May 11, 2020

Charlie McCoy interview

Charlie McCoy interview
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Season 1 Diatonic Harmonica Blues Harmonica Country Harmonica Pop Harmonica Session Musician

Charlie McCoy is the leading figure in Country harmonica playing, where he joined the Nashville scene in 1961.
With over 13000 sessions to his name, Charlie is probably the most recorded harmonica artist of all time.
Although best known as a country harmonica player, along with his 40 solo albums, Charlie has played with some of the truly legendary names in popular music, from Roy Orbison, to Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Paul Simon.

Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only).

https://www.charliemccoy.com/

YouTube:
Hee Haw TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtlWa7zsCTU


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

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01:49 - When started playing harmonica

02:23 - Early influential harmonica players

02:59 - Move to Nashville

04:25 - First recording

04:55 - I Just Don't Understand and Candy Man Songs

08:24 - Country harmonica style

10:42 - First solo album

11:24 - The Real McCoy album

12:23 - Won Grammy and other awards

13:12 - Moved to Nashville full-time

15:55 - Recording with Bob Dylan

16:52 - Recording with Elvis Presley

18:29 - Playing bass harmonica with Paul Simon

19:54 - Melodic style of playing

20:42 - Country style and melodic harmonica

22:34 - Area Code 615 & Stone Fox Chase

24:10 - How Country tuning started on harmonica

27:47 - Paddy Richter tuning

28:20 - Other harmonicas Charlie uses

28:49 - Harmonica of choice & Hohner endorser

29:14 - Harpin' The Blues album

31:07 - Other instruments played

32:20 - Latest album

33:20 - Instruction DVD

35:01 - Harmonica players in Europe, including JJ Milteau

36:14 - Orange Blossom Special

39:52 - Hee Haw TV show

41:09 - Autobiography

42:30 - Session work and recording techniques

45:09 - Charlie was start of Country harmonica

46:17 - Other country harmonica players

47:57 - Working as a sideman

48:48 - Advice for upcoming bands

49:17 - Chromatic harmonica

49:47 - Embouchre

50:11 - Celtic music

51:36 - 10 minute question

52:26 - Harmonica is good for you

53:51 - Favourite key of harmonica

55:31 - Amplifiers

56:01 - Microphones

56:41 - Upcoming plans

58:55 - Effects pedals

WEBVTT

00:00:00.353 --> 00:00:09.153
Hi, Neil Warren here again and welcome to another episode of the Happy Hour Harmonica podcast with more interviews with some of the finest harmonica players around today.

00:00:09.955 --> 00:00:17.272
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and also check out the Spotify playlist where some of the tracks discussed during the interviews can be heard.

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Charlie McCoy With over 13,000 sessions to his name, Charlie is probably the most recorded harmonica artist of all time.

00:00:50.621 --> 00:01:05.436
Although best known as a country harmonica player, along with his 40 solo albums, Charlie has played with some of the truly legendary names in popular music, from Roy Orbison to Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Paul Simon.

00:01:20.578 --> 00:01:23.221
So hello, Charlie McCoy, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:23.781 --> 00:01:24.884
Neil, thank you very much.

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I don't think it'd be an exaggeration to say that you're quite possibly the most successful recorded harmonica artist in history with your catalogue and the amount of work that you've done.

00:01:35.838 --> 00:01:36.680
Thank you.

00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.203
Yes, I started doing studio work in 1961.

00:01:39.924 --> 00:01:45.072
You were born in West Virginia, but then moved to Miami when you were a boy.

00:01:45.212 --> 00:01:49.158
So that's where you got your musical education around Miami, was it?

00:01:49.569 --> 00:01:52.072
I started playing harmonica when I was eight years old.

00:01:52.873 --> 00:01:55.096
Started playing guitar also that same year.

00:01:55.716 --> 00:01:57.478
We moved to Miami when I was nine.

00:01:57.498 --> 00:02:01.722
And then when I was a teenager, I had a electric guitar.

00:02:01.763 --> 00:02:02.924
I got into rock and roll.

00:02:03.444 --> 00:02:05.246
But then I heard a Jimmy Reed record.

00:02:05.888 --> 00:02:08.129
And I thought, oh my gosh, that's a harmonica.

00:02:08.490 --> 00:02:09.070
I have one.

00:02:09.131 --> 00:02:10.412
I've got to learn to do that.

00:02:10.872 --> 00:02:13.316
That rekindled my interest in harmonica.

00:02:13.695 --> 00:02:16.618
Hey, as a guitar player, I'm average.

00:02:17.259 --> 00:02:20.199
As all the other instruments I play, I'm average.

00:02:20.739 --> 00:02:22.681
I wouldn't have gotten a door without the harmonica.

00:02:23.201 --> 00:02:27.885
So do you remember what that Jimmy Reed record was that inspired you to start playing the harmonica?

00:02:28.227 --> 00:02:29.348
Oh, you got me dizzy.

00:02:34.151 --> 00:02:43.100
Rob

00:02:43.121 --> 00:02:48.126
Piazza, who I talked to last time, he mentioned Jimmy Reed as being one of the first ones he heard as well.

00:02:48.705 --> 00:02:49.046
Well,

00:02:49.127 --> 00:02:54.276
Jimmy Reed led me to Little Walker, and he's the top of the heap as far as that style.

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I love to keep listening to him over and over again, and I keep hearing new things.

00:03:00.467 --> 00:03:03.554
It was a little bit later that you moved to Nashville, was it?

00:03:03.593 --> 00:03:07.420
Which obviously you're quite closely associated with the Nashville music scene.

00:03:07.741 --> 00:03:09.425
Well, it's an interesting story.

00:03:09.485 --> 00:03:18.984
I was playing weekends with a At a country music dance, my job was to play guitar and sing 10 minutes each hour, rock and roll.

00:03:19.705 --> 00:03:24.391
And one night, Nashville songwriter, musician Mel Tillis came in.

00:03:24.872 --> 00:03:30.923
After I did my music, I met him and he said, boy, if you go to Nashville, I'll get you on record tomorrow.

00:03:31.544 --> 00:03:35.909
The day after high school was over, I went to Nashville to visit Mel Tillis.

00:03:36.010 --> 00:03:40.557
Well, he was out of town after I'd driven 800 miles.

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He had told his manager about me.

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And just out of the blue, he said to me, do you want some auditions?

00:03:47.668 --> 00:03:49.610
And I said, yes.

00:03:50.451 --> 00:03:54.176
He got me auditioned with Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley.

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Now, I was singing and playing the guitar, Chuck Berry style.

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No harmonica at this point, then.

00:04:00.346 --> 00:04:02.109
Well, they both turned me down.

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Best thing I ever happened to me.

00:04:04.231 --> 00:04:08.397
Because Owen Bradley invited me to watch a recording session.

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And I watched a 13-year-old Brendan Lee record one of her first hit records.

00:04:14.230 --> 00:04:20.216
And when I watched that recording session and I heard the first playback, I said to myself, I don't want to sing.

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I want to do this.

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A year later, I moved to Nashville to stay.

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The first recording that you made, I understand, is a song called Cherry Berry Wine.

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That was my first solo record.

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And actually, it was a vocal.

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There's no harmonica on it.

00:04:38.146 --> 00:04:42.713
And the only reason it happened was that a friend of mine and me wrote it.

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When we got ready to make a demo of it, he said, hey, why don't you sing this?

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This isn't my style.

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So I said, okay.

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And a record producer in New York heard it and said, I want to record that guy.

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I know you got your big break with the song Candyman with Roy Orbison.

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Is that something that was recorded in Nashville?

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Yes.

00:05:04.387 --> 00:05:08.211
Actually, I was moving with a songwriter named Kent Westbury.

00:05:08.812 --> 00:05:11.737
And every day people would come over to his house to write with him.

00:05:12.336 --> 00:05:17.084
One day they were working on a song and he said, hey, why don't you get your harmonica and play along with us?

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I said, yeah, OK.

00:05:19.706 --> 00:05:23.812
So I started to play along with him and he said, this sounds great.

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We're going to get you on the demo of this song.

00:05:26.757 --> 00:05:33.565
So I played on the demo and a month passed and I got a phone call from the publisher.

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And he said, I just got a call from Chet Atkins.

00:05:37.382 --> 00:05:41.728
He's going to record an unknown singer from Sweden named Anne Margaret.

00:05:42.069 --> 00:05:47.495
And he would like you to play exactly what you played on the demo.

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That was my first session.

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And it was so great because I already knew what to do.

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Yeah, and this was the song I Just Don't Understand with Anne Margaret.

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Don't understand.

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Don't understand.

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There were some of those same musicians that have been on the Brenda Lee session.

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I'm 20 years old, and there's Ann Margaret, who's 20 years old.

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And I mean, it was an out-of-body experience, I can tell you that.

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So you had this recording with Chet Atkins.

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Did that have some commercial success?

00:06:32.252 --> 00:06:35.437
And then you got the attention of Roy Orbison to play on Candyman.

00:06:35.918 --> 00:06:43.108
On that very session, the bass player walked over to me at the end of the session, and he said, Are you free Friday?

00:06:43.668 --> 00:06:45.471
Hey, I was free the rest of my life.

00:06:46.211 --> 00:06:47.273
And I said, yeah, I'm free.

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He said, come back here.

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I'm recording Roy Orbison.

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Whoa, I was a huge fan of Roy Orbison.

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And came in and he pulled out the song Candyman.

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And they started working on the song.

00:07:01.571 --> 00:07:04.314
Actually, Elvis's guitar player was on this session too.

00:07:04.896 --> 00:07:05.916
Scotty Moore, you know.

