June 7, 2023

Paul Harrington interview

Paul Harrington joins me on episode 87. Paul has a long and illustrious recording career, having had great success on the vibrant session scene in Dallas where he recorded on many commercials. He also played on the hit song Timber by rapper Pit Bull, possibly the most listened to song with harmonica in the last decade, with over one billion streams on Spotify. Paul met and performed with many great musicians on the Dallas music scene, becoming the go to harmonica player for famed record...

Paul Harrington joins me on episode 87.

Paul has a long and illustrious recording career, having had great success on the vibrant session scene in Dallas where he recorded on many commercials. He also played on the hit song Timber by rapper Pit Bull, possibly the most listened to song with harmonica in the last decade, with over one billion streams on Spotify.

Paul met and performed with many great musicians on the Dallas music scene, becoming the go to harmonica player for famed record producer Phil York, appearing on the NBC Special with comedian Steve Martin, as well as sharing the stage with John Denver and Dolly Parton.

Paul released an album in his own name, the Harmonica Soul Serenade, with the song Mercy Mercy Mercy picked out for special praise on Adam Gussow’s YouTube channel.

Links:
Paul Harrington: Seydel endorser:
https://www.seydel1847.de/paulharrington

Videos:
Timber hit song:
https://youtu.be/hHUbLv4ThOo

Texas Blues Runners, Downtown from Sweet Mama album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8OPJyd_HRU

Adam Gussow reviews Paul’s Mercy Mercy Mercy song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvSSG3eyhDc

News story by Paul’s nephew on his involvement with Timber song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_EXYVhNYrY

Norton Buffalo switching between four harmonicas on ‘Runaway’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPzcZNgVfpA

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

Support the show

01:46 - Paul currently lives in Dallas, Texas, but is originally from Illinois

02:12 - Played piano when young but quickly abandoned that to pick up the harmonica

02:19 - Got first harmonica age 9 and early learnings

03:14 - Went to the railway near his home and played along with the trains, before he was aware of harmonica train imitation songs

04:25 - Paul’s favourite recording of another harmonica train imitation is by Freeman Stowers

06:01 - Early harmonica influences and playing along with the TV and radio

06:34 - Second harmonica was a chromatic, allowing Paul to jam along to any song

07:15 - Kept buying more harmonicas

08:19 - Discovery of blues music and harmonica, and listening to Jimmy Reed

10:31 - Became a regular at Muddy Water concerts as a boy, seeing James Cotton and Walter Horton playing with him

12:20 - Paul quit his day job to become a full-time harmonica player, playing in a seven piece band

13:01 - Moved to Phoenix and then Colorado where Paul got serious about working as a musician

14:25 - Paul worked really hard, with a day job and then gigging at night and still doing it in his 70s

16:43 - Moved to Texas because it’s a real live music place

18:04 - Knocked on doors to get work as a harmonica player in Dallas

18:24 - Paul got lots of work in the session scene in Dallas, then the jingle capital of the world

18:52 - Regrets not having moved to Nashville

19:10 - How Paul developed harmonica playing to keep getting the session work

19:38 - Still trying to develop overblows

20:00 - Would practise on different harmonicas to make sure he could play them all

20:13 - Was carrying a lot of harmonicas to gigs, so decided to cut them down

20:47 - Made himself versatile on the harmonica, so could play what was needed for session work

21:37 - Some of the session work Paul has worked on include: Shell, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Coke

22:38 - Recorded a CD of harmonica clips that is used by recording studios, with the clips popping up on different commercials

23:27 - Paul played the harmonica part on the hit single Timber, by rapper Pitbull

24:54 - Riff from Timber was based on a Lee Oskar riff from San Francisco Bay song

25:14 - Had to record the session for Timber playing the riff over the whole song, rather than producer repeating the riff

26:20 - Paul’s weatherman nephew did a news clip about the song Timber and Paul’s role in it

26:32 - Managed to get some more money from Timber royalties after initial payment from the session

27:48 - Paul became the session harmonica player for famous producer Phil York, recording an album with singer Jewel Akens

30:12 - Played with Rusty Weir

31:05 - Appeared on the NBC Special with comedian Steve Martin

32:05 - Helped produce an album with blues artist Jesse Thomas

33:48 - Played concerts with John Denver, Dolly Parton and almost joined the Ricky Nelson band

34:16 - Released an album under own name in 2003: Harmonica Soul Serenade

34:52 - Adam Gussow picked out the song Mercy Mercy Mercy from the album

35:28 - Lot of variety of songs on the Harmonica Soul Serenade album

36:21 - Recorded a Christmas single: Silver Night

37:11 - How Paul approaches a more melodic song

38:35 - Decided to start singing aged 50, and wishing he’d started earlier

40:06 - Plays a little bass harmonica, but thinks it might have been stolen

40:39 - Tip: when doing a recording session, take lots of gear with you so you look more important

41:22 - 10 minute question

43:18 - Played at the sessions by ear, not reading music

43:33 - Is a fan of Paul deLay’s chromatic playing

44:06 - Paul is a Seydel endorser, used to be a Hohner endorser

44:52 - Different tunings: used to play country tuning and minor tunings

45:42 - Used to cut out the swollen wooden combs on Marine Bands

46:36 - Different positions and Norton Buffalo switching between four harps on Runaway

48:36 - Plays the Hohner XB40 sometimes

49:05 - Embouchre: lip purser and likes to use tongue blocking to add rhythm

49:53 - Amps: has a ’59 Champ

50:32 - Uses a Fender Vibroverb for a big amp, used to own a Fender Bassman, and a Roland solid state

51:24 - Mic: Electrovoice

52:05 - Effects

53:01 - Future plans

WEBVTT

00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:08.404
Paul Harrington joins me on episode 87, having had great success on the vibrant session scene in Dallas where he recorded on many commercials.

