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 starting going to the blues clubs in the south of the city, age 17. Bill met his great inspiration, George ‘Harmonica’ Smith, in 1977, with George showing Bill how to play that big old chromatic harmonica .

Bill released his first album in 1978, with other albums following where he always featured original material. He then signed for Alligator records in 1990, releasing his superb album: Blowin’ Like Hell. The four albums he released with Alligator gave Bill the chance to fully shape the sound he had been developing, influenced by jazz players and including a horn section.

Sadly Bill passed away at age 45, but he has still left us with an essential body of work for both diatonic and chromatic blues harmonica.

Links:

Paul Barry’s band website:
https://www.paulbarryblues.com/

LA newspaper interview with Bill 1991:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-16-vl-2586-story.html

Tom Ellis: William Clarke Memorial article in Blues Access magazine:
http://www.bluesaccess.com/No_28/Clarke.html

Bob Corritore: William Clarke Remembered photo gallery:
https://bobcorritore.com/photos/william-clarke-remembered/

Interview with his wife: Jeanette Clarke-Lodovici
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/william-clarke-now-that-you-are-gone-william-clarke-by-david-king

HarpTranscripts: for transcription of Blowin' The Family Jewels: (under 'G harmonica')
http://www.harptranscripts.co.uk/diatonic.html

Videos:

Hitting Heavy album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsgucIjixtI

William Clarke playing Lollipop Mama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrXrsmUWAGM

William Clarke playing Pawnshop Bound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8IJBQ5u1Zs

William Clarke playing on Bro Matt’s Bluez Shift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YIv2Bb9f6o

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/

Support the show

01:30 - Paul Barry is our resident expert on William (Bill) Clarke

01:35 - Paul met Bill after his band opened up for him (and George Smith) at a club in 1983

02:08 - Paul is writing a biography about Bill, out in 6-9 months time

02:25 - Was working on an instructional book before Bill died

02:52 - Biography is due to be called Blowin’ Like Hell

03:15 - Liked to be known as Bill to his friends

03:51 - More about Paul: who is a harp player and released an album called Blow Your Cool, including Mitch Kashmar also on harp

05:00 - Bill is one of the great Blues chromatic players

05:25 - Bill was born in Los Angeles in 1951, started playing harp age 16 and started playing in the LA blues clubs aged 17

06:30 - Dropped out of school age 17 to pursue his goal of being a bluesman

07:04 - Had a day job as a machinist before he became a full-time musician

07:20 - Bill came from a working class background

07:40 - His song Pawnshop Bound reflects real events in his life

08:19 - Wife Jeanette was a big supporter of Bill’s career

09:59 - Inspired to take up harmonica after hearing the Rolling Stones

10:23 - Discovered the great harp players like Junior Wells and Walter Horton

11:12 - By age 18 was playing with Shakey Jake Harris, who released Bill’s first album in 1978, Hittin’ Heavy

12:35 - Met George ‘Harmonica’ Smith in 1977

13:35 - Bill learned from George by watching him, not from formal lessons

15:17 - George Smith was a pioneer on blues chromatic, especially the use of octaves

16:03 - George Smith also pioneered third position playing

16:50 - Blowin’ The Family Jewels is a great third position song by Bill

17:07 - Went on tour with George Smith in 1983, shortly before George died

18:02 - Bill was a fan of jazz organ groups, and brought horns into his sound as his albums progressed

18:46 - The Night Owls was Bill’s early band, used on his Blues From Los Angeles album in 1980

19:46 - Bill’s instrumentals and his love for jazz shaped his sound

21:11 - Was very hard-working on his music, and demanded a lot from his band members

22:08 - Bill made sure that each live show was spontaneous, so band played a different solo each time and didn’t use a set list

23:25 - Released several live albums

24:12 - Can’t You Hear Me Calling album from 1983, where he had more control over the production

25:23 - Tip Of The Top album, released in 1987, shortly after he quit his day job as a machinist

25:38 - Tip Of The Top includes a song recorded with Charlie Musselwhite

26:20 - First live album release: Rockin’ The Boat in 1988

26:58 - Signed for Alligator records in 1990, releasing Blowin’ Like Hell as first album with them and how he signed for Alligator

28:15 - Bill’s toured the US, Canada and Europe

29:07 - Must Be Jelly won he Handy Award for Blues Song of the Year

30:26 - Serious Intentions album from 1992 with more jazz influences

31:51 - Groove Time album from 1994, with a full horn section

32:48 - How Bill ‘thought like a horn player’

33:35 - Recorded several songs about being on the road, a long way from home

34:35 - Recorded a lot of original material

35:16 - Live In Germany album

35:54 - Final album, The Hard Way, released in 1996, and one of his best songs: The Boss

37:12 - More on his horn-like sound, especially on chromatic

38:28 - Albums released after his death

39:19 - Didn’t do much work as a sideman

39:28 - Was a perfectionist when it came to the material he released

40:34 - Was singing from the beginning, and played some guitar

40:50 - Bill worked really hard at his music

41:08 - Used Bill’s I Want To Be Your Santa Claus song in the Bad Santa 2 movie

41:21 - Paul was putting together an instructional book with Bill before he died

42:08 - Won several posthumous awards, 6 WC Handy awards in total

43:15 - What was Bill like as a person

44:26 - Played Hohner harmonicas: diatonic the 1896 and chromatic 270s & 280s (16 hole)