00:07:06.398 --> 00:07:09.661
Roy kept saying, somebody come up with an introduction.

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I got an idea immediately, but I'm like, man, I'm the new kid on the block.

00:07:15.009 --> 00:07:17.612
I don't know if I should even open my mouth.

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So finally he says, come on, come on, somebody come up with something.

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So I walked over to Harold Bradley, Hall of Fame musician.

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Hey, I whispered, I've got an idea.

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He said, oh, what is it?

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And I said, what if I took my harmonica and did this?

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Come on, baby.

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So he shouts out loud, hey, everybody, Charlie's got the intro.

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Listen to this.

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I was so surprised, you know.

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When that record hit the radio, my phone started to ring.

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I can tell you how blessed I am.

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It's still ringing.

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So that song was a huge hit.

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Yeah, that was a million sellers.

00:08:03.541 --> 00:08:07.406
So was that the second recording you'd done on Harmonica?

00:08:07.625 --> 00:08:07.886
Yes.

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Wow.

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So how long had you been playing Harmonica when you did this recording session?

00:08:13.432 --> 00:08:14.673
Well, from eight years old.

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Well, when I was 16, I got really back into harmonica when I heard Jimmy Reed.

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My career is like a fairy tale, I can tell you that.

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You are known for playing country-style harmonica.

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So country-style harmonica playing, it's more melodic, isn't it?

00:08:30.612 --> 00:08:34.256
So you've talked about your roots being in blues, being Jimmy Reed and Little Walter.

00:08:34.277 --> 00:08:37.520
So how did you develop your style of country-style harmonica?

00:08:37.741 --> 00:08:42.226
Well, to begin with, I was the new flavor in town.

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Producers started asking me, maybe could you not quite play so funky?

00:08:48.635 --> 00:09:01.977
Or maybe could you, you know, and one day the great Grady Martin Hall of Fame guitar player said to me, he called me outside and he said, listen, you got a great future here, but I'm telling you right now you're playing too much.

00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:05.023
And boy, what a wake up call that was.

00:09:05.903 --> 00:09:09.990
And he said, if you can't hear every word and understand it, you're playing too much.

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And from that moment on, my watchword became less is more.

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I'm very conscious of lyrics, and especially with female singers, because the harmonica is right in the register with their voice.

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You get too crazy like that, you really distract from the...

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Harold Bradley, he put it to me one day that really made a lot of sense.

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He said, here's the way we approach this recording.

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The singer of the song is a picture.

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We are the frame.

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Our job is to...

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frame the picture, not to distract from it.

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That's what I do.

00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:50.326
So a lot of your early work was more session work where you were a sideman.

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After the Cherry Berry Wine, that first record happened.

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By the way, that record got into pop charts one week at number 99 and then dropped out.

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After that, the record company went out of business.

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And so I said, okay, I've been there, done that.

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I want to be a session player.

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I don't worry about being an artist.

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So I gave it up, the idea.

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And then one day I'm on a session with Roy Orbison's producer, and he said, come out to my office and let's have lunch one day.

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And I said, okay.

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And he came in, he said, I want you to make some records.

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And I said, and do what?

00:10:27.163 --> 00:10:28.664
And he said, I don't know.

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Just go in the studio and be creative.

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And for eight years, I made records that we couldn't give away.

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And then 1971 happened.

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bang, a country instrumental and the rest of its history.

00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:47.388
So your first album was in 1967, The World of Charlie McCoy, your first solo record.

00:10:47.708 --> 00:10:48.910
So you're 26 at this time.

00:10:48.951 --> 00:10:55.441
So up until this point, you'd done pretty much all session work where you were doing backing and playing as a sideman for other people.

00:10:56.042 --> 00:11:00.448
Well, see, in the early 60s, we had a rock and roll band here called The Escorts.

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And we played Motown music.

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I loved that music.

00:11:05.613 --> 00:11:12.144
The band was a chance to go play it on the weekends, you know, because we certainly weren't doing anything like that in the studios here.

00:11:12.164 --> 00:11:15.211
That's where I kept a tie to that music.

00:11:15.731 --> 00:11:19.379
And that early album, most of the players on it are that band.

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What was the name of that album?

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I'm looking at your many albums.

00:11:22.605 --> 00:11:22.725
It was

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called The Real McCoy.

00:11:23.927 --> 00:11:24.869
Well, that was The Real McCoy.

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Okay, yeah.

00:11:25.857 --> 00:11:31.466
And then later, our company, the record company, made a distribution deal with Columbia Records.

00:11:32.066 --> 00:11:36.511
They went in and looked at the catalog and every record that wasn't selling, they cut it out.

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So that record was off the market.

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And then we had this single come out in 1971, the Merle Haggard song, Today I Started Loving You Again.

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And it became a hit.

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And they said, oh, we got to have an album right away.

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So that album, 1968, half of it was country.

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Half of it was rock and roll.

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So we just re-recorded the rock and roll side with more country songs.

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And that album, by the way, it was still called The Real McCoy.

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And that album won me a Grammy Award.

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So you won a Grammy for that, as you say, in 1972.

00:12:28.076 --> 00:12:31.640
So you went along to the Grammy ceremony.

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How was that?

00:12:32.942 --> 00:12:33.643
Oh, it was great.

00:12:33.722 --> 00:12:37.586
I actually have seven Grammy nominations.

00:12:38.447 --> 00:12:38.908
Yeah, wow.

00:12:39.710 --> 00:12:42.972
So did you go to the Grammy ceremony seven times?

00:12:43.474 --> 00:12:44.995
No, I didn't go all seven times.

00:12:45.096 --> 00:12:49.200
But at the time, we had it here in Nashville.

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We had a Nashville Grammy ceremony, you know.

00:12:52.344 --> 00:12:54.525
So every time it was in Nashville, I went.

00:12:54.721 --> 00:12:56.323
And I went once in LA, I think.

00:12:56.924 --> 00:13:00.369
So the one you won in 1972, was that the first one you were nominated for?

00:13:00.948 --> 00:13:01.149
Yes.

00:13:01.750 --> 00:13:04.573
You had a great introduction to music, didn't you?

00:13:04.614 --> 00:13:10.581
First a million-selling single on your second recording, and then you won a Grammy on what is your second album?

00:13:11.001 --> 00:13:11.261
Yeah.

00:13:12.062 --> 00:13:14.164
At what point did you move to Nashville?

00:13:14.346 --> 00:13:19.291
Here in 1960, I tried one year of college in Miami.

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After I'd come to Nashville and auditioned as a singer and was turned down.

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I went back to Miami, entered the University of Miami Music Education School.

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I lasted almost a year.

00:13:32.753 --> 00:13:38.317
The session I'd seen in Nashville, I just kept dreaming about it, dreaming about it.

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A friend of mine called me with a job offer to go on the road playing guitar behind a country singer.

00:13:45.884 --> 00:13:49.067
And I finally said, yeah, I got to go back there.

00:13:49.629 --> 00:13:50.730
Broke my father's heart.

00:13:51.138 --> 00:13:54.162
because it was his dream for me to go through college.

00:13:54.743 --> 00:13:57.086
So I moved to Nashville at 19 years old.

00:13:57.466 --> 00:14:00.910
By the way, my father forgave me when I introduced him to Dolly Parton.

00:14:02.052 --> 00:14:02.533
I bet he did.

00:14:03.033 --> 00:14:05.856
Nashville is a special place, I'm telling you.

00:14:06.357 --> 00:14:14.688
I had an interesting interview last year with someone from BBC, and I started talking about that original group of musicians.

00:14:15.250 --> 00:14:18.374
They called them the Nashville A-Team that they started this year.

00:14:18.817 --> 00:14:28.028
I started telling him about them, and he said, yeah, but in America, you have the Wrecking Crew, the Memphis Boys, you have Muscle Shoals, you have Motown.

00:14:28.328 --> 00:14:30.091
And I said, let me tell you the difference.

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They have all written arrangements.

00:14:33.114 --> 00:14:38.019
Memphis, Motown, and Muscle Shoals, they had no clock.

00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:41.624
There was no time limit on how long it took to make a record.

00:14:42.183 --> 00:14:43.605
Here, we are in the Union.

00:14:43.970 --> 00:14:55.967
In a three-hour session, you were expected to record three or four songs that you'd never heard before, and that was the record because we didn't have the technology to do it any other way, right?

00:14:56.708 --> 00:14:58.230
What they did was so brilliant.

00:14:59.513 --> 00:15:03.658
To me, that sets Nashville aside from all the other recording centers.

00:15:04.581 --> 00:15:07.865
Of course, every country artist in America was recording here.

00:15:08.385 --> 00:15:10.830
There were two studios, and they were busy all the time.

00:15:11.169 --> 00:15:16.116
But the big thing that happened in Nashville was in 1965, Bob Dylan came.

00:15:16.136 --> 00:15:20.543
And after he came, it was like the floodgates opened.

00:15:21.323 --> 00:15:29.554
The people, the folk rock, we called them, wanted to come because Dylan had his biggest album here, Blonde on Blonde.

00:15:30.676 --> 00:15:37.024
Everyone wanted to come to Nashville because, you know, Dylan, he put a stamp of approval on our town.

00:15:37.666 --> 00:15:50.087
And I'm telling you, after that was over, I worked with Peter, Paul, and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Gino Vanelli, the Manhattan Transfer, Gordon Lightfoot.

00:15:50.188 --> 00:15:54.754
I mean, more studios were built, a lot more musicians were working.

00:15:55.375 --> 00:15:57.616
Yeah, and you mentioned, obviously, Bob Dylan there.

00:15:57.677 --> 00:16:00.921
So you recorded on, I think, three Bob Dylan albums, didn't you?

