The podcast that provides profiles of great harmonica players and technicians from around the world

Season 1

May 18, 2023

Marcos Coll interview

Marcos Coll joins me on episode 86. Marcos is a Spaniard who has been living in Berlin for the last twenty years. Marcos rose to fame at a young age on the Spanish blues scene playing with the Tonky Blues …

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May 3, 2023

Ed Hopwood interview

Ed Hopwood joins me on episode 85. Ed is from the UK where he started out playing drums and he shares some tips on how to bring some rhythm into our harmonica playing. Ed loves early styles of harmonica and …

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April 19, 2023

Hendrik Meurkens interview

Hendrik Meurkens joins me on episode 84. Hendrik is a German chromatic player who has been living in New York since the early 1990s. Toots Thielemans was Hendrik’s inspiration to take up the chromatic and he performed a live ...

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April 5, 2023

Annie Raines interview

Annie Raines joins me on episode 83. Annie is an early pioneer as a female blues harmonica player. Hailing from the Boston area of the US, she drew on the rich source of harmonica inspiration from nearby Cambridge, regularly ...

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March 24, 2023

Steve Guyger interview

Steve Guyger joins me on episode 82. Steve is from the Philadelphia area of the US and he absorbed the blues harmonica players when he first got into playing, with John Lee Williamson a big early inspiration. Steve was also …

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March 9, 2023

Ben Bouman interview

Ben Bouman joins me on episode 81. Ben is a Dutch blues player who always strives for originality in his playing, partly inspired by his admiration for the playing of Paul deLay. Ben’s current band is The Marble Tones, who …

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Feb. 22, 2023

Todd Parrott interview

Todd Parrot joins me on episode 80. Todd is a gospel harmonica player who was inspired to play harmonica after first hearing it in church. He went on to join the church band and has gone on to develop a …

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Feb. 10, 2023

Rocky Lok interview

Rocky Lok joins me on episode 79. Rocky lives in Hong Kong, where there is a vibrant harmonica scene. Harmonica is taught in many schools there, which is how Rocky got started playing himself almost 50 years ago. He went …

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Jan. 27, 2023

Marko Jovanovic interview

Marko Jovanovic joins me on episode 78. Marko is a German player with Serbian roots, from where he developed an interest in playing Balkan music on the harmonica, returning to the region to team up with several acts to releas...

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Jan. 11, 2023

Rob Paparozzi interview

Rob Paparozzi joins me on episode 77. Rob is based around the New York area where he started out playing in blues bands before quickly adding the chromatic to his harp arsenal. He took lessons with Robert Bonfiglio and then …

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Dec. 20, 2022

Will Pound interview

Will Pound joins me on episode 76. Will first started playing harmonica age 10 to help with his breathing after he underwent two major heart operations as a child. Since then he has rose to fame on the English folk …

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Dec. 9, 2022

Laurent Maur interview

Laurent Maur joins me on episode 75. Laurent is a jazz chromatic player from France. He first started learning diatonic before moving on to the chromatic to pursue his love of jazz music. He had some lessons with the French …

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Nov. 26, 2022

Richard Hunter interview

Richard Hunter joins me on episode 74. Richard has immersed himself in harmonica ever since he first picked it up at age 15 and has been pushing the boundaries of the instrument ever since. His first release was a solo …

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Nov. 12, 2022

Adam Gussow interview

Adam Gussow joins me on episode 73. Adam is a native New Yorker now living in Mississippi, working as a professor at the university there. Adam rose to stardom as part of the blues duo Satan and Adam in the …

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Oct. 27, 2022

Paul Reddick interview

Paul Reddick joins me on episode 72. Paul is a singer, songwriter and harmonica player based in Toronto, Canada. He rose to prominence with his band: Paul Reddick and the Sidemen in the 1990s. Paul describes himself as not a …

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Oct. 14, 2022

Juzzie Smith interview

Juzzie Smith joins me on episode 71. Juzzie is an Australian who has a one-man band act with the harmonica pivotal to the sound. He has had over 200 million views of his online videos, starting out when a passer-by …

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Sept. 28, 2022

Ricky Cool interview

Ricky Cool joins me on episode 70. Ricky hails from the Birmingham area of the UK, and drew great inspiration asa teenager from the American folk festivals which brought some harmonica greats to the city. Under his alter ego ...