44:48 - Chromatic octaves are sometimes out of tune on his recordings: don’t think this was deliberate

45:33 - Wasn’t too keen on playing 1st position

46:08 - Embouchre: tongue block

46:19 - Didn’t use overblows

46:50 - Guitar was a practise tool for him

47:06 - Played an original 1959 Fender Bassman

48:25 - Difference between original and re-issued Bassman’s

49:43 - Didn’t use a small amp

50:15 - Used an Astatic shell with a CR element

50:54 - Didn’t do much acoustic playing

51:32 - Used a tape delay early on and then a Boss delay pedal

51:56 - Problems with alcohol

52:48 - Collapsed earlier in 1996, and then he gave up drinking for the last six months of his life

54:40 - Died November 3, 1996, age 45

55:39 - Perhaps knew that his end was coming

56:32 - More on the biography Paul is writing

WEBVTT

00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:02.089
Paul Barry joins me on episode 64.

00:00:02.672 --> 00:00:07.201
Paul is our resident expert on William Clarke and is currently writing a biography about him.

00:00:08.023 --> 00:00:15.881
Bill, as he was known to his friends, was born in a suburb of Los Angeles and started going to the blues clubs in the south of the city at age 17.

00:00:16.865 --> 00:00:24.643
Bill met his great inspiration George Harmonica Smith in 1977, with George showing Bill how to play that big old chromatic harmonica.

00:00:24.864 --> 00:00:31.097
Bill released his first album in 1978 with other albums following, where he always featured original material.

00:00:31.439 --> 00:00:33.844
He then signed for Alligator Records in 1990.

00:00:34.689 --> 00:00:37.152
releasing his superb album Blowing Like Hell.

00:00:37.753 --> 00:00:45.743
The four albums he released with Alligator gave Bill the chance to fully shape the sound he had been developing, influenced by jazz players and including a horn section.

00:00:46.283 --> 00:00:54.314
Sadly, Bill passed away at age 45, but he has still left us with an essential body of work for both diatonic and chromatic blues harmonica.

00:00:55.295 --> 00:01:01.963
Once again, thank you to Seidel for sponsoring the podcast.

00:01:03.713 --> 00:01:06.459
or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonikas.

00:01:14.371 --> 00:01:27.774
Hello Paul Barry and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:28.450 --> 00:01:29.891
Hi Neil, it's good to be here.

00:01:30.031 --> 00:01:33.734
You are our resident expert to talk about the great William Clark.

00:01:33.935 --> 00:01:35.376
Tell us how you knew William Clark.

00:01:35.936 --> 00:01:36.596
I'm from St.

00:01:36.637 --> 00:01:41.001
Paul, Minnesota and I was playing at a club called Lepsky's Blue Saloon in St.

00:01:41.061 --> 00:01:57.575
Paul and my band, I'm a harmonica player too, my band had the good fortune to open up for George Smith on a Friday, Saturday in May of 1983 and lo and behold, William Clark happened to be in a band with George and he was on tour at that time.

00:01:57.715 --> 00:02:01.659
So Bill and I met on that night and we became fast friends.

00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:03.081
It was just good fortune.

00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:07.525
It's like a heart player's dream to see George Smith and Bill Clark in one night.

00:02:07.825 --> 00:02:08.627
Yeah, fantastic.

00:02:08.667 --> 00:02:13.611
So you become close friends and that's led you, you're currently working on a biography of him, yeah?

00:02:13.953 --> 00:02:14.673
Yes, yes.

00:02:14.894 --> 00:02:21.621
Like I said, Bill and I became close friends in 83 and I actually lived with him and his family in Los Angeles in 1985.

00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:31.251
We were close friends his entire life and he and I started working on a harmonic instruction book And fortunately, we didn't finish that before he passed.

00:02:31.491 --> 00:02:33.993
I was going to pick it back up and try to complete it.

00:02:34.253 --> 00:02:38.919
And I decided to be much more apropos to do a biography on his life.

00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:39.400
Great.

00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:40.920
And when will this biography be out?

00:02:41.201 --> 00:02:43.383
I'm hoping within the next six to nine months.

00:02:43.463 --> 00:02:44.485
I'm working hard on it.

00:02:44.786 --> 00:02:51.473
It's a lot bigger project than I anticipated, but that's kind of my hope is by the end of the year or early in 2023.

00:02:51.992 --> 00:02:52.533
Fantastic.

00:02:52.554 --> 00:02:54.034
Yeah, we'll look forward to reading that.

00:02:54.074 --> 00:02:56.298
So have you got a working title at this point?

00:02:56.538 --> 00:03:02.443
I think the title we're going to use is Blown Like That's the title that Bill wanted to use with the instruction book.

00:03:02.585 --> 00:03:06.308
And Bruce Siglauer at Alligator gave him permission to do that.

00:03:06.408 --> 00:03:08.531
So I thought that'd be a great title to use.

00:03:08.691 --> 00:03:10.712
That was one of his signature songs.

00:03:10.793 --> 00:03:13.075
I think that'd be a great title to use for the book.

00:03:13.276 --> 00:03:14.897
So that's what my plans are right now.

00:03:15.237 --> 00:03:18.140
So did he like to be known as William or as Bill?

