited by on Oct 25, 2010 4:53 PM
I've seen Dennis Gruenling play at the infamous NJ biker bar called The Great Notch Inn. More bikes than cars in the lot. Trust me, bikers do like a harp player with skills.
hey I think you just descibed how I play harp:-) really thats me to a tee except im learning to TB alot and some celtic tunes,but other than that i play the biker bar style ;-( well at least it has a cool name;-) http://www.reverbnation.com/hobostubs
Bikers & Mountain Hikers you Blow it out your North and South, Think ya a Bit of a Mountain Man, Like the Charley Danials Band:)
It's Simple It's REDNECK MUSIC Yeh Ha down Home Boy Southern Redneck Rock
You Know what they do don'y Ya they suck Whiskey get drunk as a Muther and wail Away :)
Calm Down Calm Down!!! No offence to Rednecks, I like my Sister to :) or Southern Rockers, it sounds good i Like Star spangled Banner:) ---------- Cheers Big Ears :):):):)
Thanks for watching my music!! Almost three years ago before I uploaded my first youtube video I was bored with the harp and didn't know what to do with the little bastard. But this is föcking great!! I just wanted to say IT´S ONLY ROCKNROLL AND I LIKE IT.
I'm sure biker bar harp is cool. But I can't relate to it, have never seen a biker bar. The first I think of is the movie Easy Rider and the song Born To Be Wild which is really nice. I actually play harp to that when I have beer jam with some friends 4-5 times a year. And of course I think of Hells Angels, but here in Sweden they are criminals not bikers.
TnFrank: I agree 100% with your judgment above--the "Ace of Spades" video/audio. That is indeed what I had in mind when I used the term "biker-bar harp." And your stubborn persistence in all this has earned my respect. If I haven't already done this earlier in this thread--and I'm losing track, frankly--I would encourage everybody to pick up a copy of Jim Goad's REDNECK MANIFESTO, a remarkable text.
Here's the weird thing: what a guy like me means by "biker-bar harp" is sorta like what a Harley guy means by--and please excuse the expression--"a rice-burning piece of shit." Meaning a loud, un-pedigreed, over-revved travesty of the good, deep stuff. A Harley is loud, as James Cotton is loud, but it also hits all the right notes; it's got a deep rumble that bespeaks a whole history of good, solid, hardworking American blue-collar labor. The Thermal exhaust on my car has that sort of sound. "Pedigreed" isn't quite right word because it sounds snooty. What I mean is more like the way Jack Daniels ads talk about the ageing process. There's something rich and deep and significant there. By the same token, a 1973 Suzuki 350 two-stroke, in 1973, was just loud, aggressive, and nasty. Some people like that, but if I went onto a Harley forum and tried to make my case--well, I'm asking for trouble.
At this point, I'm thinking that Hill Country Harmonica should actually set aside an hour where we explore the....well, the non-subtleties of biker-bar harp. I don't do crystal meth, but I know there are guys up in the hills who could oblige. (NOTE TO THE SHORT-TEMPERED AND CLUELESS: THE CRYSTAL METH REFERENCE IS A JOKE.) Seriously: I think biker-bar harp has earned its place in the canon, and deserves to be taken seriously as a sub-discipline (sort of) of blues harmonica. Rice-burners of the world, unite!
P.S.: I own a 1973 Honda CL-350 Scrambler and it is cool. Four-strokes rule.
Last Edited by on Oct 29, 2010 1:46 AM
We've stolen a term from Adam: "Biker Bar Harp." He meant it as being simple harmonica playing requiring little talent. TNFrank took it to mean a certain style. The rest of us took off & ran with it. I LIKE
IT!! sorry to ressurrect this thread ,,, but that first couple of linesgot me feeling good ;) maybe Ill try me some "biker harp" in public,, while I try to learn the subleties in private. The other biker harp w/ Lemmy in the bar is also quite inspirational to me,, and I bet to a lot of other newbs. What this song needs is more "biker harp"!
---------- Various Musical ramblings http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61?feature=mhum
"Biker Bar Harp" -- This all assuming you can lump a "biker" into one category. I've ridden motorcycles for over 45 years. I've raced dirt (Motocross professionally) and flat track. I trail ride, I street ride. I have Harley's. I have a beanie helmet, I have a full face helmet. I have a skull cap. I run my own [legitimate] business. I've ridden _with_ Hells Angels. My neighbor is an Angel.