00:16:00.941 --> 00:16:03.904
You recorded on the Blonde on Blonde album, yeah?

00:16:03.985 --> 00:16:06.288
I recorded on five of his albums, actually.

00:16:06.307 --> 00:16:07.729
The first one was on...

00:16:08.322 --> 00:16:10.364
Highway 61 revisited.

00:16:10.403 --> 00:16:13.726
I played guitar on a song called Desolation Row.

00:16:14.168 --> 00:16:22.014
Then in Nashville, we did Blonde of Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait.

00:16:22.615 --> 00:16:24.277
I played harmonica on one song.

00:16:24.356 --> 00:16:26.899
It was obviously Five Believers.

00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:29.081
What was it like working with Bob Dylan?

00:16:29.121 --> 00:16:30.023
And what's he like?

00:16:30.722 --> 00:16:37.629
As a friend of mine at a ranger for a TV show said once, he said, Bob Dylan is an amazing musician.

00:16:37.761 --> 00:16:42.106
You know, what he's done musically is amazing, but he doesn't know the answer to hello.

00:16:42.606 --> 00:16:44.089
He rarely said a word.

00:16:44.568 --> 00:16:51.096
But what we did was good, and I'm glad he came because of what it did for our business here in Nashville.

00:16:51.917 --> 00:16:58.745
I mean, as you said there, you played with a whole host of people as a sideman, and you played with Elvis Presley as well.

00:16:58.764 --> 00:16:58.784
I

00:16:59.264 --> 00:17:03.309
played with Elvis in seven movies and five other albums.

00:17:03.789 --> 00:17:04.049
Wow.

00:17:04.371 --> 00:17:06.093
So you got to meet Elvis as well during this time?

00:17:06.113 --> 00:17:07.294
Oh, yeah.

00:17:07.586 --> 00:17:14.473
Back in that day, we all recorded together because they didn't have the technology to do it any other way.

00:17:15.214 --> 00:17:18.659
If you're on a session with somebody, they're there and they're singing live.

00:17:19.700 --> 00:17:20.000
Wow.

00:17:20.221 --> 00:17:22.242
So I always liked working with Elvis Presley.

00:17:22.643 --> 00:17:23.845
He was fantastic.

00:17:23.924 --> 00:17:24.905
What a nice guy.

00:17:25.507 --> 00:17:28.150
When I got to work with him, it was on a movie soundtrack.

00:17:28.730 --> 00:17:39.844
We were the second group of musicians because the movie company changed the dates of the recording His regular guys were all tied up doing other sessions.

00:17:40.684 --> 00:17:42.428
And in Nashville, we have an unwritten law.

00:17:42.508 --> 00:17:45.471
You don't cancel out on one artist to go work with another.

00:17:45.912 --> 00:17:46.854
You just don't do that.

00:17:47.294 --> 00:17:49.336
His regular guys wouldn't cancel.

00:17:49.897 --> 00:17:54.364
So they hired Scotty Moore, said, look, there's plenty of musicians here.

00:17:54.403 --> 00:17:55.546
I'll get you a band together.

00:17:56.066 --> 00:18:01.334
So I was in that band and we were all a little concerned about how this was going to work, you know.

00:18:02.049 --> 00:18:03.111
He walked in the door.

00:18:03.151 --> 00:18:08.498
The first thing he did, he walked to every musician, shook their hand and said, thank you for helping me.

00:18:08.958 --> 00:18:10.839
From that time on, it was all great.

00:18:11.381 --> 00:18:12.782
So you were playing harmonica with him?

00:18:13.403 --> 00:18:18.789
I played harmonica on some records, High Heel Sneakers, Big Boss Man.

00:18:18.829 --> 00:18:20.872
I washed my hands in Muddy Waters.

00:18:21.252 --> 00:18:22.354
And I played a lot of things.

00:18:22.413 --> 00:18:24.957
By then, I was known as a utility man.

00:18:24.997 --> 00:18:28.761
I played vibraphones, played organ, some acoustic guitar.

00:18:29.218 --> 00:18:31.661
played on the Boxer, didn't you, with Simon Garfunkel?

00:18:31.681 --> 00:18:33.482
Did you play the bass harmonica on that?

00:18:33.522 --> 00:18:33.722
Yes,

00:18:33.903 --> 00:18:35.285
bass harmonica on the Boxer.

00:18:35.884 --> 00:18:39.388
I want to tell you that I think Paul Simon is a genius.

00:18:39.930 --> 00:18:44.253
When you consider his hit records, they're all different.

00:18:44.795 --> 00:18:49.579
When they called and asked me if I had a bass harmonica, Paul Simon wants to use it.

00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.462
I said, I'll have one by the session date.

00:18:53.243 --> 00:18:55.646
I didn't have one yet, but I got one.

00:18:56.007 --> 00:18:57.989
And went to the studio and...

00:18:58.753 --> 00:19:00.958
And I thought, what am I going to do on this song?

00:19:01.018 --> 00:19:02.901
And he said, now here's what you do.

00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:05.144
And he dictated every note to me.

00:19:05.925 --> 00:19:07.047
He was great that way.

00:19:07.086 --> 00:19:09.951
He just knew what his songs needed.

00:19:10.913 --> 00:19:13.637
So you hadn't really played much bass harmonica before then.

00:19:13.678 --> 00:19:15.361
Did you practice it much before the session?

00:19:16.321 --> 00:19:17.403
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:19:17.744 --> 00:19:21.730
The big difference is the skips between the notes, you know.

00:19:22.332 --> 00:19:23.614
Yeah, I do all of them.

00:19:23.713 --> 00:19:26.497
What is it, a quarter inch to the next hole?

00:19:26.936 --> 00:19:31.361
This big thing in your hand, it's like, whoa, it weighs a lot.

00:19:31.741 --> 00:19:32.762
It takes a lot of air.

00:19:32.803 --> 00:19:34.624
The skips were weird.

00:19:35.125 --> 00:19:36.205
It took a little work.

00:19:37.406 --> 00:19:41.810
Fortunately, on what he had me play, there was not a lot of skipping around.

00:19:42.711 --> 00:19:53.342
So, you know, you played with Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Paul Simon, some of the biggest names, as I say, your career, probably the best ever harmonica player from the amount of people you played with and the names you mentioned there.

00:19:53.794 --> 00:19:58.279
Your harmonica playing is always a very melodic approach to playing, isn't it?

00:19:58.460 --> 00:20:00.362
That is the way you approach it, isn't it?

00:20:00.422 --> 00:20:08.352
That's a decision I made after a producer started asking me not to play so bluesy and after Mr.

00:20:08.712 --> 00:20:11.496
Grady Martin told me I played too much.

00:20:12.116 --> 00:20:13.519
And I decided, you know what?

00:20:14.118 --> 00:20:16.461
I was fascinated by the country instruments.

00:20:16.982 --> 00:20:19.746
Fiddle, steel guitar, dobro.

00:20:20.607 --> 00:20:22.269
And I started trying to copy...

00:20:22.753 --> 00:20:24.236
what those guys were doing.

00:20:24.276 --> 00:20:34.188
And the combination of that and cleaning up the sound, it kind of developed into what has become, I guess, my style.

00:20:34.749 --> 00:20:36.289
It was something that evolved.

00:20:36.651 --> 00:20:37.811
That's all I can say.

00:20:37.832 --> 00:20:38.854
It evolved.

00:20:39.574 --> 00:20:41.076
So, yeah, very melodic.

00:20:41.115 --> 00:20:45.141
And a lot of that may be put down to this country style and the fact that...

00:20:45.981 --> 00:20:50.488
How would you describe the difference between country style harmonica playing and, say, blues harmonica playing?

00:20:51.028 --> 00:20:52.109
You play a lot less...

00:20:52.738 --> 00:21:00.157
You know, rather than that, rather than that, you know, it's a straight note.

00:21:02.463 --> 00:21:05.752
It's just a cleaner approach and a lot more melodic.

00:21:05.833 --> 00:21:06.173
Yeah.

00:21:06.498 --> 00:21:11.468
I've been listening to a lot of your stuff over the last few days before I was talking to you and there's lots of melodic stuff in there.

00:21:11.867 --> 00:21:19.963
And it's great to hear because I think a lot of people associate the harmonica, the diatonic harmonica with blues, but I think a lot of people want to play melodies.

00:21:20.444 --> 00:21:26.836
So I think if people who are interested in listening to this want to check out melody playing, you're the best place to start with that.

00:21:46.594 --> 00:21:50.317
One thing I was always told, listen to the lyrics.

00:21:50.798 --> 00:21:57.704
When I record my own solo records, I pretend that I'm a singer and that I'm singing the lyrics.

00:21:58.224 --> 00:22:08.295
Because I think when people listen to instrumentals and they hear songs that they know, I think in their subconscious, they're singing along with you.

00:22:08.875 --> 00:22:25.095
And you know, one other thing, in the late 60s, we had a style of music in America come popular that They called Southern Rock and bands like ZZ Top, Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels Band became very popular.

00:22:25.535 --> 00:22:32.241
Some of our session guys decided, why don't we go to the studio and see if we can, you know, come up with something.

00:22:32.261 --> 00:22:43.211
And we went out and we started this studio band and we called it Area Code 615, the Nashville telephone number, you know.

00:22:43.732 --> 00:22:44.814
We made an album.

00:22:45.281 --> 00:22:46.924
The album was released.

00:22:47.346 --> 00:22:52.757
It was a flop, but it became very popular inside the music business.

00:22:53.377 --> 00:22:58.749
Little time passes and a guy calls me up and he said, guess what?