00:00:09.127 --> 00:00:18.609
He also played on the hit song Timber by rapper Pitbull, possibly the most listened to song with harmonica in the last decade, with over 1 billion streams on Spotify alone.

00:00:19.297 --> 00:00:33.978
Paul met and performed with many great musicians on the Dallas music scene, becoming the go-to harmonica player for famed record producer Phil York, appearing on the NBC special with comedian Steve Martin, as well as sharing the stage with John Denver and Dolly Parton.

00:00:34.779 --> 00:00:44.953
Paul released an album in his own name, The Harmonica Soul Serenade, with the song Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, picked out for special appraise on Adam Gussell's YouTube channel.

00:00:47.298 --> 00:00:49.823
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:50.264 --> 00:00:59.584
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:01:37.825 --> 00:01:39.847
Hello, Paul Harrington, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:40.629 --> 00:01:41.269
Hello, Neil.

00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:42.031
How are you?

00:01:42.070 --> 00:01:44.112
I'm great, thank you.

00:01:44.132 --> 00:01:45.495
Thanks for joining today.

00:01:45.635 --> 00:01:49.879
So you're talking to us from Texas now, yeah?

00:01:50.801 --> 00:01:51.141
Yes, sir.

00:01:51.682 --> 00:01:52.503
Rockwall, Texas.

00:01:53.424 --> 00:01:54.885
Great, but you didn't grow up around there.

00:01:55.105 --> 00:01:57.628
You grew up, I think you were born in Chicago originally, were you?

00:01:58.468 --> 00:02:01.912
Well, I was Southern Illinois I was born, but it's pretty much the same.

00:02:02.653 --> 00:02:03.295
Yeah, that's

00:02:03.375 --> 00:02:05.977
where I was born and raised in the farmland.

00:02:06.498 --> 00:02:09.722
And so did you have some music influences when you were young?

00:02:09.742 --> 00:02:10.903
You know, what got you into music?

00:02:11.844 --> 00:02:18.775
Oh, I played piano when I was real small and then I got a harmonica for Christmas and that's what got me going.

00:02:19.295 --> 00:02:21.117
How old were you when you got that first harmonica?

00:02:21.157 --> 00:02:22.199
Nine.

00:02:22.681 --> 00:02:23.681
And I wouldn't put it down.

00:02:23.701 --> 00:02:25.764
It eliminated piano as a career.

00:02:25.784 --> 00:02:27.007
Do you remember what sort

00:02:27.026 --> 00:02:27.907
of harmonica that was?

00:02:28.328 --> 00:02:29.250
Yeah, it was a marine band.

00:02:29.602 --> 00:02:30.002
Great.

00:02:30.062 --> 00:02:34.007
So then when you got this harmonica age nine, like you say, though, you couldn't put it down.

00:02:34.046 --> 00:02:36.930
You know, what sort of things were you playing on it when you first got it?

00:02:37.631 --> 00:02:38.572
Roll out the barrel.

00:02:38.972 --> 00:02:43.856
We'll have a barrel of fun was the little pamphlet that came with the harmonica.

00:02:43.877 --> 00:02:48.703
And it told you it had a tongue block, which I immediately, you know, that was as far as I read.

00:02:48.723 --> 00:02:51.164
That's something I didn't want to know for a while.

00:02:51.205 --> 00:02:52.526
Now I like it.

00:02:53.046 --> 00:02:55.349
So were you tongue blocking right from the beginning?

00:02:55.746 --> 00:02:56.486
No, no.

00:02:56.967 --> 00:02:59.610
I looked at those directions and it was too much, too much for me.

00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:00.850
I just threw them away.

00:03:00.871 --> 00:03:04.435
I thought, well, I can play this thing without doing that.

00:03:04.835 --> 00:03:05.256
Great.

00:03:05.276 --> 00:03:06.056
You were only nine.

00:03:06.296 --> 00:03:07.217
Where did you go from there?

00:03:07.418 --> 00:03:10.320
Did you just carry on learning yourself by ear?

00:03:10.420 --> 00:03:13.723
And, you know, how did you carry on learning the harmonica from then?

00:03:14.085 --> 00:03:18.930
Yeah, I'd go down to the tracks and play along with the trains as they sped up going out of town.

00:03:19.530 --> 00:03:22.092
It allowed me to be private, you know, in my rehearsal and stuff.

00:03:22.112 --> 00:03:23.033
That's really why I was doing it.

00:03:23.298 --> 00:03:26.062
And there was a lot of Westerns on television then.

00:03:26.383 --> 00:03:29.486
And so I played along with the television and played along with Westerns.

00:03:30.068 --> 00:03:30.848
And that was cool.

00:03:31.189 --> 00:03:33.873
Because, you know, I was probably in first or second position all the time.

00:03:33.913 --> 00:03:36.518
Did you know about imitating trains and harmonicas?

00:03:36.598 --> 00:03:38.180
Or is that something you just did yourself?

00:03:38.561 --> 00:03:39.301
I did it myself.

00:03:39.562 --> 00:03:41.003
It's just a natural...