I also love blues and good blues harp. I'm not real fond of Biker bar harmonica style or genre per se, but as Adam says "energy" and I agree with that.
But it just seems odd to me that a "biker" is like one type of person and that "type" is universal for all "bikers" and only have one musical taste.
That's like saying, I'm a man and I walk around scratching my balls and farting all day. Ok, bad example. ---------- Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy. -Dan Castellaneta
Last Edited by on Dec 01, 2010 8:26 AM
Reed, I certailnly wasnt dogging out bikers. At 17 I started getting tattoos from a guy who was a biker and he became my mentor. He was a BMF , but to me he was a friend. I learned much from him,,,
Im thinking the "biker harp' would be a guy who likes to play , doing it only for fun, not caring about learning Overblows, Not that obs are bad of course. It is not a deragotary term to me. I think I are one. ---------- Various Musical ramblings http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61?feature=mhum
@stevej.: Overblows have little or nothing to do with a definition of "biker bar harp." I suspect that most people who engage in this sort of playing haven't even heard of overblows, so they haven't gotten to the point of "not caring about learning" them. What's much more important, as least as I understand the term, is that biker-bar harp isn't interested in learning all the traditional Chicago blues techniques, especially tongue blocking. Biker-bar harp is self-taught, pucker-based, and has little in common with the TB, heavily-syncopated stylings of Little Walter, Big Walter, and James Cotton.
No need to make overblows the whipping boy here. They have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Adam, Im not sure how I made it the "whipping boy",, I certainly didnt intend that. What I meant is that ob's are a advanced technique. And it seems the whole premise of the "biker harp" is that it is just picked up , and not a studied form. I certainly have nothing against overblows, and apologize if I gave any offense Steve ---------- My YT http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61?feature=mhum
No offense at all. It's just that OBs are a point of contention for many here--they have their ardent defenders and ardent attackers; many threads testify to that--and one of my duties, as I see it, is to clarify what OBs are and aren't.
In this particular case, the obvious dichotomy (OBers vs "traditionalists") is supplanted by an interesting and unusual divergence: biker-bar harp vs. TB traditionalists. This might not be obvious to everybody, and perhaps it wasn't to you--although you're exactly right to note that biker-bar harp is an unstudied style. In any case, this is one dispute where overblows really aren't relevant. That was my point.
Ok,I understand. I didnt know about the Ob vs traditionalist thing. I wanst trying to be a trouble maker or anything. Thanks ---------- My YT http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61?feature=mhum
i did a gig years ago in new egypt n.j. out doors all day ,for the trenton bikers it was joe zook blues band and us, c.crawdad review and they hired us the week before because the main dude saw us in a bar and dug the fact that we had two harp players who did horn lines ,indiv. honkin solo`s etc. so i guess we were biker harpin` i can dig it...
I don't know how to post this as a video, bu the link below is what I call biker bar harp. Starts with hand effects ..then goes into a continuous warble. No precision needed.
Biker bar harp speaks to the dionysian nature inside each of us. Some of the more technique oriented players appeal to our appolonian nature. It's all good and sometimes the two can become one. ---------- Sun, sun, sun Burn, burn, burn Soon, soon, soon Moon, moon, moon
Last Edited by JInx on Sep 04, 2013 11:18 AM
There are lots of biker bars around Denver, and they are good venues for blues bands. They generally pay well and their crowds love driving blues. Yeah, maybe ya gotta rock it a little harder than in some other clubs, but I don't think we should besmirch the harp player. I think all of Denver's best harp players have played the biker clubs frequently. Parties at Harley dealers are some of the best gigs around.
For me, Biker Bar Harp is a legitimate description of what Moreland and Arbuckle bring to a performance. Maybe not the fanciest or the prettiest, But they get the job done and then some!
we use to have a local blues jam at a biker bar one of the "patrons" asks do you know born to be wild? can i use your amp?... absolutely he blew the roof off the place. really good player who would of thought ....born to be wild is a harp tune.
Oh yeah, BTBW is sweet...I've also done Magic Carpet Ride, She Shook Me...any tune that has a guitar solo can have a harp solo. Totally BS that harp can't rock. ---------- Mantra Customized Harmonicas My Website
Back in the day we used to love Biker gigs. Free beer,weed and cash on the nail doled out of a fat wad stuck in the leaders pocket. Strippers and other 'friendly' ladies........
(and once only a dust up between our drummer and a club member that nearly caused the rest of us to shat our pants)
.JPG)