00:03:18.441 --> 00:03:20.324
To his friends, he was known as Bill Clark.

00:03:20.663 --> 00:03:22.145
It's kind of an interesting story.

00:03:22.325 --> 00:03:30.433
When Bill used to go to the clubs in South Central LA, there was a saxophone player by the name Bill Clark, with no E at the end.

00:03:30.735 --> 00:03:37.361
And to differentiate between that Bill Clark and the harmonica player Bill Clark, he decided to go by the name William Clark.

00:03:37.581 --> 00:03:38.902
So that name stuck.

00:03:38.923 --> 00:03:42.807
So professionally, he was known as William Clark, but to his friends, he was known as Bill.

00:03:43.068 --> 00:03:44.449
Okay, well, I hope he doesn't mind us.

00:03:44.468 --> 00:03:46.671
We'll refer to him as Bill on this episode.

00:03:46.731 --> 00:03:48.574
So hopefully he's amongst friends here.

00:03:49.093 --> 00:03:49.875
Oh, he would like that.

00:03:50.194 --> 00:03:50.656
Absolutely.

00:03:50.895 --> 00:03:51.175
Great.

00:03:51.317 --> 00:03:54.139
So before we get on to Bill, just a little bit more yourself.

00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:56.301
As you said there that you're a harp player yourself.

00:03:56.461 --> 00:03:57.522
You've got a good album out.

00:03:57.543 --> 00:03:58.223
I've been checking out.

00:03:58.223 --> 00:03:59.525
called Blow Your Cool.

00:03:59.866 --> 00:04:03.028
You've also got Mitch Cashmore playing on that one of the year.

00:04:03.288 --> 00:04:06.932
Right, yeah, with some local musicians and Mitch is a friend of mine.

00:04:06.953 --> 00:04:17.425
He was nice enough to play on three tunes and also the great piano player Fred Kaplan's on that and the great vocalist Willie Walker is singing on there as well too.

00:04:17.524 --> 00:04:21.389
So I just was lucky to have a really great backing support on that CD.

00:04:21.689 --> 00:04:22.550
Yeah, and it sounds great.

00:04:22.569 --> 00:04:46.398
I had a listen and you do your own tribute to William Clarke song on there, which is a song which a similar title of that building, which we'll get onto shortly.

00:04:48.098 --> 00:04:52.742
Phil is really instrumental in helping me learn how to play, especially chromatic.

00:04:53.201 --> 00:04:57.846
We did a tribute to him on that CD that I think turned out pretty well.

00:04:57.906 --> 00:05:00.389
I think he'd be smiling down and happy with that one.

00:05:00.709 --> 00:05:01.329
Yeah, superb.

00:05:01.348 --> 00:05:05.833
And as you say, he's definitely a fantastic chromatic, blues chromatic player and one of the greatest.

00:05:06.134 --> 00:05:12.939
Re-listening to all these recordings for this episode, I was just reminded about how great he is on that blues chromatic and how he gets it to swing.

00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:16.622
And I know he has a lot of jazzy influences, which we'll get onto, yeah?

00:05:16.942 --> 00:05:20.286
He was definitely one of the best and he learned that well.

00:05:20.646 --> 00:05:24.572
He kind of set the bar for that instrument in the blues world for sure.

00:05:25.033 --> 00:05:27.076
Okay, so we'll get on to the man himself then.

00:05:27.175 --> 00:05:31.221
So he was born in 1951 in southern Los Angeles, yeah?

00:05:31.562 --> 00:05:34.024
Right, a suburb of Los Angeles called Englewood.

00:05:34.386 --> 00:05:43.872
And that's where he grew up and obviously got then into the West Coast style of blues by playing around the the la blues clubs at the time yeah when he was what 17 years old

00:05:44.192 --> 00:05:59.987
that's right you know he he moved to gardena which is which is in the south bay area of los angeles when he was i believe in grade school he started playing harmonica at 16 but he started going down to the south central blues clubs when he was 17 and started interacting with some of the the players down there

00:06:00.026 --> 00:06:03.769
these are the black clubs yeah so he was going in and hanging around with those guys

00:06:04.269 --> 00:06:21.827
he sure was and and he was too young to get in at the time and as you know bill was a a big guy but uh he he He sure didn't look old enough to get in, but he found his way in past the doorman and practically spent as much time as he possibly could in those clubs, learning from the guys that were in the clubs at the time.

00:06:21.927 --> 00:06:23.490
And he was well accepted.

00:06:23.529 --> 00:06:26.312
They knew that he was sincere about learning the music.

00:06:26.492 --> 00:06:30.177
They kind of took him under their wing and really helped him along, get started.

00:06:30.776 --> 00:06:34.661
Is it right that he dropped out of school age 17 in order to pursue music?

00:06:34.721 --> 00:06:36.564
Was it inspired by going to these clubs?

00:06:36.843 --> 00:06:40.247
Maybe he had too many late nights and couldn't get up for school the next day.

00:06:40.608 --> 00:06:40.687
Yeah.