00:03:41.044 --> 00:03:44.849
When the wheels go over the joint in the rail...

00:03:45.090 --> 00:03:57.224
that makes a clicking sound, semi-equal intervals, and then you have the squeaking, you know, the boxcar swinging back and forth and all this stuff, you know, it just was a natural for playing along with it.

00:03:57.525 --> 00:03:58.586
You had your own rhythm section.

00:03:58.907 --> 00:04:05.133
Yeah, that's amazing that you would start doing that naturally, isn't it, considering it's such a tradition to play train imitations on the harmonica.

00:04:05.153 --> 00:04:07.236
It's incredible you kind of did that all by yourself.

00:04:07.516 --> 00:04:09.419
At the time, it seemed to me like it was something I should know.

00:04:09.819 --> 00:04:11.342
It seemed like everybody should do it, you know.

00:04:11.741 --> 00:04:15.895
At the time, I did it, because when I discovered that What could check a thing?

00:04:15.936 --> 00:04:17.798
You know, I really was into it.

00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:22.987
And then the train whistle happened and I lived not too far from the railroad.

00:04:23.028 --> 00:04:25.232
And so it was an easy thing to do.

00:04:25.252 --> 00:04:25.271
I

00:04:25.793 --> 00:04:32.704
mean, when you heard other train imitations, what, you know, recordings of other train imitations, did you then, you know, have you got a favorite one of those?

00:04:32.745 --> 00:04:33.947
Oh, yeah.

00:04:34.427 --> 00:04:35.170
Was it Freeman's?

00:04:35.490 --> 00:04:40.257
Freeman Stowers, he was the first black person to play at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

00:04:41.139 --> 00:04:42.961
And he had a 200-mile-an-hour train.

00:04:43.002 --> 00:04:47.689
I mean, that train would go just amazingly fast.

00:04:47.970 --> 00:04:50.975
Nobody knew his train ever went as fast as his harmonica train.

00:04:51.274 --> 00:04:52.336
It was like radio, you know?

00:04:52.377 --> 00:04:53.738
And so he played the part of the baby.

00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:54.961
He said, are you quitting me?

00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:56.163
Yes, I'm quitting you.

00:04:56.202 --> 00:04:57.886
Play me the Red Road Blues before I go.

00:04:57.906 --> 00:05:03.134
So then he started chucking, chucking, and away he went, 200 knots at least.

00:05:04.577 --> 00:05:05.298
All aboard.

00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:07.122
Goodbye, baby.

00:05:09.646 --> 00:05:24.413
Goodbye.

00:05:38.786 --> 00:05:43.012
So is a train imitation something that you've performed a lot since then?

00:05:43.052 --> 00:05:44.173
Is that something you like to do?

00:05:44.593 --> 00:05:46.776
If I'm playing for kids, I will definitely do it.

00:05:46.997 --> 00:05:48.980
It's like a set list for different gigs.

00:05:49.540 --> 00:05:54.228
People seem really impressed by the check of what kind of thing you can do on a harmonica.

00:05:54.889 --> 00:05:55.269
It's natural.

00:05:55.288 --> 00:05:58.894
It's like if you give a kid a harmonica and they don't know anything about it, that's what they'll do.

00:05:59.295 --> 00:05:59.495
Yeah.

00:05:59.896 --> 00:06:00.817
Start huffing and puffing.

00:06:01.197 --> 00:06:01.658
So great.

00:06:01.697 --> 00:06:04.182
So again, how did you then develop through...

00:06:04.514 --> 00:06:07.976
You know, your teens playing the harmonica, you know, what were you doing to learn?

00:06:08.497 --> 00:06:11.360
Bob Dylan, the Beatles were a big influence.

00:06:11.721 --> 00:06:16.264
Any harmonica I hear, I just, you know how it is, you go to it, your ear goes to it right away.

00:06:16.345 --> 00:06:19.648
And so I'd sit there in front of the TV and play along.

00:06:19.668 --> 00:06:21.329
I'd have my harmonica spread out in front of me.

00:06:21.470 --> 00:06:23.012
My parents were funny about that.

00:06:23.252 --> 00:06:25.153
They didn't mind and they didn't make any big deal out of it.

00:06:25.194 --> 00:06:26.014
They just left me alone.

00:06:26.033 --> 00:06:27.795
I always entertained myself, you know?

00:06:28.136 --> 00:06:28.336
Yeah.

00:06:28.497 --> 00:06:32.860
Did you have several harmonicas to play in different keys or were you managing just with the one?

00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:33.822
Yes, I did.

00:06:34.146 --> 00:06:38.190
I got my second harmonica in February because that's my birthday.

00:06:38.211 --> 00:06:43.757
I played that first harmonica so much in December that they said, man, let's get him another harmonica.

00:06:44.016 --> 00:06:45.158
Let's get him a good one this time.

00:06:45.218 --> 00:06:48.901
So they got me one with a button, chromatic 12, model 270.

00:06:49.382 --> 00:06:51.826
I got that, and boy, that was my friend forever.

00:06:51.846 --> 00:06:57.973
It was just like, oh, man, I can play any song on this, you know, because it had all those sharps and everything.

00:06:58.012 --> 00:07:00.615
I'm sorry I lost that harmonica.

00:07:00.636 --> 00:07:02.718
I don't know where it got off to, but I wish I'd hung on to it.

00:07:03.009 --> 00:07:08.295
You were able to play in different keys, and as you say, and then you could play along with different things then.