00:22:59.250 --> 00:23:03.417
One of those songs off your album is going to be used on BBC.

00:23:18.978 --> 00:23:22.461
Most people in England know that as the theme from the old Grey Whistle Test.

00:23:22.842 --> 00:23:23.582
Yeah, that's right, Sean.

00:23:23.622 --> 00:23:24.403
I was going to say that.

00:23:24.502 --> 00:23:30.489
Over here, that song is probably one of the most famous harmonica songs, certainly from that period that people recognize.

00:23:30.548 --> 00:23:32.911
So that's Storm Fox Chase.

00:23:33.172 --> 00:23:36.994
Was that song so big in America or was it just in the UK that it was particularly big?

00:23:37.695 --> 00:23:39.738
No, just the UK, really.

00:23:40.097 --> 00:23:43.000
It's been good to my mailbox, if you know what I mean.

00:23:43.521 --> 00:23:48.006
On the record with only two people was myself and the drummer, Kenny Buttrey.

00:23:48.226 --> 00:23:50.548
As I say, a very iconic song here in the UK.

00:23:50.568 --> 00:23:53.973
I mean, every harmonica player, certainly in the UK, knows that song very well.

00:23:54.115 --> 00:23:56.337
So I've played it myself many times as well.

00:23:56.438 --> 00:23:57.900
So thanks for that.

00:23:57.920 --> 00:23:59.021
I've performed that song.

00:23:59.362 --> 00:24:01.244
It's always a popular song to play.

00:24:01.424 --> 00:24:05.730
And of course, you changed key of harmonic a couple of times in that, don't you?

00:24:07.032 --> 00:24:10.238
It was a lot of the same, so I decided to modulate some.

00:24:10.402 --> 00:24:49.137
so yeah so going back to the more melodic style of playing or what we might call country style so you play a few different well quite a lot of different tunings don't you so there's an amazing resource on your website which lists all your solo albums and then shows all the different keys you play in and then even the different tunings which is a superb resource so thank you very much I didn't realize that until I actually looked the other day that you had all this amazing information so again if people want to play along with your records that's a brilliant resource to be able to check out a common tuning that you do use is the country tuning which is i think where the we have a major seventh so is that what you would call the the country tuning your favorite tuning

00:24:49.798 --> 00:25:16.373
uh yeah country tuning is it i want to tell you how this came about about 1973 we put out our our second album that sold records and it's a self-titled album and on the recording i do the uh the irish tune danny boy one day This guy came, I was over at the record company's office and the receptionist said, there's some guy wants to talk to you about harmonica.

00:25:16.393 --> 00:25:17.173
And I said, okay.

00:25:17.213 --> 00:25:17.974
So he comes back.

00:25:18.414 --> 00:25:20.798
This guy was a 65-year-old house painter.

00:25:21.338 --> 00:25:24.021
And he said, I played chromatic all my life.

00:25:24.583 --> 00:25:27.906
And when I heard your records, I decided to take up the tin hole.

00:25:28.708 --> 00:25:30.150
And he said, I got your album.

00:25:30.770 --> 00:25:36.657
And there's one song, I had a hard time figuring out how you did it, was the song Danny Boy.

00:25:37.153 --> 00:25:41.580
Now, I'm not sure how you did it, but I'm going to tell you how I think you did it.

00:25:42.301 --> 00:25:45.707
I was really curious, you know, curious about what he was going to say.

00:25:46.248 --> 00:25:54.220
So he said, you took this harmonica and took the plate off and you filed the fifth draw read.

00:25:54.901 --> 00:25:57.605
And he picked up a harmonica.

00:25:57.625 --> 00:25:58.446
He had one with him.

00:25:58.846 --> 00:26:05.817
And he said, and you played this chorus part on Danny Boy.

00:26:06.369 --> 00:26:10.855
And what I actually, what I did on the recording, I used two harmonicas.

00:26:11.476 --> 00:26:13.878
I used a B flat on the verse.

00:26:19.085 --> 00:26:23.349
And on the chorus, I went to an F in first position.

00:26:27.134 --> 00:26:27.554
Like that.

00:26:28.454 --> 00:26:30.096
But he said, no, you tune this.

00:26:30.337 --> 00:26:34.061
And when you went to the chorus on that same B flat harmonica, you went.

00:26:38.594 --> 00:26:40.757
And he said, that's the way you did it, isn't it?

00:26:40.936 --> 00:26:45.022
And I said, no, but that's the way I'm going to do it from now on.

00:26:45.042 --> 00:26:46.364
I called the

00:26:46.463 --> 00:26:46.765
owner

00:26:47.164 --> 00:26:52.271
and I said, look, I need something because I tried to do this myself.

00:26:52.352 --> 00:26:53.773
And every time I did, I ruined it.

00:26:54.275 --> 00:26:58.019
I called the owner and I said, could you get one of your guys to try this for me?

00:26:58.560 --> 00:26:59.561
And they, they did.

00:26:59.662 --> 00:27:00.442
And they made it work.

00:27:00.903 --> 00:27:02.746
And I said, I need a whole set of them.

00:27:03.507 --> 00:27:09.454
I love this because now I, I can play melodies, you know, that I could not play before.

00:27:09.957 --> 00:27:17.037
Like, you know, I couldn't have done that on the regular tune.

00:27:17.518 --> 00:27:20.185
And I play almost exclusively in second position.

00:27:20.417 --> 00:27:21.439
So I was going to ask about that.

00:27:21.499 --> 00:27:29.469
So as you said, you started playing with a major seven, so that would be a five draw, tuned up a semitone.

00:27:29.970 --> 00:27:34.536
So you wanted that, so you had the expression of second position, yeah?

00:27:34.635 --> 00:27:38.980
So you didn't play first position because you wanted the second position expression, I take it.

00:27:39.622 --> 00:27:41.243
I rarely play in first position.

00:27:41.765 --> 00:27:43.987
It's almost exclusively in second.

00:27:44.347 --> 00:27:51.162
And then somebody showed me the thing about raising the third blow a whole step, and I called it Patty Richter.

00:27:51.723 --> 00:28:00.911
So I've done that some too, to play nice soft songs and play that second scale tone without a whole tone bend.

00:28:01.332 --> 00:28:03.176
It's just a little more gentle that way.

00:28:03.650 --> 00:28:08.615
I use the Paddy Richter one a lot myself to play tunes, old time and Irish music.

00:28:08.694 --> 00:28:13.539
But melodically, like you said, that major seven, I don't actually have one tuned to a major seven.

00:28:13.559 --> 00:28:14.760
So I'm going to check it out.

00:28:14.820 --> 00:28:18.163
And like I say, playing along with some of your records, you do need that major seven.

00:28:18.565 --> 00:28:24.770
You also play, I'm just looking through the list now of the different harmonicas that you put on there.

00:28:24.810 --> 00:28:27.713
You're playing different types of harmonicas, aren't you?

00:28:28.273 --> 00:28:31.998
You've got on here a hone of vest pocket, polyphonic.

00:28:32.417 --> 00:28:34.421
Well, that was for a special effect.

00:28:34.801 --> 00:28:41.573
And there used to be, Horner used to make a vest pocket, a high octave G and a high octave

00:28:42.295 --> 00:28:42.375
A.

00:28:42.434 --> 00:28:44.719
Right, so it's just a high octave, is it, the vest pocket?

00:28:44.818 --> 00:28:45.299
Yeah, right,

00:28:45.420 --> 00:28:45.599
right.

00:28:45.820 --> 00:28:47.042
That's all that was.

00:28:47.063 --> 00:28:51.470
But for the most part, now, all I play is Special 20.

00:28:52.372 --> 00:28:58.622
Six years ago, Horner moved their United States headquarters to Nashville, California.

00:28:58.786 --> 00:28:59.907
That is

00:29:00.009 --> 00:29:00.088
nice.

00:29:00.108 --> 00:29:01.392
Is that so they could get close to you?

00:29:01.432 --> 00:29:05.138
They've got a young technician out there that's brilliant.

00:29:05.980 --> 00:29:08.686
So my harmonica problems are solved.

00:29:09.327 --> 00:29:11.593
So you're a owner in Dorsey?

00:29:12.213 --> 00:29:13.656
I have for 40 years, yes.

00:29:14.145 --> 00:29:19.535
We mentioned you playing blues harmonica there and that your early influences were blues harmonica.

00:29:19.555 --> 00:29:26.046
So Harp in the Blues is an album you released in 1975, which obviously is a blues album.

00:29:26.487 --> 00:29:30.933
You do a song called Tribute to Little Walter on that song where you say at the beginning of the song is...

00:29:32.155 --> 00:29:34.599
The best blues harp player I ever heard was Little Walter.

00:29:35.201 --> 00:29:36.564
He was the king of blues harp.

00:29:37.244 --> 00:29:40.349
I guess I stole more mix from him than any man alive.

00:29:40.642 --> 00:29:44.748
Nobody ever really played the blues as good as Walter, but a whole lot of us tried.

00:29:54.582 --> 00:29:58.086
What sort of influence did Little Walter have on you and what was your interest in blues harmonica?

00:29:58.666 --> 00:30:02.472
I think he was the best that ever played it, you know, the blues harmonica.

00:30:02.673 --> 00:30:12.589
And so when I did this blues album, I was trying to do You know, I did some country blues, and I did a Dixieland with Pete Fountain and Al Hurt.

00:30:13.109 --> 00:30:18.196
And so I could not mention Lil' Walter when you're talking about blues.

00:30:18.576 --> 00:30:24.744
I actually played through a Green Bullet mic, like Walter used to play through an amplifier.