00:06:40.687 --> 00:07:03.713
could be Neil I know he really caught the bug and once he caught it there was no stopping him he was very determined but you're right he did drop out of high school junior year he started working full time but when he wasn't working he was down in those blues clubs or practicing and trying to get as good as he possibly could and at that time he vowed that he would become a bluesman that's how he wanted to make his living

00:07:03.952 --> 00:07:06.855
yeah and he was working as a machinist wasn't he during this time

00:07:06.995 --> 00:07:19.369
yeah a little bit later at age 19 his dad and his older brother he had one brother and his dad were both machinists so Bill went into that trade and worked as a machinist for almost 20 years.

00:07:19.769 --> 00:07:23.252
So yeah so he was from a kind of working class blue collar background yeah?

00:07:23.454 --> 00:07:37.148
In the very truest sense of the word he sure was he grew up in a trailer park in Gardena yeah he came from blue collar background and certainly that was his work ethic too just a really hard working dedicated player.

00:07:37.488 --> 00:07:42.394
Sure yeah and that comes through a lot in his music doesn't he he He did a song called Pawn Shop Bound, didn't he?

00:07:42.475 --> 00:07:44.297
Where he talks about having to pawn his gear.

00:07:44.317 --> 00:07:46.639
I think that's related to real events,

00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:46.839
yeah?

00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:47.682
It is for sure.

00:07:48.041 --> 00:07:52.288
I know when I lived with him in 85, we made a couple of trips to the pawn shop.

00:07:52.327 --> 00:07:59.838
But in talking to his wife, Jeanette, his children, Willie and Gina, everything was in that pawn shop at one time or the other.

00:07:59.877 --> 00:08:02.701
Wedding rings, musical equipment, TVs.

00:08:02.762 --> 00:08:02.822
Put

00:08:03.762 --> 00:08:08.829
the food on my table, baby I'm gonna pawn everything

00:08:15.682 --> 00:08:17.704
Yeah, he certainly had the white man's blues.

00:08:18.764 --> 00:08:20.887
So you mentioned his wife, Jeanette.

00:08:20.927 --> 00:08:22.447
She was really instrumental, wasn't she?

00:08:22.487 --> 00:08:23.389
She really supported him.

00:08:23.629 --> 00:08:25.550
He met her at high school, didn't they?

00:08:25.651 --> 00:08:29.774
They were quite young and then she really supported his drive to become a blues man, yeah?

00:08:29.973 --> 00:08:34.557
Yeah, she was a year younger than Bill, but high school sweethearts and they were married.

00:08:34.677 --> 00:08:37.640
Bill was 19 and Jeanette was 18.

00:08:37.880 --> 00:09:02.566
So Jeanette was very supportive of Bill's wanting to become a was in his soul and heart to become a bluesman and she endured a lot of those practices where he'd go into the bathroom for hours at a time and practice and she saw how much hard work that he put into it and she knew that that's what he really wanted to do and she supported him 100%.

00:09:02.885 --> 00:09:06.269
Yeah, that's great because I'm sure it wasn't easy financially at least all the time.

00:09:06.529 --> 00:09:14.177
It was very tough financially for a long time and after he quit his job to go into blues full-time, Jeanette did work full-time.

00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:16.381
Thank you.

00:09:29.409 --> 00:09:33.894
I think he started playing harmonica at 16, but before that, he started on drums, yeah?

00:09:34.433 --> 00:09:35.014
Yeah, he did.

00:09:35.115 --> 00:09:38.017
He played drums, and then he played a little guitar.

00:09:38.477 --> 00:09:49.847
He didn't have much success with either of those instruments, and then on his 16th birthday, he borrowed$2.50 from a friend and bought a harmonica, and he said there was something about it.

00:09:50.107 --> 00:09:57.094
He caught on to it real quick, and that's something that he could really resonate with, and as you know, that's how he forged his career.

00:09:57.274 --> 00:09:59.375
Yeah, so it's the harp that really grabbed him, yeah.

00:09:59.375 --> 00:10:03.921
I hear he was inspired by hearing the harmonica on Rolling Stones records.

00:10:04.160 --> 00:10:04.581
He was.

00:10:04.642 --> 00:10:06.964
And I think that's like a lot of us back then.

00:10:07.224 --> 00:10:15.413
You hear that harmonica, you hear like the British bands or some of those bands, and then you want to dig deeper and find out where they get their influences from.

00:10:15.774 --> 00:10:16.254
Yeah, sure.

00:10:16.333 --> 00:10:21.460
Then thankfully he moved on from Mick Jagger's harmonica playing to some of the greats.

00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:22.841
Absolutely.

00:10:23.822 --> 00:10:24.022
Yeah.

00:10:24.062 --> 00:10:29.327
So he was into all the greats, the usual, I think, you know, Walter Horton, James Cotton and Junior Wells and Sonny Boy Williamson and

00:10:29.327 --> 00:10:33.812
He really connected with, originally were Junior Wells and Big Walter Horton.

00:10:33.852 --> 00:10:42.884
And I know from reading some old interviews with Bill that he used to go around town writing Junior as King, like on fences and on buildings and things like that.

00:10:42.984 --> 00:10:43.224
So...

00:10:53.570 --> 00:10:55.533
Those are the two that really resonated with him.

00:10:55.613 --> 00:11:01.240
And certainly James Cotton was one of his favorites as well, as well as, like you said, Sonny Boy and Little Walter.

00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:07.288
But I think initially Big Walter and Junior Wells were the two harmonica players he looked up to from the start.