00:07:08.394 --> 00:07:08.615
Yeah.

00:07:08.694 --> 00:07:11.538
So you actually learned a lot of your stuff on chromatic first then?

00:07:12.077 --> 00:07:13.819
They came along together.

00:07:13.860 --> 00:07:15.060
They came along at the same time.

00:07:15.521 --> 00:07:16.923
And I'll tell you something else I used to do.

00:07:17.023 --> 00:07:21.226
I used to play along with the radio after I got myself about 10 harmonicas.

00:07:21.827 --> 00:07:31.836
I kept going to the swim practice at Decatur, Illinois, and every time I'd go there, if I had an extra 15 minutes, I'd walk down to the music place and get myself a harmonica.

00:07:33.089 --> 00:07:36.913
It had chores, and it had a few bucks in my pocket, and I'd get myself a harmonica.

00:07:37.154 --> 00:07:39.237
When they went to a dollar and a quarter, I thought about quitting.

00:07:39.817 --> 00:07:40.819
I thought, that's ridiculous.

00:07:40.858 --> 00:07:42.040
That's too much for a Marine band.

00:07:42.100 --> 00:07:45.444
But still, I didn't have any flats, so I bought it.

00:07:45.463 --> 00:07:54.593
I set the harps out in front of me with the television on and had the oldies on the black and white TV, and they'd have Sons of the Pioneers or something.

00:07:54.613 --> 00:08:01.401
You could always find some kind of hook that you could hook into the chase or anything like that.

00:08:01.730 --> 00:08:02.331
Yeah, great.

00:08:02.370 --> 00:08:06.997
So you really learned by, like you say, playing along with radio and television and playing by ear.

00:08:07.237 --> 00:08:07.538
Yeah.

00:08:07.557 --> 00:08:07.877
Oh, yeah.

00:08:07.997 --> 00:08:12.324
And WLS in Chicago, it was the world's largest store for Sears Roebuck.

00:08:12.564 --> 00:08:15.908
And it was a very powerful soul record source.

00:08:16.149 --> 00:08:18.512
And so I had a good radio station.

00:08:19.194 --> 00:08:22.338
When did you start discovering blues music and blues harmonica?

00:08:22.939 --> 00:08:26.564
I discovered it about, oh, I guess I was probably 11.

00:08:26.584 --> 00:08:30.468
It came on pretty quick because it was happening right then.

00:08:30.488 --> 00:08:31.149
You know, 63, 64.

00:08:31.362 --> 00:08:33.767
There was a lot of white and black crossover.

00:08:33.807 --> 00:08:37.075
Otis Rush and Bo Diddley, I heard him a lot.

00:08:37.095 --> 00:08:39.038
He was up playing on the white radio station.

00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:40.722
And he's crossing over, you know.

00:08:41.605 --> 00:08:49.182
So I heard a lot of that.

00:09:02.625 --> 00:09:23.933
sam cook i listen to him a lot i listen to uh jimmy reed jimmy reed my goodness i listen to him a lot i played last night and i was doing jimmy reed licks the trumpet player loves jimmy reed and i'm trying to teach him how to play the upper end he's digging it you know he's really cool so

00:09:33.025 --> 00:09:39.212
So was he one of the first blues harmonicas you got into then, Jimmy Reed?

00:09:39.352 --> 00:09:40.453
Yeah, he was.

00:09:40.534 --> 00:09:41.855
He was very early for me.

00:09:42.876 --> 00:09:44.739
And it was coming at me fast and quick by then.

00:09:44.759 --> 00:09:48.443
I actually had a formal day that I quit rock and roll.

00:09:48.683 --> 00:09:54.429
When I was a sophomore or junior in high school, I was a recognized snob about music.

00:09:54.490 --> 00:09:58.695
And I told these guys, I said, I'm not listening to rock and roll anymore.

00:09:58.735 --> 00:09:59.515
And they said, why not?

00:09:59.576 --> 00:10:00.778
I said, because I'm listening to blues.

00:10:01.313 --> 00:10:03.057
I'm going to need to spend all my time on the blues.

00:10:03.077 --> 00:10:04.000
That's what I'm going to spend.

00:10:04.019 --> 00:10:08.549
And so then they started coming to me with Al Green records, you know, these soul records and said, is this guy good?

00:10:08.570 --> 00:10:09.270
Yeah, he's good.

00:10:09.311 --> 00:10:09.792
Yeah.

00:10:09.812 --> 00:10:16.245
You know, and, but, you know, the Beatles and the Stones and, you know, Stones, I could catch on to it right off, you know.

00:10:17.428 --> 00:10:19.293
First and second position seemed real natural to me.

00:10:19.953 --> 00:10:21.477
I could, I could cop Mick Jagger.

00:10:21.730 --> 00:10:23.793
So that was handy.

00:10:24.193 --> 00:10:26.476
You were still living, what, near Chicago at this time?

00:10:26.496 --> 00:10:28.820
150 miles south of Chicago,

00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:29.240
yeah.

00:10:29.741 --> 00:10:30.001
Yeah.

00:10:30.282 --> 00:10:30.982
Middle of Illinois.

00:10:31.224 --> 00:10:35.409
Did you manage to catch any of the blue zacks around Chicago at that time, or were you too young?

00:10:36.390 --> 00:10:50.975
I was a swimmer, and I would go on about every weekend, or every other weekend, we would go to Memphis, or some other college, some universities, University of Illinois, we'd go to Illinois State University.