00:30:25.306 --> 00:30:31.933
Boy, I'll tell you what, I spent many hours practicing with, you know, like so.

00:30:36.450 --> 00:30:36.569
You

00:30:36.589 --> 00:30:43.479
know,

00:30:43.699 --> 00:30:45.500
that's Walter.

00:30:46.061 --> 00:30:46.563
Yeah.

00:30:46.603 --> 00:30:50.528
So you did start playing, you know, as a blues player when you started playing harmonica.

00:30:50.587 --> 00:30:52.730
That was your main interest, was it, as a harmonica

00:30:52.750 --> 00:30:53.010
player?

00:30:53.030 --> 00:30:56.474
Yeah, when I was 16, I went crazy for it, you know.

00:30:56.816 --> 00:31:04.746
Up until then, I'd pick it up from time to time and I'd go two, three, four months without even touching it because I was so into the guitar.

00:31:05.442 --> 00:31:09.426
And do you still play the other instruments you mentioned?

00:31:09.446 --> 00:31:10.348
Do you still play them all?

00:31:10.429 --> 00:31:10.568
Yeah.

00:31:11.109 --> 00:31:11.349
Yeah.

00:31:11.369 --> 00:31:19.621
I don't, I don't get much call anymore for, I play the main, my main call other than harmonica is vibraphone.

00:31:20.281 --> 00:31:27.192
And usually I'll do those on the same session, you know, but yeah, I still play on my newest album.

00:31:27.251 --> 00:31:28.192
I'm playing tuba.

00:31:29.815 --> 00:31:31.897
You know, I play keyboard, guitar, bass.

00:31:32.618 --> 00:31:36.756
I played baritone saxophone on, Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison.

00:31:37.336 --> 00:31:38.419
So that's a lot of instruments.

00:31:38.479 --> 00:31:45.647
I play a few instruments myself, and I do find that obviously you're spreading yourself between those different instruments.

00:31:45.907 --> 00:31:51.915
How do you feel that works, maybe as a harmonica player, to spending the time with your instruments?

00:31:51.976 --> 00:31:55.480
What does that bring to your harmonica playing, or just as a musician in general?

00:31:55.901 --> 00:32:00.165
Well, at this point in my life, I've been playing this thing 70 years.

00:32:00.747 --> 00:32:02.730
I don't really practice anymore.

00:32:03.329 --> 00:32:05.452
except when I'm going to record a new album.

00:32:05.953 --> 00:32:15.887
I work on the songs, you know, but for my recreation, especially during this time when we're all been, you know, we've been shut in, I play the guitar a lot.

00:32:16.509 --> 00:32:17.990
And now I'm working

00:32:18.070 --> 00:32:18.692
on the Irish

00:32:18.751 --> 00:32:19.093
whistle.

00:32:19.673 --> 00:32:21.936
Yeah, so as you say, you've done lots of albums.

00:32:22.136 --> 00:32:22.617
You're still...

00:32:23.074 --> 00:32:26.817
You released an album just this year, yeah, called Les Bon Temps.

00:32:27.598 --> 00:32:27.659
Les

00:32:27.898 --> 00:32:28.460
Bon Temps, yeah.

00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:29.901
I just released it.

00:32:29.921 --> 00:32:32.023
I picked a terrible time to release it, by the way.

00:32:32.084 --> 00:32:36.428
Everyone in this country is out of work, and nobody's buying any music.

00:32:37.690 --> 00:32:39.271
No, no, not the greatest time.

00:32:39.311 --> 00:32:44.857
But, yeah, so you just released an album this year, so you're still actively releasing albums, which is great to see.

00:32:44.877 --> 00:32:45.298
Yeah, that was my

00:32:45.317 --> 00:32:45.617
43rd

00:32:45.719 --> 00:32:45.979
album.

00:32:45.999 --> 00:32:47.780
43rd album, wow.

00:32:48.101 --> 00:32:54.619
And my next one, you know, with all this time down, I've been– doing a lot of thought about my next one.

00:32:54.680 --> 00:33:00.968
And I'm going to do a gospel album of songs that I've written or co-wrote, songs with lyrics.

00:33:01.269 --> 00:33:08.438
And of course, there'll be harmonica on it, but it won't be an instrumental album like most of my normally kind of are.

00:33:08.897 --> 00:33:14.505
But, you know, as a harmonica fan and a harmonica player, that's an attraction of your albums because they're instrumental.

00:33:14.525 --> 00:33:18.029
You know, you get lots and lots of harmonica, which, you know, as a harmonica fan is always good.

00:33:18.069 --> 00:33:20.212
So, yeah, but obviously nice to play with a singer as well.

00:33:20.593 --> 00:33:21.013
And I did...

00:33:21.506 --> 00:33:32.442
This instruction video, at the time it was a video for the London-based company Music Sales, and we did the recording in Ireland, and it was a funny story.

00:33:33.365 --> 00:33:53.152
They rented a house up above Dublin, and we went in there, and the day we were recording, it was really stormy, and it was a lot of thunder and lightning, and every time the lightning would kick up, the two guys, the sound man and the cameraman would say, Don't you think we should break and go to the pub and let it go by?

00:33:53.192 --> 00:33:56.877
They just wanted to be in the pub.

00:33:56.917 --> 00:33:58.580
They didn't want to be doing what they were doing.

00:33:59.082 --> 00:34:03.569
Some musicians played on that with me, and three of them were in the original river dance.

00:34:03.809 --> 00:34:05.492
So that was pretty cool.

00:34:05.953 --> 00:34:08.759
Yeah, your instruction video is still available on your website, isn't it?

00:34:09.159 --> 00:34:10.641
Yeah, well, it's now a DVD.

00:34:11.182 --> 00:34:13.047
And yeah, it's still available, the same one.

00:34:13.106 --> 00:34:14.809
It's called Beginning Country Harp.

00:34:15.041 --> 00:34:18.365
Is that available online as well, or is it a physical DVD only?

00:34:18.846 --> 00:34:35.443
Now, I'm in a thing in France called the iMusic School, but the problem is their website is only in French, and if you don't understand French, you can't really negotiate to get to the lessons.

00:34:36.485 --> 00:34:38.608
Of course, my lessons are all in English.

00:34:39.367 --> 00:34:40.690
If you don't know French, you can't.

00:34:41.025 --> 00:34:42.186
You can't hardly figure it out.

00:34:42.268 --> 00:34:43.128
I've had many people...

00:34:43.748 --> 00:34:44.190
You know what?

00:34:44.510 --> 00:34:49.797
That helped me sell a lot of this other one, too, because people would email me frustrated.

00:34:50.197 --> 00:34:51.778
I want to do these lessons, but I can't.

00:34:51.838 --> 00:34:54.222
I said, hey, why don't you just get my DVD?

00:34:54.282 --> 00:34:55.603
It's got the same stuff on it.

00:34:56.405 --> 00:35:00.228
Yeah, well, we'll put a link to, obviously, your website and your DVD will be available from there.

00:35:00.510 --> 00:35:01.731
So you mentioned France there.

00:35:01.771 --> 00:35:03.492
I believe you know J.J.

00:35:03.552 --> 00:35:04.353
Milto well.

00:35:04.914 --> 00:35:06.436
Yes, he's a good friend of mine.

00:35:06.476 --> 00:35:10.181
Actually, I know a lot of...

00:35:10.978 --> 00:35:13.264
harmonica players in Europe, Steve Baker.

00:35:13.304 --> 00:35:15.088
Yeah.

00:35:15.248 --> 00:35:16.632
Don Baker from Ireland.

00:35:17.253 --> 00:35:21.041
Jean-Jacques Milteau is a great friend and a great player.

00:35:21.061 --> 00:35:23.166
Yeah, he's a fantastic player, yeah.

00:35:23.427 --> 00:35:24.329
I love his playing, yeah.

00:35:29.101 --> 00:35:29.181
Yeah.

00:35:42.242 --> 00:35:48.313
We did a tour together in 1977 with the French superstar Eddie Mitchell.

00:35:49.034 --> 00:35:55.467
It was just me and an American steel player along with the French band, and part of the French band was Jean-Jacques.

00:35:56.168 --> 00:36:00.418
So we were two harmonica players on stage with Eddie Mitchell.

00:36:00.961 --> 00:36:04.306
Of course, he does a few tribute songs of yours, doesn't he?

00:36:04.746 --> 00:36:07.570
One of which, I believe, is Orange Blossom Special.

00:36:07.590 --> 00:36:13.177
So Orange Blossom Special is another song of yours which is very famous as a harmonica song.

00:36:13.657 --> 00:36:15.018
Tell us about that song.

00:36:15.699 --> 00:36:20.186
Actually, Orange Blossom Special has always been known as a fiddle tune.

00:36:20.686 --> 00:36:21.967
It was written by a fiddle player.

00:36:21.987 --> 00:36:26.653
In 1965, I did my first recording session with Johnny Cash.

00:36:27.233 --> 00:36:30.858
And he was going to record a vocal version of Orange Blossom Special.

00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:34.623
And he asked me, he said, hey, can you play a solo on this?

00:36:35.664 --> 00:36:37.106
And I thought, wow.

00:36:37.728 --> 00:36:40.831
All I was going to do was, you know, fill between his lyrics.

00:36:41.452 --> 00:36:49.965
So I figured out this thing with two harmonicas to kind of simulate what a fiddle does on the choruses of this song.

00:36:50.666 --> 00:36:52.168
And it was so funny.

00:36:52.248 --> 00:36:56.534
After the session, he walked over to me and he said, can you show me how to do that?

00:36:57.186 --> 00:37:01.489
So I not only showed him, but I gave him the two harmonicas.