00:11:08.029 --> 00:11:11.934
So he started, as you say, he started going to these clubs in Los Angeles.

00:11:12.235 --> 00:11:16.780
And then around the age of 18, he was playing with Shaky Jake Harris, yeah?

00:11:17.623 --> 00:11:18.143
Right, yeah.

00:11:18.283 --> 00:11:19.424
Yeah, Shaky Jake kind of...

00:11:20.322 --> 00:11:21.844
Kind of took Bill under his wing.

00:11:21.964 --> 00:11:26.230
And when he started going to those clubs, he was playing with Shaky Jake.

00:11:26.350 --> 00:11:32.458
And actually, Shaky Jake put out his first album under his own name called Hidden Heavy.

00:11:43.053 --> 00:11:43.134
Yeah.

00:11:44.706 --> 00:11:53.253
shaky jake had a label called good time that came out in 1978 but shaky jake was instrumental in getting that that album put out under bill's name

00:11:53.933 --> 00:12:00.259
and i really noticed the playing on the album is is really fantastic actually the harmonica playing it seems very mature and he was what only

00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:21.782
28 i guess it's really phenomenal playing and the vocals are good but you can see over the course of bill's career how his playing developed especially his vocals but i thought for the first album out he that was a really great record and i think And for people lucky enough to get a hold of it or to hear it, I think it opened a lot of ears and eyes to who William Clarke was.

00:12:35.562 --> 00:12:40.109
In 1977, you met George Smith, which was hugely influential on him, obviously.

00:12:41.070 --> 00:12:41.149
Yeah.

00:12:41.313 --> 00:12:41.854
It was.

00:12:41.995 --> 00:12:51.163
I think that was a critical turning point in his career where, as the story goes, he was playing with Shaky Jake's band and George walked into the club.

00:12:51.543 --> 00:12:55.186
And Bill had seen George over the years, but didn't really know him.

00:12:55.346 --> 00:12:59.490
He had seen him at places like the Ash Grove, maybe said a word to him, but didn't really know him.

00:12:59.549 --> 00:13:03.813
And that's the first time that Bill had been formally introduced to George.

00:13:04.134 --> 00:13:09.437
And he was so excited when he asked George if they wanted to team up and do some things together.

00:13:09.698 --> 00:13:11.659
And that's how that association began.

00:13:12.301 --> 00:13:18.947
Yeah and I've read that you know Bill said that George is like a father to him and he's also his godfather to his son yeah?

00:13:19.629 --> 00:13:47.043
Yeah he's godfather to Willie and yeah George was very influential in Bill's life and they worked together for six years until George passed away in 1983 but it was a very important time in Bill's career working with George and not so much that Bill and George ever sat down and Bill or George showed Bill things it was more that Bill watched George night in and night out, could get to see him entertain the fans.

00:13:47.083 --> 00:13:50.549
And that's something that Bill got from George is what a great entertainer he was.

00:13:50.591 --> 00:13:52.394
Obviously a great player too.

00:13:52.474 --> 00:13:52.754
So...

00:14:00.802 --> 00:14:04.485
it was more from observation where Bill got to work with George like that

00:14:05.025 --> 00:14:10.490
yeah right so he didn't specifically have lessons with him or anything it was just picking it up as he went along and playing with him yeah

00:14:10.811 --> 00:14:29.726
correct just watching him night in and night out how we interacted with the fans and what a great entertainer he was and also one thing that Bill told me that George had told him is don't play so many notes and that's something that George just pounded into Bill's head and that really helped Bill a lot so just little things like that that made a big difference to Bill

00:14:29.927 --> 00:14:40.899
yeah and that song of yours we mentioned earlier on your tribute to william clark so so that's i assume named after bill's tribute to george smith which he released on his tip of the top album

00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:51.631
yeah it's kind of similar in that regard just kind of passing passing down what bill showed me and the same thing uh with with bills is what george passed down to him

00:14:52.373 --> 00:14:59.961
i had the pleasure of working alongside of george for about six years and let me tell you something The cat really got me straightened out on a whole lot of different kind of things.

00:15:00.022 --> 00:15:03.932
One of them was he showed me how to blow that big chromatic harmonica.

00:15:03.991 --> 00:15:11.431
So this is our own little special tribute to George Smith, the king of the blues chromatic harmonica.

00:15:13.442 --> 00:15:16.544
That's a chromatic harmonica song from Bill.

00:15:16.565 --> 00:15:19.527
And again, talking about how we picked that up off George.

00:15:19.567 --> 00:15:26.673
So George, obviously, you know, Little Walter did play chromatic, but I think George Smith is seen as a real pioneer on the blues chromatic.

00:15:26.692 --> 00:15:26.774
Yeah.

00:15:27.094 --> 00:15:27.614
I think so.

00:15:27.653 --> 00:15:32.337
I think a lot of people regard him as, I know Bill did, as the king of the blues chromatic.

00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:37.503
And what George did that others hadn't up to that point is he played octaves on the chromatic.

00:15:37.543 --> 00:15:39.504
So he got that big fat sound.

00:15:39.865 --> 00:15:43.908
And that's something that really appealed to a lot of those West Coast players.