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Sept. 16, 2022

Herbert Quelle interview

Herbert Quelle joins me on episode 69. Herbert is a German who worked as a diplomat for 40 years. This included 10 years as the German Consul in the US, where he met several distinguished harmonica names. With a deep …

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Sept. 1, 2022

Cheryl Arena interview

Cheryl Arena joins me on episode 68. Cheryl is a blues player and singer from the Boston area. She integrated herself into the local music scene there by setting up a jam session near Berklee college, drawing in the great …

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Aug. 19, 2022

DM48 interview with Erik Lekholm and Jason Keene

Erik Lekholm and Jason Keene join me on episode 67. Where we talk about the innovative DM48 midi chromatic harmonica, designed by Erik initially as a means to practise silently. He posted his creation on a harmonica forum and...

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Aug. 5, 2022

Joel Andersson interview

Joel Andersson joins me on episode 66. Joel is an Irish harmonica player from Sweden, while also building one of the best reputations in the business for his harmonica customisation skills. Joel first fell in love with Irish ...

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July 15, 2022

Joe Powers interview

Joe Powers joins me on episode 65. Joe started out playing diatonic harmonica along with blues records as a teenager, before deciding to study music composition at college, taking up the chromatic there. Joe’s passion for dan...

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June 23, 2022

William Clarke retrospective, with Paul Barry

Paul Barry joins me on episode 64. Paul is our resident expert on William Clarke, and is currently writing a biography about him. Bill (as he was known to his friends) was born in a suburb of Los Angeles, and …

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June 10, 2022

Jens Bunge interview

Jens Bunge joins me on episode 63. Jens is a German chromatic player who started out playing the tremolo, before discovering Stevie Wonder. He then found Toots Thielemans and he started teaching himself jazz by ear and joined...

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May 27, 2022

Paul Butterfield retrospective, with Tom Ellis

Tom Ellis joins me on episode 62 for something a little bit different as we do a retrospective of the legendary Paul Butterfield, with Tom our resident expert. Born in 1942 in Chicago, Butterfield frequented many of the South...

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May 10, 2022

Will Wilde interview

Will Wilde joins me on episode 61. A sixteen year old Will stole his first harmonica while at a party and proceeded to put the rock into the instrument. He first started performing with his sister, Dani, as the harmonica …

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May 4, 2022

Wade Schuman interview

Wade Schuman joins me on episode 60. Wade is the singer / songwriter and leader, and of course harmonica player, of the New York based 8-piece band, Hazmat Modine, with the harmonica playing a pivotal role in the sound of …

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April 14, 2022

Gerhard Mueller interview

Gerhard Mueller joins me on episode 59. Gerhard is the Product Manager for Hohner harmonicas, a role he has held for 28 years. His father worked as a gardener at the Hohner factory in Trossingen, and as well as getting …

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March 29, 2022

Bertram Becher interview

Bertram Becher joins me on episode 58. Bertram is the Product Manager at Seydel harmonicas. He first landed this dream job when he made a name for himself by creating a software tutorial called The Interactive Blues Harp Work...

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March 11, 2022

Mathias Heise interview

Mathias Heise joins me on episode 57. Mathias is a chromatic player from Copenhagen in Denmark. He started out playing diatonic, aged eight, before moving across to the chromatic, with which he was the first player to attend ...

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Feb. 19, 2022

RJ Mischo interview

RJ Mischo joins me on episode 56. RJ hails from the twin cities of Minneapolis-St Paul, where he developed his craft with a little help from local player Slim Lynwood. He then teamed up with Mojo Buford to perform around …

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Feb. 6, 2022

Jim Conway interview

Jim Conway joins me on episode 55. Jim is an Australian harmonica player who rose to fame at the age of 19 in the jug band: The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, with the first two albums from the band receiving …

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Jan. 22, 2022

Tom Ball interview

Tom Ball joins me on episode 54. From Los Angeles, but long time resident of Santa Barbara, he started playing guitar in the popular local folk scene before Sonny Terry turned him on to the sound of acoustic harmonica. He …