00:10:51.035 --> 00:10:53.238
We'd go to the student unions.

00:10:53.619 --> 00:11:00.508
The student union had a place you could get a Coke and you could wander around and nobody knew you.

00:11:00.528 --> 00:11:01.769
You could get away with anything.

00:11:02.169 --> 00:11:06.695
So I'd swim my event and then I'd go swim the butterfly and then I'd go looking for trouble.

00:11:07.355 --> 00:11:09.918
And I got to see Muddy Waters.

00:11:10.419 --> 00:11:15.907
I got to see him one time three weeks in a row or two weeks on and one week off or something.

00:11:15.927 --> 00:11:18.409
But I kept seeing this man and finally the guy said, come here, little boy.

00:11:18.785 --> 00:11:19.326
Who are you?

00:11:19.787 --> 00:11:20.649
What are you doing here?

00:11:21.089 --> 00:11:25.897
You know, they were being discovered by the English guys, making them hip to us.

00:11:25.996 --> 00:11:28.780
I didn't realize that Muddy Waters was a big star.

00:11:28.821 --> 00:11:32.807
I thought he was just a guy, you know, because he was just a real nice fella.

00:11:33.267 --> 00:11:35.750
I didn't realize I was getting to watch royalty.

00:11:36.211 --> 00:11:38.335
Do you know which harmonica player he had with him then?

00:11:38.775 --> 00:11:39.216
I don't know.

00:11:39.296 --> 00:11:43.802
I know James Cotton kind of seemed like who I was watching.

00:11:57.217 --> 00:12:00.985
Walter Shakey Horton, he was one of the guys that I did see with Muddy.

00:12:01.205 --> 00:12:02.667
He had a microphone.

00:12:02.727 --> 00:12:04.571
I said, that microphone, that's a cool microphone.

00:12:04.591 --> 00:12:05.052
Where'd you get that?

00:12:05.091 --> 00:12:06.274
He goes, can't get it.

00:12:06.614 --> 00:12:07.215
Very rare.

00:12:07.556 --> 00:12:08.116
Very rare.

00:12:08.136 --> 00:12:10.981
I said, okay.

00:12:11.462 --> 00:12:12.244
He was a cool guy.

00:12:12.544 --> 00:12:15.009
He played chromatic and harp at the same time he was building the chord.

00:12:15.369 --> 00:12:17.533
I have him stuck up there in his hand some way.

00:12:17.894 --> 00:12:18.514
I've tried to do it.

00:12:18.534 --> 00:12:20.138
I haven't been able to get that one down.

00:12:20.481 --> 00:12:22.945
And then at some point, I mean, you had a day job.

00:12:22.965 --> 00:12:27.429
I think you were a court reporter, yeah, but then you decided to become a full-time harmonica player.

00:12:27.770 --> 00:12:28.591
How did that come about?

00:12:29.052 --> 00:12:34.437
I just, I got through school and I got a job and I decided that I was going to do this.

00:12:34.498 --> 00:12:36.841
And then I just couldn't keep away from the band.

00:12:37.020 --> 00:12:38.423
I couldn't stay off the bandstand.

00:12:38.523 --> 00:12:39.283
I needed to play.

00:12:39.684 --> 00:12:44.350
So I had to call my parents up and say, you know, you know that money you spent on me to go to school and all?

00:12:44.546 --> 00:12:45.827
Well, I threw it away.

00:12:45.847 --> 00:12:51.293
And I'm mowing lawns to make up the difference, you know, the money I need to live on.

00:12:51.735 --> 00:12:56.100
I had a seven-piece band, do Allman Brothers covers and stuff, which was pretty cool.

00:12:56.120 --> 00:12:59.203
You think about it, the Allman Brothers, it's a rockin' deal.

00:13:00.004 --> 00:13:01.326
But they were true to the blues, too.

00:13:01.807 --> 00:13:02.587
Were you still

00:13:03.068 --> 00:13:05.451
near Chicago then, or had you moved away by this point?

00:13:05.792 --> 00:13:07.595
Yeah, I was in Phoenix at that time.

00:13:07.634 --> 00:13:10.018
Then I played in a band in clubs.

00:13:10.529 --> 00:13:32.278
in phoenix and it was pretty tough man this light guy yeah light guy who's our sound man slash whatever you know he just called in the police and said his car got stolen they didn't even break it they didn't so you know so what what do you want me to do about it you know and so he reported a car stolen and then they found it in mexico and they made him take it back it was kind of interesting

00:13:32.337 --> 00:13:37.043
okay so you were you were in phoenix for a while and then i think you then moved to colorado's

00:13:37.144 --> 00:13:40.059
yeah fort collins and then and I was playing in bands.

00:13:40.340 --> 00:13:47.951
But then I had a handle on what I wanted to do as far as I had a sort of a plan, not a real good plan, but sort of a plan.

00:13:48.552 --> 00:13:50.816
I started hanging around with musicians strictly.

00:13:50.855 --> 00:13:55.624
I've always been kind of militant about playing harmonica.

00:13:55.724 --> 00:13:57.986
I'm not apologetic about it.

00:13:58.488 --> 00:14:00.591
That period of time really brought that home to me.

00:14:00.691 --> 00:14:04.977
I caught Mickey Raphael solos off of Willie Nelson records.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:14:16.642 --> 00:14:18.283
Well, hell, I can do that, you know.