00:15:44.208 --> 00:16:03.489
You know Rod Piazza had taken up with George before Bill and worked with George for a long time and you can hear Rod's playing and guys like Kim Wilson and Mitch Cashmar and certainly Bill's playing so I think that was a big difference is that George would play those big octaves whereas other players like Cotton or Little Walter didn't do that on the chromatic.

00:16:03.769 --> 00:16:12.619
Also George Smith is a real I think pioneer of third position playing as well which is clearly how blues chromatic is usually played so they link together yeah.

00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:15.062
Bill really picked up the third position playing from him as well yeah

00:16:15.182 --> 00:16:34.206
he did for sure i think a lot of those west coast harmonica players did as well thanks to george because i know a lot of those old recordings that george did really great third position i mean little walter played some great third position as well too but george you know it's tough to top what he did on third position so

00:16:34.785 --> 00:16:49.509
It is indeed, yeah.

00:16:49.529 --> 00:16:58.926
And as I've been listening to the recordings and playing along with Bill's playing, I really picked out Blowing the Family Jewels, which is a fantastic third position song.

00:16:59.169 --> 00:16:59.990
It is.

00:17:00.091 --> 00:17:02.113
That's a great song.

00:17:02.212 --> 00:17:04.974
I think that's one of his trademark songs as well, too.

00:17:05.075 --> 00:17:06.395
I agree 100% on that.

00:17:06.916 --> 00:17:12.221
So he went on tour with George in 1983, and I think that's the year he died.

00:17:12.300 --> 00:17:14.482
So he sort of knew him right up to the end, yeah?

00:17:14.702 --> 00:17:15.084
He did.

00:17:15.104 --> 00:17:17.586
I think they started that tour in February.

00:17:17.625 --> 00:17:18.586
It went through May.

00:17:18.967 --> 00:17:21.628
The last shows that they played were right here in St.

00:17:21.670 --> 00:17:27.654
Paul, Minnesota, where we were discussing initially where my band opened up and I got the chance to meet Bill.

00:17:27.835 --> 00:17:32.460
But I think that was the last public performance that George made was in May of 1983.

00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:38.306
And then he had to quit the tour and drive home due to his health condition.

00:17:38.685 --> 00:17:41.489
So that was, and he died, I believe, in October of 83.

00:17:42.250 --> 00:17:45.173
So shortly after that, he passed away.

00:17:59.087 --> 00:18:11.801
Okay, so getting on to Bill's sound and as his albums developed, as you say, he improves, you know, very much like the retrospective on Paul Butterfield that did a couple of episodes.

00:18:11.842 --> 00:18:17.086
He started bringing horns into the albums, yeah, and he was very much, you know, a fan of jazz.

00:18:17.567 --> 00:18:28.935
Yeah, starting with the first of four Alligator albums, he started working with the horn players and, you know, he did a great job bringing them in on his albums.

00:18:28.996 --> 00:18:31.377
And I think they complimented what he was doing.

00:18:31.718 --> 00:18:33.078
You know, just fantastic.

00:18:33.219 --> 00:18:34.840
I think they did a fantastic job.

00:18:34.861 --> 00:18:40.425
And I think it added a lot to what Bill wanted with the direction he was going with his music.

00:18:40.506 --> 00:18:42.606
I think that that's what he was looking for.

00:18:42.647 --> 00:18:43.728
Yeah, definitely.

00:18:43.748 --> 00:18:43.929
Yeah.

00:18:43.989 --> 00:18:46.730
So we'll talk about the evolution of his albums as we go through them.

00:18:46.770 --> 00:18:48.653
So his early band was called the Night Owls.

00:18:48.692 --> 00:18:50.413
And we mentioned this Hitting Heavy album.

00:18:50.453 --> 00:18:52.675
Was that the band he did with the Hitting Heavy album?

00:18:52.955 --> 00:18:59.665
There were some players that were on both albums, but that was more of A band that he was working with was Shaky Jake.

00:18:59.866 --> 00:19:06.521
The Night Owls, they were featured on the Blues from Los Angeles on the same label that came out in 1980.

00:19:06.823 --> 00:19:10.351
There's a compilation album called The Early Years, Volume 1 and 2.

00:19:10.391 --> 00:19:13.037
I think that's tracks from these two albums, isn't it?

00:19:13.218 --> 00:19:14.800
The Hitting Heavy and Blues from Los Angeles.

00:19:15.970 --> 00:19:16.951
Yes, that's correct.

00:19:17.092 --> 00:19:17.251
Yeah.

00:19:17.291 --> 00:19:19.515
So those, so those, all those, those tracks are available.

00:19:19.555 --> 00:19:19.795
Yeah.

00:19:19.835 --> 00:19:20.576
So, so yeah.

00:19:20.596 --> 00:19:27.224
And then, so the blues from Los Angeles, you say that was released in 1980 and he did a song called blowing my nuts, which is an instrumental.

00:19:36.397 --> 00:19:36.478
Yeah.

00:19:42.721 --> 00:19:46.164
I don't know if that's a precursor to Blowing My Family Jewels, but another excellent instrumental.

00:19:46.605 --> 00:19:48.487
His instrumentals were great.

00:19:48.547 --> 00:19:51.128
I mean, well thought out, just the way he performed them.

00:19:51.229 --> 00:19:53.411
And yeah, he was one of the best at that.

00:19:53.832 --> 00:19:56.814
Did he talk to you about the process of how he put them together?