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Jan. 9, 2022

Billy Boy Arnold interview

Billy Boy Arnold joins me on episode 53. Today we have a little part of blues harmonica history, as Billy lived through the heyday of the blues in Chicago and was a peer of the many great players at the …

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Dec. 22, 2021

Rick Estrin interview

Rick Estrin joins me on episode 52. Rick grew up in San Francisco and starting sitting in with bands in the city. He was friends with Jerry Portnoy, who persuaded him to spend some time in Chicago. Here he met …

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Dec. 11, 2021

Richard Gjems interview

Richard Gjems joins me on episode 51. Richard hails from Norway, with its many blues clubs demonstrating how popular the music is there. Richard is a real student of the blues, and the place of the harmonica within it, and …

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Nov. 27, 2021

Magic Dick interview

Magic Dick joins me on episode 50. Magic Dick created one of the all time classic harmonica instrumentals in Whammer Jammer. But his long career has produced so many more highlights than just that. He started playing trumpet ...

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Nov. 18, 2021

Rory McLeod interview

Rory Mcleod joins me on episode 49. Rory is a modern day wandering minstrel . A multi-instrumentalist ‘folk singing’ troubadour, Rory has travelled far and wide, his trusty harmonica (plus an assortment of other instruments) ...

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Oct. 26, 2021

Cy Leo interview

Cy Leo joins me on episode 48. Leo is from Hong Kong, where he started learning to play classical chromatic harmonica from age 6, under the direction of his father, who is an accomplished player himself, having won the ensemb...

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Sept. 28, 2021

Jason Rosenblatt interview

Jason Rosenblatt joins me on episode 47. A native of Canada but now resident in Israel, Jason is best known for his band Shtreiml, playing a mixture of Klezmer (Jewish) and Eastern European music with great use of the harmoni...

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Sept. 18, 2021

Greg Heumann interview

Greg Heumann joins me on episode 46. The focus of this episode is all about gear, as I talk to the founder of BlowsMeAway Productions. Greg has released an album of his own and uses his knowledge of playing harmonica …

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Sept. 1, 2021

Tony Eyers interview

Tony Eyers joins me on episode 45. Tony is an Australian who first picked up the harmonica while studying at Yale in the US. Returning from America he started a successful blues band in Adelaide. He also plays baroque recorde...

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Aug. 14, 2021

Adam 'Tidy' Burney interview

Adam Burney joins me on episode 44. Adam is a south London boy, from Croydon. A stint playing with the punk bands of this area has helped shape his sound with an edge of Blues punk, including in his own …

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July 24, 2021

David Naiditch interview

David Naiditch joins me on episode 43. After starting out as a diatonic player, including having lessons with a touring Sonny Terry, David developed himself into possibly the sole exponent of playing Bluegrass music on the ch...

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July 3, 2021

Hermine Deurloo interview

Hermine Deurloo joins me on episode 42. Hermine is a Dutch female chromatic harmonica player who grew up to the sound of master jazz player Toots Thielemans. After studying saxophone at the Amsterdam Conservatory, she picked ...

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June 17, 2021

Phil Wiggins interview

Phil Wiggins joins me on episode 41. Phil was one half of one of the best known blues duos around, Cephas and Wiggins, playing with John Cephas for over thirty years. They progressed from their early recordings in Germany to...

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June 4, 2021

Bob Corritore interview

Bob Corritore joins me on episode 40. Bob grew up around Chicago and absorbed the best blues scene in the world, attending the blues clubs in his youth, seeing his harmonica heroes in action and befriending many of them. He …

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May 22, 2021

Mat Walklate interview

Mat Walklate joins me on episode 39. Mat is based in Manchester and has worked as a professional musician throughout his life, playing mainly blues and traditional music using a variety of harmonicas. He started out with a lo...

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May 8, 2021

Will Galison interview

Will Galison joins me on episode 38. Will first picked up the chromatic harmonica when studying guitar at the Berklee College of Music. He quickly realised he had an affinity with the instrument, and after spending a day wit...

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April 24, 2021

Rick Epping interview

Rick Epping joins me on episode 37. Rick worked for Hohner USA for 18 years and played a pivotal role in improving the quality of their harmonicas back to their former glory. While at Hohner, he also developed the XB40, …

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