00:37:02.231 --> 00:37:07.695
To make that happen, he recorded it in C.

00:37:08.536 --> 00:37:12.201
And when we get to the chorus, you know, it changes keys to F.

00:37:12.701 --> 00:37:18.586
So I used a B-flat second position and then a F first position and did a...

00:37:20.949 --> 00:37:21.329
Like that.

00:37:24.992 --> 00:37:25.393
Like that.

00:37:25.793 --> 00:37:28.478
And then played the chorus in first position on the F.

00:37:31.784 --> 00:37:32.184
Like that.

00:37:32.865 --> 00:37:37.994
And after I went home, I thought, man, I got to learn that song for real.

00:37:38.655 --> 00:37:46.469
And it has become kind of a signature last song of a show tune, you know.

00:37:46.510 --> 00:37:48.914
Always play it every show.

00:37:49.730 --> 00:37:50.431
It's a great one.

00:37:50.471 --> 00:37:55.717
And then that chorus bit, though, that fast part which you've just played there is quite a tricky bit, isn't it?

00:37:55.737 --> 00:37:58.141
Is there any tips about how people can play that song?

00:37:58.782 --> 00:37:59.862
And you know what's so funny?

00:38:00.302 --> 00:38:06.731
I've learned that when you're on a live show, people listen with their eyes.

00:38:07.552 --> 00:38:09.815
That first part where I'm doing it...

00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:14.942
It's kind of flashy, you know?

00:38:15.382 --> 00:38:16.764
And I'm switching so quick.

00:38:17.284 --> 00:38:17.885
And that...

00:38:18.402 --> 00:38:24.550
They're much more impressed with that than they are that difficult melody that happens right after that.

00:38:24.989 --> 00:38:28.994
So you later recorded your own instrumental version of Orange Blossom Special.

00:38:29.695 --> 00:38:32.099
Yeah, I've recorded it some several times.

00:38:32.338 --> 00:38:35.242
It was a single record, actually, in 1973.

00:38:38.567 --> 00:38:39.889
Got up in the country charts.

00:38:40.530 --> 00:38:46.197
And, of course, I recorded it first on the Real McCoy album.

00:38:46.717 --> 00:38:47.097
But then...

00:38:47.650 --> 00:38:50.996
I kept playing it and I thought I recorded that too slow.

00:38:51.677 --> 00:38:54.925
So I rerecorded it for the album in 73.

00:38:56.007 --> 00:38:58.371
The album was called Good Time Charlie.

00:38:58.411 --> 00:39:04.423
It is my only album that went number one in the country charts here.

00:39:45.346 --> 00:39:48.068
That's a great tune for people to check out if they don't know it already.

00:39:48.128 --> 00:39:51.853
So you're playing in two keys and using an F and a B-flat harmonica.

00:39:52.614 --> 00:39:58.400
And you also presented a TV show in America for a good number of years called Hee Haw.

00:39:59.221 --> 00:40:01.882
I worked for Hee Haw for 18 years.

00:40:01.922 --> 00:40:03.264
The show ran for 24.

00:40:03.864 --> 00:40:06.688
It was a country music variety show.

00:40:07.349 --> 00:40:11.773
It had a lot of humor, you know, country humor.

00:40:12.322 --> 00:40:17.909
But it was very, very popular in America, and it did a lot for country music.

00:40:17.969 --> 00:40:22.735
It exposed country music to the whole country, and it was a great show.

00:40:22.815 --> 00:40:24.597
I was really happy to be there.

00:40:25.378 --> 00:40:27.842
So you were playing a lot of harmonica on the show, were you?

00:40:28.603 --> 00:40:36.773
Yeah, and after a year, they asked me to be music director, and so I was music director for about 17 years.

00:40:37.634 --> 00:40:40.336
I did some guest spots on the show, too, because...

00:40:41.025 --> 00:40:43.047
I'd already had these records out.

00:40:43.487 --> 00:40:51.896
It's funny, after that first record company went out of business and I said, I don't want to be an artist.

00:40:52.016 --> 00:40:53.438
All I want to do is studio work.

00:40:53.818 --> 00:40:55.541
And then I became an artist, right?

00:40:57.001 --> 00:40:58.563
And I've loved making my records.

00:40:58.844 --> 00:41:00.965
I just love the albums.

00:41:01.947 --> 00:41:08.313
I work with amazing musicians and it's like a real joy to put them together.

00:41:08.833 --> 00:41:10.576
Yeah, you've had a great career again.

00:41:10.655 --> 00:41:18.065
And you've written an autobiography as well, 50 Cents and a Box Top, The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy.

00:41:18.465 --> 00:41:20.068
So that was a book you wrote yourself, was it?

00:41:20.568 --> 00:41:26.755
Yeah, I wrote the book and I was doing an interview with a music professor from West Virginia University.

00:41:27.335 --> 00:41:29.018
He said, you ought to write a book.

00:41:29.759 --> 00:41:31.181
And I said, I have.

00:41:31.240 --> 00:41:32.862
And he said, where is it?

00:41:33.182 --> 00:41:35.206
And I said, it's sitting on my desk.

00:41:35.867 --> 00:41:37.088
I can't find a publisher.

00:41:37.168 --> 00:41:38.449
He said, could I read it?

00:41:38.945 --> 00:41:42.449
I made him a CD of it, sent it to him.

00:41:42.891 --> 00:41:46.335
He called me back in a week and he said, I got you a publisher.

00:41:46.934 --> 00:41:51.099
Oh, West Virginia University Press is going to publish this book.

00:41:51.501 --> 00:41:52.842
He said, now it needs some work.

00:41:53.362 --> 00:41:55.224
And he said, that's what I do.

00:41:55.284 --> 00:41:59.148
And I said, I know it needs some work and be my guest.

00:41:59.670 --> 00:42:01.351
So he's the co-writer on the book.

00:42:01.411 --> 00:42:03.775
His name is Travis Steinling.

00:42:04.476 --> 00:42:06.557
He made it all happen to get the publishing rights.

00:42:06.753 --> 00:42:07.735
We've done well with it.

00:42:07.775 --> 00:42:08.755
We've sold a lot of them.

00:42:08.815 --> 00:42:11.298
It's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

00:42:12.139 --> 00:42:12.360
Yeah.

00:42:13.041 --> 00:42:15.583
And he put Travis in the back of it.

00:42:16.164 --> 00:42:21.831
He put a complete discography of every CD I'd had out up until then.

00:42:22.130 --> 00:42:22.771
It's amazing.

00:42:23.353 --> 00:42:24.813
Including the succession work?

00:42:25.795 --> 00:42:27.016
No, no, not the session work.

00:42:27.036 --> 00:42:28.858
Well, we've touched on some of the big hits.

00:42:29.719 --> 00:42:34.005
I think it's somewhere over 13,000 sessions.

00:42:34.605 --> 00:42:35.326
Wow.

00:42:35.777 --> 00:42:44.847
And I don't remember half of it because, you know, for every big name I've played with, I've played with 10 you never heard of and probably never will.

00:42:45.567 --> 00:42:52.454
All the session work you did, as you say, you were recording, I think, in the period in the 70s, you were recording on 400 sessions per year.

00:42:52.653 --> 00:42:53.914
So you were incredibly busy.

00:42:53.934 --> 00:42:59.820
I just wonder if you've got any advice about playing in the studio as opposed to playing live.

00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:02.742
Well, it's the same old thing.

00:43:02.764 --> 00:43:04.965
And young harmonica players...

00:43:05.666 --> 00:43:11.893
I find if they go up to sit in with a band, man, when they start, they don't stop.

00:43:12.353 --> 00:43:14.936
And that's a no, no, no for studio work.

00:43:14.976 --> 00:43:15.597
You know what I mean?

00:43:16.318 --> 00:43:17.719
You've got to respect the song.

00:43:17.739 --> 00:43:19.740
You've got to respect the singer.

00:43:20.302 --> 00:43:27.530
I think maybe the greatest piece of session work I ever did was on a record by the country singer George Jones.

00:43:28.210 --> 00:43:30.413
It's called He Stopped Loving Her Today.

00:43:36.833 --> 00:43:44.380
I played

00:43:51.146 --> 00:43:54.710
four very tiny little fills.

00:43:55.391 --> 00:44:01.978
It worked, it fit the song, and that's one of my better pieces of work, I think.

00:44:02.697 --> 00:44:26.146
He kept her picture on his wall Went half crazy now and then But he still loved her through it all Hoping she'd come back again

00:44:29.550 --> 00:44:35.338
Were a lot of these pieces just something where you came up with the parts or were you playing from written parts some of the

00:44:35.438 --> 00:44:35.518
time?

00:44:35.681 --> 00:44:42.528
Listen, in Nashville written parts, it's so seldom that anything is written here.

00:44:43.068 --> 00:44:48.614
You know, okay, if you're going to have strings on the session, yeah, they would write out score for everyone.

00:44:48.673 --> 00:44:49.976
But for the most part, no.

00:44:50.635 --> 00:44:51.637
You learn it by ear.

00:44:51.657 --> 00:45:00.266
They hired musicians that they trusted who could fit in and come up with appropriate things.

00:45:00.365 --> 00:45:06.748
And if you kept going working studios and you didn't, Well, they quit calling you.

00:45:06.789 --> 00:45:07.951
It was pretty simple.

00:45:09.152 --> 00:45:20.610
Talking about your interest in blues earlier on, did you have any harmonica influences about playing country style or playing more melodic style harmonica?

00:45:21.331 --> 00:45:21.952
Not really.

00:45:21.992 --> 00:45:29.184
There was a couple of guys here, but harmonica wasn't hardly ever used on country music before 1961.