00:19:56.854 --> 00:20:08.104
He had a great love for the B3 organ players that had tenor sax players and players like Jack McDuff and Shirley Scott, Jimmy McGriff, Groove Holmes, players like that.

00:20:08.403 --> 00:20:14.413
I know a lot of the guys that I interviewed that played with Bill, they said when he was listening to music non-stop.

00:20:14.432 --> 00:20:23.761
He would listen to a lot of jazz players and a lot of his instrumentals kind of incorporate what he was hearing with other players, non-blues players, more in the jazz idiom.

00:20:24.162 --> 00:20:27.625
Again, was that a little bit later or was he doing that on these early albums as well?

00:20:28.184 --> 00:20:29.547
He was doing that all along.

00:20:29.606 --> 00:20:38.554
I mean, obviously he spent a lot of time listening to more of the classic blues albums and he could play Little Walter, Roller Coaster, Note for Note.

00:20:38.674 --> 00:20:40.997
I mean, he knew all that stuff and he said, that's good.

00:20:41.037 --> 00:20:46.642
You want to learn that stuff, you want to practice it, you want to store it away, but then you want to develop your own sound.

00:20:46.721 --> 00:20:55.409
So early on, of course, he was listening to all that great stuff, but he was listening to jazz organ players from as far back as the late 60s.

00:20:55.990 --> 00:21:05.921
I know that Jeanette, his wife, told me that she and Bill used to go to these house parties where they used to have jazz organ players and they would go there and listen.

00:21:05.980 --> 00:21:10.766
So Bill loved that music from way back, pretty much at the start of his career.

00:21:11.385 --> 00:21:20.435
And I hear he was quite demanding on his band members when he was the band leader, but he helped sort of bring them through and he made sure they were all paid the same and everything.

00:21:20.516 --> 00:21:22.478
So what was the relationship with his band members like?

00:21:22.657 --> 00:21:26.923
He was very hard on himself and he was very hard on his band members.

00:21:27.262 --> 00:21:36.553
He took a lot of these guys under his wing when they were young players like Rick Holmstrom, Zach Zunas, Henry Carvajal, guys like that, that were in their probably early 20s.

00:21:36.692 --> 00:21:38.915
By this time, Bill was mid-30s.

00:21:39.316 --> 00:21:43.320
But he was very hard on them, what I understand from talking to these guys.

00:21:43.340 --> 00:21:46.644
And he was very hard on himself, very critical of himself.

00:21:46.723 --> 00:21:48.546
But he paid everybody the same.

00:21:48.586 --> 00:21:53.171
And the reason he did that is because he wanted everybody to work as hard as he did.

00:21:53.451 --> 00:21:57.415
And he didn't want hear any excuses how he was getting paid more than they were.

00:21:57.516 --> 00:22:00.559
So they don't need to work as hard as he did.

00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:02.803
So, you know, the band was practicing a lot, was it?

00:22:02.863 --> 00:22:05.066
His band, you know, he made sure there was regular rehearsals.

00:22:05.086 --> 00:22:07.709
They didn't just get together and jam it then by the sounds of it.

00:22:08.089 --> 00:22:15.338
Well, it's interesting because when he started taking his bands out on tours, probably like 87 is when he started going out.

00:22:15.378 --> 00:22:16.500
He didn't practice.

00:22:16.520 --> 00:22:17.321
They played enough.

00:22:17.842 --> 00:22:19.884
He wanted things to be fresh on the bandstand.

00:22:20.025 --> 00:22:21.586
Every night, that he played.

00:22:21.886 --> 00:22:26.029
If you saw him on a Tuesday night, you saw him on a Wednesday night, the shows are going to be totally different.

00:22:26.171 --> 00:22:31.414
He expected each guitar player, because they're the ones soloing, to come up with a different solo on each night.

00:22:31.474 --> 00:22:36.019
So if he heard him playing the same solo on the same song on the second night, they would hear about it.

00:22:36.259 --> 00:22:42.345
So he expected fresh ideas each and every night, no set list, just they'd end one song and boom.

00:22:42.605 --> 00:22:47.249
He would stomp, stomp his feet on the stage or count it off and away they go on the next song.

00:22:47.588 --> 00:23:01.804
The guitar players that played with Bill told me that if he had the same harp maybe he was playing the same key if not they could pick it up after maybe two three notes because they were so good at it by this time so he expected that freshness each and every night on the bandstand

00:23:02.084 --> 00:23:06.348
right so he pretty much tried to improvise on all these songs he didn't didn't play the same solos

00:23:06.788 --> 00:23:25.130
no absolutely not and like i said he expected that from the other players too and if if they weren't coming through they would hear about it in no uncertain terms and they would get the message right then and there so and that that's what made him such an exciting performer is that you wouldn't hear the same songs played the same way night after night.

00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:28.294
Yeah, and it's interesting because he did release a few live albums, didn't he?

00:23:28.354 --> 00:23:34.461
So that makes it much more critical to listen to those live albums, do you think, to really capture his essence, do you think?

00:23:49.361 --> 00:23:50.461
Oh, let me blow my harmonica! Oh, let me blow my harmonica!

00:23:52.865 --> 00:23:53.246
Yay!

00:23:54.337 --> 00:23:55.659
Oh my gosh, yeah.