00:14:18.764 --> 00:14:19.546
That ain't no big thing.

00:14:19.905 --> 00:14:23.731
Now it sounds like a big thing to me, but then at the time I didn't really get it.

00:14:24.192 --> 00:14:28.378
Were you living then as, you know, working as a professional musician at this point?

00:14:28.658 --> 00:14:29.700
It was semi-professional.

00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:31.942
I mean, I had a day job on and off.

00:14:32.364 --> 00:14:35.548
You know, I quit my day job and lived on music for a little while, and then I get another one.

00:14:36.089 --> 00:14:37.390
I've always been over-employed.

00:14:37.410 --> 00:14:40.754
I think I worried so much about making it.

00:14:40.774 --> 00:14:41.677
I kept myself.

00:14:41.756 --> 00:14:44.080
I think I worked myself to death, just about.

00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:45.461
Yesterday I did...

00:14:45.889 --> 00:14:51.136
a four-hour shift at the pool store, because this was a big holiday, you know, so we were open.

00:14:51.697 --> 00:15:05.116
And then at noon, I took off from there, ran home, grabbed a 30-minute nap, got my truck loaded, and got ready to go to set up in Dallas, set up in a four-hour gig again.

00:15:05.157 --> 00:15:06.778
So this morning, I got home.

00:15:07.299 --> 00:15:12.607
I left the house at 6.30 in the morning, and I got back home at 1.30 in the morning.

00:15:13.308 --> 00:15:13.990
It's like, wow.

00:15:14.402 --> 00:15:15.062
I used to do that

00:15:15.243 --> 00:15:16.024
all the time.

00:15:16.063 --> 00:15:17.505
So how old are you now, Paul?

00:15:17.525 --> 00:15:18.307
71.

00:15:18.326 --> 00:15:18.528
71.

00:15:18.707 --> 00:15:20.610
You're doing great.

00:15:20.630 --> 00:15:23.534
You're showing us that we can still do it into our 70s.

00:15:23.554 --> 00:15:24.456
That's great to hear.

00:15:25.037 --> 00:15:25.677
You really can.

00:15:25.798 --> 00:15:28.662
I'm surprised myself, but yeah, you can.

00:15:28.701 --> 00:15:31.144
You know, and think about working for other people.

00:15:31.205 --> 00:15:36.613
I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a capitalist all the way, but I think you can just set your goals.

00:15:37.673 --> 00:15:43.062
You know, when I set my goals when I was a kid, those were the best, most successful decisions I ever made.

00:15:43.426 --> 00:15:46.312
You know, that I wanted to do something that I wanted to do.

00:15:46.873 --> 00:15:50.178
And I didn't want to do something, you know, I didn't want to do somebody else tell me what to do.

00:15:50.219 --> 00:15:52.283
I wanted to do what I felt in my heart.

00:15:52.884 --> 00:15:56.671
Well, that's great to hear and very inspiring that, you know, like you say, you put the music first.

00:15:56.750 --> 00:16:02.341
A lot of people, myself included, you know, you worry you have to keep the day job and, you know, that takes a lot of your time.

00:16:02.381 --> 00:16:04.065
Yeah, but it's great to hear what you've done.

00:16:04.105 --> 00:16:06.269
I mean, I guess the question is now, could you still...

00:16:06.562 --> 00:16:09.426
do that today, you know, is the music scene?

00:16:09.505 --> 00:16:12.149
I think in this market, I think you could.

00:16:12.190 --> 00:16:15.053
Texas, you know, I lived here by design.

00:16:15.073 --> 00:16:18.238
It's a real live music place.

00:16:18.798 --> 00:16:24.606
And that's essential to me because I can't deal on the corporate level or I've never been able to.

00:16:24.626 --> 00:16:30.215
And the thing is, you know, being a father is really, really important to me.

00:16:30.495 --> 00:16:31.798
It's the most important thing to me.

00:16:32.077 --> 00:16:34.861
And I raised those two kids with a harmonica.

00:16:35.073 --> 00:16:39.942
You know, that, probably the best thing I ever did was raise those kids with a harmonica.

00:16:39.961 --> 00:16:40.663
That was hard.

00:16:41.423 --> 00:16:43.086
Didn't sleep much, but anyway.

00:16:43.908 --> 00:16:46.191
So you've had a great career, so we'll go through that.

00:16:46.230 --> 00:16:49.196
So you mentioned Dallas, so you're now living in Dallas.

00:16:49.856 --> 00:16:50.798
Yeah.

00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:54.083
So you moved there specifically for the music scene, did you?

00:16:54.124 --> 00:16:55.405
Yes, I did.

00:16:55.446 --> 00:16:56.988
It was an advertising thing.

00:16:57.008 --> 00:17:03.238
I lived in Ashman, and at the time, I met Roland Elbert, who's a great, great piano player.

00:17:03.553 --> 00:17:04.015
Truly.

00:17:04.055 --> 00:17:06.638
And he plays in the nicest hotels in Dallas.

00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:08.421
And he's just a monster.

00:17:08.781 --> 00:17:12.708
And Roland Elbert came to take a ski vacation in Aspen.

00:17:13.048 --> 00:17:18.436
And I was there working six sets a day, two in the afternoon and four at night.

00:17:19.178 --> 00:17:20.420
And my chops were up, too.

00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:25.027
If you play six hours a day, man, you can play anything.

00:17:25.067 --> 00:17:26.950
You might not have any soul in you, but you'll play good.