00:45:30.753 --> 00:45:35.000
There was a guy named Jimmy Riddle who played with Roy Acuff.

00:45:35.601 --> 00:45:39.606
He played chromatic and he played it kind of upside down.

00:45:39.646 --> 00:45:41.028
He was more rhythmic stuff.

00:45:41.088 --> 00:45:47.217
And then there was another guy named Oney Wheeler who was a fairly good second position guy.

00:45:47.237 --> 00:45:51.123
But there was, you know, he only played with Roy Acuff too.

00:45:51.244 --> 00:45:54.068
And those were the only records you could hear him on.

00:45:54.088 --> 00:46:00.257
So it was kind of like a voice that no one ever really paid any attention to.

00:46:00.802 --> 00:46:02.164
until 61.

00:46:02.945 --> 00:46:04.927
My timing to come here was perfect.

00:46:05.387 --> 00:46:09.952
So were you really the start then of harmonica becoming popular in country music?

00:46:10.713 --> 00:46:16.521
Well, yeah, I was the first one who was doing any studio work with any steady studio work.

00:46:17.061 --> 00:46:21.967
So what about some good country harmonica players now that people listening might not be familiar with?

00:46:22.007 --> 00:46:25.632
Maybe some names you admire playing country style harmonica now.

00:46:25.853 --> 00:46:28.195
Obviously, Mickey Raphael plays with Willie Nelson.

00:46:28.737 --> 00:46:29.777
There's some great...

00:46:30.465 --> 00:46:31.567
players here in town.

00:46:31.726 --> 00:46:33.889
Mickey Raphael, he's a very good friend of mine.

00:46:37.594 --> 00:46:51.108
He did a guest spot with me on two albums ago.

00:46:51.148 --> 00:46:55.512
There's a guy here named Buddy Green, who's a fantastic player.

00:47:11.585 --> 00:47:22.744
A guy named Jelly Roll Johnson, who played on all the Judds recordings and Randy Travis, he did a guest spot with me on this current album.

00:47:23.425 --> 00:47:27.472
And I've got a couple more guys out there that I want to get to do a duet with.

00:47:28.574 --> 00:47:29.876
There's a guy named P.T.

00:47:29.898 --> 00:47:30.438
Gazelle.

00:47:36.748 --> 00:47:36.789
P.T.

00:47:37.010 --> 00:47:37.150
Gazelle

00:47:44.833 --> 00:47:46.635
There's a guy named Tim Gonzalez.

00:47:47.436 --> 00:47:50.478
And so, yeah, there's a lot of great young players here.

00:47:50.539 --> 00:47:55.885
And it's great for me to see that I think the future of their instrument's in good hands.

00:47:56.684 --> 00:47:59.788
You've talked about you being, you know, having a solo career.

00:47:59.807 --> 00:48:05.733
I think you said you had 40 solo albums, but you've also done lots and lots of work as a sideman, as we've talked about.

00:48:05.773 --> 00:48:11.340
What do you think the difference is between being a sideman and being the band leader?

00:48:12.059 --> 00:48:13.300
I mean, the sideman is...

00:48:14.114 --> 00:48:15.795
All he worries about is his own part.

00:48:16.297 --> 00:48:17.958
The band leader's worried about everybody.

00:48:17.998 --> 00:48:21.663
For me, I'm comfortable either way.

00:48:21.702 --> 00:48:27.110
I've been a leader so much, you know, that I'm very comfortable doing that.

00:48:27.451 --> 00:48:30.134
And the musicians here, they're also great.

00:48:30.193 --> 00:48:33.217
They've bought into what happens here on these recording sessions.

00:48:33.617 --> 00:48:34.639
And it's so easy.

00:48:35.039 --> 00:48:41.989
And I'm telling you, when you're on a session with five other guys, probably any one of those is capable of being a leader.

00:48:42.409 --> 00:48:42.849
I mean, it's...

00:48:43.170 --> 00:48:45.954
The talent pool is that deep here.

00:48:46.074 --> 00:48:47.416
It's just incredible.

00:48:48.237 --> 00:48:56.369
Do you have any advice for maybe young bands about how they should approach to make their music as best they can?

00:48:57.092 --> 00:49:00.916
Harmonica players, pick and choose your spots.

00:49:01.619 --> 00:49:04.463
If you play all the time, the sound man's going to turn you down.

00:49:04.503 --> 00:49:07.447
And then if you play something special, nobody will hear it.

00:49:07.867 --> 00:49:08.648
Pick and choose.

00:49:08.710 --> 00:49:10.311
And when it's your turn, shine.

00:49:10.351 --> 00:49:10.952
And when

00:49:11.012 --> 00:49:11.474
it's not...

00:49:11.809 --> 00:49:12.610
Get out of the way.

00:49:12.650 --> 00:49:16.677
And I know you do play some chromatic harmonica, yeah?

00:49:17.278 --> 00:49:18.601
How much chromatic do you play?

00:49:19.481 --> 00:49:20.884
Well, I own one.

00:49:20.923 --> 00:49:30.639
Now, I've recorded on that first, I think, on the world of Charlie McCoy, I did Fingertips, Stevie Wonder.

00:49:31.099 --> 00:49:37.971
And on two of my Christmas albums, I did, you know, the Christmas song, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.

00:49:38.311 --> 00:49:39.773
But to be honest...

00:49:40.065 --> 00:49:44.873
I know the chromatic, I know how to play it, but it's not my thing.

00:49:45.293 --> 00:49:46.436
I don't play it very often.

00:49:46.856 --> 00:49:48.318
What about your embouchure?

00:49:49.059 --> 00:49:51.905
Which embouchure, you know, puckering, tongue blocking, do you use?

00:49:52.826 --> 00:49:53.427
Intermittent.

00:49:54.108 --> 00:50:02.061
And, you know, if you ask me, it's so subconscious that I'd have to go back and analyze it to tell you.

00:50:02.101 --> 00:50:05.306
It's so subconscious, I'd never think about it.

00:50:05.666 --> 00:50:09.490
So you switched between the two then, quite interchangeably.

00:50:09.510 --> 00:50:21.668
Yeah, I did switch between the two.

00:50:23.771 --> 00:50:26.313
I really got into Celtic music big time, you know.

00:50:26.333 --> 00:50:32.121
My father's family, McCoy, and my mother's family, Kelly, came from Ireland.

00:50:32.702 --> 00:50:35.005
And I got into this Celtic music big time.

00:50:35.202 --> 00:50:36.884
I have two Celtic albums.

00:50:37.565 --> 00:50:43.992
One is called the Celtic Bridge, and the last one I did is called Celtic Dreams.

00:50:44.733 --> 00:50:47.056
Celtic Bridge is pretty much all Irish music.

00:50:47.817 --> 00:50:51.380
Celtic Dreams, I've got a musician from Isle of Man.

00:50:51.942 --> 00:50:58.789
I've got guests from Scotland, a harmonica player named Donald Black from Scotland.

00:50:59.137 --> 00:51:00.721
It's very tasty what he does.

00:51:01.382 --> 00:51:05.269
And he did a guest spot with me on my second Celtic album.

00:51:05.931 --> 00:51:07.976
I love Celtic music, no doubt about it.

00:51:08.717 --> 00:51:10.782
I think it works great on the harmonica, doesn't it?

00:51:10.802 --> 00:51:11.523
That's the thing.

00:51:11.583 --> 00:51:13.206
It's so effective on the harmonica.

00:51:13.646 --> 00:51:15.771
I do play quite a lot of that stuff myself.

00:51:16.052 --> 00:51:17.675
Especially the slow songs, you know.

00:51:32.449 --> 00:51:35.434
I love those ballads, the Irish ballads.

00:51:36.135 --> 00:51:41.742
A question I ask each time is if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you work on?

00:51:41.804 --> 00:51:51.356
And I know you say you're not necessarily practicing as much now, so maybe when you were younger, or if you were just going to pick the harmonica up now, for someone who's in the vice, what to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

00:51:52.018 --> 00:51:56.264
Probably thinking of songs I've never recorded and trying them.

00:51:56.864 --> 00:51:59.869
Thinking of songs that I have on my mind to record in the future.

00:52:00.481 --> 00:52:02.485
and trying them out, you know, that kind of thing.

00:52:03.025 --> 00:52:04.347
So playing some melodies then.

00:52:05.088 --> 00:52:05.389
Yeah,

00:52:05.869 --> 00:52:06.429
melodies, right.

00:52:08.032 --> 00:52:15.123
You know, a lot of guys get all hung up on tunings and technique and all that.

00:52:16.003 --> 00:52:18.286
My whole focus is on songs.

00:52:18.947 --> 00:52:25.978
What song will sound good on this and what's the best way to record it and that kind of thing.

00:52:26.338 --> 00:52:31.923
I've got to say as well, Charlie, if you don't mind me saying it, but I think you say you're 78 now and still playing great.

00:52:32.304 --> 00:52:37.751
So do you think the harmonicas help keep your lungs nice and healthy?

00:52:37.771 --> 00:52:39.371
You're still playing at a great lick now.

00:52:40.132 --> 00:52:41.715
Yes, I am.

00:52:42.014 --> 00:52:44.277
I turned 79 in March.

00:52:44.757 --> 00:52:46.420
I've been blessed with very good health.

00:52:47.021 --> 00:52:48.262
I'm a big walker.

00:52:48.822 --> 00:52:50.965
I walk five kilometers every day.

00:52:50.985 --> 00:52:54.989
I have for 25 plus years.

00:52:55.554 --> 00:52:56.956
Harmonica doesn't hurt either.

00:52:57.016 --> 00:52:58.496
You know, it's good for your lungs.