00:17:27.201 --> 00:17:30.265
Roland Dilbert said to me, he said, I came here for vacation.

00:17:30.305 --> 00:17:31.346
I said, how do you afford to come?

00:17:31.487 --> 00:17:32.287
What do you do for a living?

00:17:32.307 --> 00:17:33.689
He said, I'm a piano player.

00:17:34.128 --> 00:17:35.069
I said, you're a piano player?

00:17:35.211 --> 00:17:35.951
Is that what you do?

00:17:35.971 --> 00:17:37.093
He said, yeah.

00:17:37.113 --> 00:17:38.914
I said, you must be a good piano player.

00:17:38.934 --> 00:17:39.955
He said, yeah, I'm pretty good.

00:17:39.996 --> 00:17:44.160
And then he said, come down and call me when you get to Dallas.

00:17:44.180 --> 00:17:44.760
Come down and visit.

00:17:45.181 --> 00:17:52.588
So I went down to visit some other friends that lived here and, man, seeing a Kmart was like, ooh, it was so cool when I lived in Aspen.

00:17:52.990 --> 00:18:03.172
To tell everybody I was in Dallas and I saw Kmarts and Kresge's and Walmart's and all that stuff, you know, it's like couldn't get it in Aspen.

00:18:03.692 --> 00:18:11.921
But I came down here and I just knocked on doors and I really sold myself as a harmonica player.

00:18:12.101 --> 00:18:17.886
And you just have to suck it up and just say it, even though people be obnoxious to you.

00:18:18.188 --> 00:18:24.074
And like that, when you're a salesperson, you have to just be tough and just take a few times and then you finally you'll get it, you know, a

00:18:24.834 --> 00:18:30.742
I mean, so a lot of your success and the reason you moved to Dallas is to get involved in the recording, the session work.

00:18:31.243 --> 00:18:32.625
So in the studio work.

00:18:32.705 --> 00:18:37.313
And so Dallas was the jingle capital of the world at one point, yeah?

00:18:37.933 --> 00:18:39.236
Yeah, this is correct.

00:18:39.876 --> 00:18:46.507
When I moved here, it was about, I think 80% of the big jingles that were recorded were recorded in Dallas.

00:18:46.807 --> 00:18:50.492
And I mean, that includes LA, New York, and Nashville.

00:18:50.532 --> 00:18:59.391
You know, that's, probably should have thought about going to Nashville earlier Delbert McClinton told me, he said, Paul, you must be present in order to win.

00:19:00.332 --> 00:19:01.653
He wanted me to move to Nashville.

00:19:02.253 --> 00:19:02.453
Yeah.

00:19:03.055 --> 00:19:04.777
Well, you've done great in Dallas.

00:19:04.817 --> 00:19:09.361
So like you say, you knocked on doors and you kind of, you know, made yourself known to them.

00:19:09.401 --> 00:19:16.147
When you started getting this session work you were doing, did you, you know, did you have to develop any particular skills to do that?

00:19:16.188 --> 00:19:20.532
You know, what's on your harmonica, you know, what were you working on so you could play these sessions?

00:19:21.334 --> 00:19:23.028
Well, I'm still working on stuff.

00:19:23.067 --> 00:19:23.808
That's one thing.

00:19:23.848 --> 00:19:25.330
I really have an attitude.

00:19:25.411 --> 00:19:28.875
I'm going to keep working at this until I expire.

00:19:28.914 --> 00:19:30.877
That's the way I figure.

00:19:31.398 --> 00:19:32.359
Because I can still do it.

00:19:32.921 --> 00:19:35.344
It's some fun thing that an old person can do.

00:19:35.403 --> 00:19:37.826
So I guess I'll just keep doing it.

00:19:38.248 --> 00:19:42.053
I think about overblows a lot, and I don't do them.

00:19:42.554 --> 00:19:45.538
I do them bad, just enough for them to mess up my playing.

00:19:46.298 --> 00:19:50.443
But I have a way of, I just practice everything that I throw at myself.

00:19:52.001 --> 00:19:52.823
some of it sticks.

00:19:52.982 --> 00:19:58.769
If I'm going to play a country gig tonight, I'll probably take my chromatic out for the rehearsal time.

00:19:58.789 --> 00:20:00.511
I always would practice it.

00:20:00.852 --> 00:20:13.386
Whatever harmonica I wasn't playing, that's what I'd practice because it just seemed to clear my mind of certain things that you do on a certain kind of harmonica.

00:20:13.426 --> 00:20:19.153
One of the things I've started doing, I got to where I was carrying so many harmonicas with me to a gig.

00:20:19.554 --> 00:20:20.516
It was just nonsense.

00:20:20.596 --> 00:20:28.508
I didn't have a set of CX-12s and a set of these Seidells and a set of low-tuned harps, you know.

00:20:28.709 --> 00:20:32.213
And then I have all my custom ones that have been built for me.

00:20:32.314 --> 00:20:35.759
And shoot, man, it's an embarrassment of riches, you know.

00:20:35.779 --> 00:20:39.365
I got so confused the song would be over before I'd be ready.

00:20:39.865 --> 00:20:43.792
So I got to cut down my kit again.

00:20:44.433 --> 00:20:47.077
Cut it down to like 30 harps for last night.

00:20:47.586 --> 00:20:50.588
So it sounds like then you made yourself very versatile.

00:20:50.969 --> 00:20:53.330
So you're playing different harmonicas and different styles.

00:20:53.391 --> 00:20:56.894
Is that what was a big reason that you got this amount of session work that you did?

00:20:57.454 --> 00:20:57.816
Yeah.

00:20:58.076 --> 00:21:05.462
The thing is, people that hire you to do sessions, they don't know about the harmonica anymore than anybody else.

00:21:05.542 --> 00:21:09.405
I mean, they might have a music degree, but they've never studied the harmonica.

00:21:09.445 --> 00:21:13.349
So what you play is what becomes their reality.

00:21:14.010 --> 00:21:15.352
What does a harmonica sound like?

00:21:15.412 --> 00:21:17.374
Well, does it sound like Butterfield or does it sound like...

00:21:17.730 --> 00:21:18.590
Bob Dylan, you know.

00:21:19.211 --> 00:21:25.421
You just have to just roll with the punches and try and listen to them, try and cop what they want you to do.

00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:26.501
And that's what I do.

00:21:26.521 --> 00:21:27.763
I'm just a salesman, you know.

00:21:27.804 --> 00:21:29.826
I try to do what they think.

00:21:29.886 --> 00:21:32.230
If they think I'm a funk player, I'm funky.

00:21:32.631 --> 00:21:37.298
And if they think I'm an acoustic, you know, blues daddy, I'll be an acoustic blues daddy, whatever.

00:21:37.665 --> 00:21:44.193
So talking about then some of the sessions that you did, and you played on lots of commercials over there in the U.S.

00:21:44.213 --> 00:21:51.541
I've got here for Chevrolet, for Shell, for Exxon, McDonald's, Burger King, Pepsi, Coke.

00:21:52.143 --> 00:21:54.205
You've done recordings for all these guys, yeah?

00:21:54.945 --> 00:21:55.126
Yeah.

00:21:55.586 --> 00:21:57.169
Pepsi was a good win.

00:21:58.250 --> 00:22:00.532
I did– there was a brand of beans.

00:22:00.553 --> 00:22:02.816
They've got a can of beans down here.

00:22:03.256 --> 00:22:31.905
How long has it been since you had– something beans and says well that's too long and uh i i got and i got into the jingle that particular slot and sometimes you can get to turn out 10 or 12 ads they used to do that and i'd be on every one of them you know and i just think i they just decided i was making the money and people liked what i did and that was that and i have got friends that that have bumped me out of sessions that They convinced them that they were the latest thing, you know, and that's the way it works.

00:22:32.326 --> 00:22:35.354
So do you have any copies of these recordings, these commercials?

00:22:35.394 --> 00:22:36.336
Do you have them anywhere?

00:22:36.376 --> 00:22:41.828
No, I've got a CD that I called nothing to it.

00:22:42.089 --> 00:22:44.075
It's in everybody's, every studio's library.

00:22:44.335 --> 00:22:49.192
And they've got 15 and 30 seconds, you know, And they've got different voicings.

00:22:49.491 --> 00:22:50.794
Different voicings they put in it.

00:22:50.993 --> 00:22:53.376
Nothing to it was the name of the CD.

00:22:53.576 --> 00:22:56.359
Every time I go in a different studio, I check to see if they've got it.

00:22:56.799 --> 00:22:59.643
Because nowadays, they put the music right with...

00:23:00.023 --> 00:23:03.728
It's much easier to move the music to the video than it used to be.

00:23:04.067 --> 00:23:06.230
Because it used to be you did it with video and that was it.

00:23:06.270 --> 00:23:07.491
And you were stuck with it.

00:23:07.592 --> 00:23:09.193
But I've listened to myself.

00:23:09.314 --> 00:23:16.181
I've walked through the room and heard myself playing on a Mercedes car, you know, local car ad.

00:23:16.422 --> 00:23:16.862
And...

00:23:17.314 --> 00:23:21.559
same music a year later at a Ford truck place.

00:23:21.760 --> 00:23:26.386
It's just, you know, they just pick out something, they say, sounds good, and they put a voice over and away they go, you know.

00:23:27.128 --> 00:23:33.116
So let's talk about a session that is a really famous one that people might not know you played on.

00:23:33.156 --> 00:23:38.184
So you played on the hit song Timber with the rapper Pitbull in 2013.

00:23:38.605 --> 00:23:44.775
So this is a really massively popular song and it's had like over a billion streams on Spotify.

00:23:45.115 --> 00:23:46.958
So tell me about how that came about.

00:23:47.842 --> 00:23:52.346
I taught a group harmonica lesson at this place called Fun Ed Magazine.

00:23:52.428 --> 00:23:55.590
It's a magazine that they give away at the grocery store, check out things.

00:23:56.172 --> 00:23:59.415
And it just had different kinds of adult continuing education.

00:23:59.856 --> 00:24:01.337
So it was mostly adults.

00:24:01.719 --> 00:24:08.727
And I'd get into class and, you know, I'd have 25 people in there and I would try to get them to play a song in two sessions, you know.

00:24:09.648 --> 00:24:11.871

Paul Harrington interview

Listen On

Featured Episodes

Diatonic harmonica Episodes

Recent Episodes

Diatonic harmonica Episodes

Chromatic harmonica Episodes

Blues harmonica Episodes

Retrospectives Episodes

Female harmonica player Episodes

Chromatic blues Episodes

Classical chromatic Episodes

Classical diatonic Episodes

Browse episodes by category

Support On

Featured episodes

Joe Powers interview

James Cotton retrospective

Ben Bouman interview