00:52:59.498 --> 00:53:00.880
I'm blessed with good health.

00:53:01.601 --> 00:53:05.284
Listen, I'm still so excited about music.

00:53:05.864 --> 00:53:07.327
Music is alive and well.

00:53:07.447 --> 00:53:09.188
I think the business is sick.

00:53:10.510 --> 00:53:13.112
The internet has absolutely killed the record business.

00:53:13.594 --> 00:53:17.197
So the internet has absolutely killed the record business.

00:53:17.818 --> 00:53:21.983
Anymore, it's like making CDs has become an expensive hobby.

00:53:22.503 --> 00:53:24.045
But it's my hobby.

00:53:25.666 --> 00:53:26.829
And I love to do it.

00:53:27.490 --> 00:53:33.628
The only place you can sell them is at concerts or if you have a website, you know, you sell a few on your website.

00:53:34.150 --> 00:53:35.193
But I'm still excited.

00:53:35.293 --> 00:53:36.416
I love to make them.

00:53:36.496 --> 00:53:39.646
And this is my art and I'm going to leave it to the world.

00:53:40.353 --> 00:53:43.378
I'll ask you some questions now about musical gear.

00:53:43.898 --> 00:53:44.418
That's okay.

00:53:44.458 --> 00:53:50.387
So we've already said that your harmonica of choice is a Horner Special 20 and you're a Horner in Dorsey.

00:53:51.027 --> 00:53:53.371
What about a favorite key of harmonica?

00:53:54.132 --> 00:53:55.273
It's a question I ask each time.

00:53:55.333 --> 00:53:59.599
I noticed looking through your recordings that you play lots of different keys.

00:53:59.619 --> 00:54:02.503
You don't seem to stick to just a few keys.

00:54:02.583 --> 00:54:04.686
Do you have one favorite key of harmonica?

00:54:05.186 --> 00:54:07.889
No, I match the key to the song.

00:54:08.769 --> 00:54:11.134
The F is the highest pitch harmonica, you know.

00:54:12.076 --> 00:54:17.646
I'm not going to do a soft ballad way up high like that, you know what I mean?

00:54:18.728 --> 00:54:20.010
To get it more mellow.

00:54:20.811 --> 00:54:22.614
That's the way I think about that stuff.

00:54:22.934 --> 00:54:28.405
Now, if I'm doing bluegrass, you know, yeah, let's get on up there, you know what I'm saying?

00:54:28.485 --> 00:54:30.548
Because it's pretty cool.

00:54:31.070 --> 00:54:32.932
But for the most part, like...

00:54:40.673 --> 00:54:41.936
You know, it sounds good up high.

00:54:42.498 --> 00:54:43.862
Yeah, sounds great, yeah.

00:54:44.563 --> 00:54:45.887
That's the way I think about that.

00:54:46.889 --> 00:54:47.952
It's all about the song.

00:54:48.956 --> 00:54:55.773
Plus, if you've ever been through some of my albums, there's rarely ever two songs back-to-back in the same key.

00:54:56.385 --> 00:55:11.882
I was noticing, looking for the information on your website, where you show all the keys of the songs, it's really noticeable that you do have lots of different keys, and you quite often change the key of harmonica that you're playing in a song as well, so I think it really shows that you don't have a preference for a few keys.

00:55:11.902 --> 00:55:16.668
You really like to play what fits, don't you, and what the song calls for.

00:55:17.309 --> 00:55:21.373
It's like the harmonica, you know, the good news and the bad news.

00:55:21.472 --> 00:55:24.215
The good news is you can carry one around in your pocket.

00:55:24.856 --> 00:55:28.909
The bad news is If you're going to be serious, you need at least 12 of them.

00:55:30.030 --> 00:55:30.231
Yeah.

00:55:30.771 --> 00:55:38.822
Talking about amplifiers, obviously you've mainly got a clean sound, so do you have a particular amplifier of choice, or do you stick to playing through the PA?

00:55:39.583 --> 00:55:41.003
No, I play through the PA.

00:55:41.684 --> 00:55:42.626
I don't play through the amp.

00:55:43.286 --> 00:55:48.273
So you don't really play through any tube amps, even when you're playing more bluesy stuff, you would play through the

00:55:49.114 --> 00:55:49.153
PA?

00:55:49.175 --> 00:55:51.898
Only if I'm doing something like the Little Walter Tribute.

00:55:52.641 --> 00:55:55.326
playing through a green bullet, but no.

00:55:55.907 --> 00:55:58.690
Normally, if I'm on stage, no.

00:55:58.791 --> 00:56:00.452
I play right through the house PA.

00:56:00.893 --> 00:56:02.335
And what about microphones?

00:56:02.356 --> 00:56:03.818
Do you have any favorite microphones?

00:56:05.039 --> 00:56:08.043
For live, I like a Shure SM58.

00:56:08.985 --> 00:56:15.213
For recording, I usually use a Telefunken U67 or a Telefunken U87.

00:56:16.394 --> 00:56:17.356
Okay.

00:56:17.496 --> 00:56:18.518
What sort of mics are they?

00:56:19.440 --> 00:56:21.181
They're German mics, and...

00:56:21.793 --> 00:56:26.480
They have been the class here in the studios.

00:56:26.579 --> 00:56:28.541
All the studios have Neumann.

00:56:28.762 --> 00:56:30.123
The company's called Neumann.

00:56:31.144 --> 00:56:35.050
They call their mic a Telefunken, but Neumann is the company.

00:56:35.610 --> 00:56:42.097
Every studio in town has Neumann mics because it's kind of like the class of the art here.

00:56:42.579 --> 00:56:46.804
And so when you're playing through the PA, are you using any effects or effects pedals?

00:56:47.083 --> 00:56:48.306
Would you leave that to the sound man?

00:56:49.086 --> 00:56:49.246
Nope.

00:56:49.527 --> 00:56:51.469
Whatever the sound guy puts on it, you know.

00:56:51.809 --> 00:56:53.172
No, for the most part, no.

00:56:53.913 --> 00:56:56.195
Just to finish off now, so thanks very much for your time.

00:56:56.275 --> 00:56:59.219
And just wondering, obviously now we're in pandemic time.

00:56:59.260 --> 00:57:00.561
We're all locked down.

00:57:00.702 --> 00:57:06.068
Have you got any plans later this year or, you know, things you're looking forward to getting out playing?

00:57:06.148 --> 00:57:08.210
You've already talked about recording a new gospel album.

00:57:09.753 --> 00:57:12.396
You know, it's a strange year, as everyone knows.

00:57:12.697 --> 00:57:19.326
Everything I've had up until end of June has been canceled, but I'm still doing a few things.

00:57:19.650 --> 00:57:21.813
recording sessions, you know, internet stuff.

00:57:22.193 --> 00:57:27.240
I have an alleged tour in Sweden in August.

00:57:27.902 --> 00:57:30.105
We'll see what happens with that.

00:57:30.125 --> 00:57:37.936
Swedish piano player Robert Wells, who actually I played in London with last year, Pizza Express Jazz Club.

00:57:38.637 --> 00:57:46.608
And when this weirdness is over with, I'm going to take this new album, Les Bold Tons, and pretend it's brand new out.

00:57:47.309 --> 00:57:47.489
Yeah.

00:57:47.809 --> 00:57:49.032
And then I'll start promoting it.

00:57:49.992 --> 00:57:53.257
I made a bad mistake about putting it out when I did.

00:57:53.318 --> 00:57:55.240
Well, unlucky timing.

00:57:55.260 --> 00:57:55.460
Yeah.

00:57:55.621 --> 00:57:57.483
I don't think anybody predicted all this, did they?

00:57:58.405 --> 00:57:59.927
Right.

00:57:59.947 --> 00:58:02.911
No, and I've already done a dozen sessions this year.

00:58:03.072 --> 00:58:06.376
And, you know, the studios are all shut down here.

00:58:06.416 --> 00:58:07.818
So there's nothing going on.

00:58:08.539 --> 00:58:10.461
This is said and done.

00:58:10.786 --> 00:58:13.710
there's going to be a good bit of studio work around.

00:58:13.791 --> 00:58:20.702
Plus, of the past three years, I've been playing fairly frequent on the Grand Ole Opry.

00:58:21.282 --> 00:58:22.443
I'll be doing that as well.

00:58:23.085 --> 00:58:23.827
Yeah, superb.

00:58:23.967 --> 00:58:29.255
Well, it's great to see you're still playing and still active in a new album plan and still, hopefully, when you come over to Europe.

00:58:29.275 --> 00:58:31.338
Are you only playing in Sweden when you come over to Europe?

00:58:31.898 --> 00:58:33.382
This trip would only be Sweden.

00:58:33.742 --> 00:58:51.402
I was supposed to do, in April, a studio gig album project with Eddie Mitchell in the south of France and then play on a Mediterranean cruise, Marseille, Italy, Greece, Malta, and Sardinia.

00:58:51.742 --> 00:58:53.445
Well, that didn't happen.

00:58:54.407 --> 00:58:55.188
No, unfortunately.

00:58:55.628 --> 00:58:58.452
So thanks very much, Charlie, for talking to me.

00:58:58.693 --> 00:59:00.275
It's been great to have you on the podcast.

00:59:00.697 --> 00:59:01.398
Neil, thank you.

00:59:01.889 --> 00:59:03.273
That's it for today folks.

00:59:03.614 --> 00:59:11.378
Final word from my sponsor, the Longwolf Blues Company, providing some great effects pedals and microphones, all purpose built for the harmonica.

00:59:11.699 --> 00:59:13.244
Be sure to check out their website.