00:23:55.979 --> 00:23:58.761
Seeing him in person was so exciting.

00:23:59.122 --> 00:24:03.046
Even the guys that played with him told me the same thing, that they were still playing with him.

00:24:03.105 --> 00:24:07.630
It was hard work, but it was just so exciting to be on the bandstand with him.

00:24:07.670 --> 00:24:10.352
But you're right, the live shows were unbelievable.

00:24:10.791 --> 00:24:11.333
Yeah, great.

00:24:11.353 --> 00:24:12.354
Yeah, so we'll get on to those.

00:24:12.594 --> 00:24:19.660
Before then, he released in 1983 an album called Can't You Hear Me Calling, which we've kind of got marked down here as his first proper release.

00:24:19.859 --> 00:24:20.401
Was that right?

00:24:20.461 --> 00:24:22.021
Was that a more significant release for him?

00:24:22.182 --> 00:24:22.521
It was.

00:24:22.541 --> 00:24:29.577
I think the reason being is that he controlled the production of that, whereas the other ones were on Shakey's label.

00:24:29.738 --> 00:24:35.814
And of course, by this time, Bill had been getting better and better and better because he was such a hard worker.

00:24:35.854 --> 00:24:38.119
I don't want nobody else.

00:24:40.465 --> 00:24:40.605
Lie, lie.

00:24:51.682 --> 00:24:53.464
1983 was his own project.

00:24:53.505 --> 00:24:56.829
He financed it with the help of a good friend of his, Joe Lodovici.

00:24:57.170 --> 00:24:58.932
They made that, they cut it in one night.

00:24:59.192 --> 00:25:01.896
And that's the first time he had gotten Junior Watson.

00:25:01.936 --> 00:25:03.378
He had Bill Stuvie on there.

00:25:03.700 --> 00:25:05.102
Fred Kaplan was on that one.

00:25:05.142 --> 00:25:07.826
So he could put it together like he wanted it to.

00:25:08.105 --> 00:25:21.105
And that was kind of his breakout album.

00:25:21.125 --> 00:25:21.246
¶¶

00:25:23.105 --> 00:25:26.464
And then in 87, he released Tip of the Top,

00:25:26.817 --> 00:25:29.059
Yeah, that was a great album as well, too.

00:25:29.160 --> 00:25:32.603
And this is about the time that he was starting to go out on his own.

00:25:32.643 --> 00:25:34.183
He had quit his job as a machinist.

00:25:34.223 --> 00:25:38.067
So that was an important album for him as well, too.

00:25:38.548 --> 00:25:43.291
And on this album, there's a song with Charlie Musselwhite, Charlie's Blues, where Charlie's singing.

00:25:43.392 --> 00:25:46.234
So all these West Coast guys hung out together.

00:25:46.275 --> 00:25:47.215
And yeah, Charlie's on there.

00:25:47.655 --> 00:25:49.277
Yeah, Charlie and Bill met.

00:25:49.877 --> 00:25:52.160
They were on a tour together for a couple of weeks.

00:25:52.579 --> 00:25:54.642
And that's where Bill met Charlie.

00:25:54.721 --> 00:25:56.784
And those two became really close friends.

00:25:56.784 --> 00:26:01.876
friends at that point so yes charlie did guest on this this album as well too

00:26:02.116 --> 00:26:05.546
they trained a few solos as well on that that song yes it's a good one

00:26:05.625 --> 00:26:10.076
yep they sure did so

00:26:20.834 --> 00:26:23.919
And then he released his first live album, Rocking the Boat, in 88.

00:26:23.979 --> 00:26:28.404
We've talked about his live performances and capturing that.

00:26:28.444 --> 00:26:30.969
So was that something he was keen to do, to capture the live show?

00:26:31.130 --> 00:26:31.931
Yeah, yeah.

00:26:31.951 --> 00:26:37.398
He used to play at this place called the Starboard Attitude in Redondo Beach, and that's where they recorded that.

00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:40.584
It did a good job of capturing his live show.

00:26:44.589 --> 00:26:44.670
Yeah.

00:26:55.041 --> 00:26:57.922
And that was on the same label as Tip of the Top.

00:26:58.625 --> 00:27:09.375
Another big turning point for him is when he signed for Alligator Records and he released his first album with them in 1990, which is Blowing Like Hell, which is the first album I heard of him.

00:27:09.414 --> 00:27:12.298
And I've loved that album ever since and still regularly listen to it.

00:27:12.337 --> 00:27:15.299
So yeah, so maybe you could tell us a story about how he got signed up

00:27:19.344 --> 00:27:21.326
for Alligator.

00:27:28.592 --> 00:27:32.756
I wanted to get on a bigger label than the other albums that he had done.

00:27:32.796 --> 00:27:34.538
And he reached out to Dick Sherman.

00:27:34.979 --> 00:27:38.442
He sent him the mixes of Blown Like Hell.

00:27:39.042 --> 00:27:40.845
And Dick Sherman just loved it.

00:27:40.984 --> 00:27:49.074
And he had given that to Bruce Iglauer at Alligator and asked him to take a listen to it and really give some strong consideration.

00:27:49.114 --> 00:27:50.895
And Bruce really liked it a lot.

00:27:51.316 --> 00:27:55.099
Before Bruce signed Bill, he wanted to see his live show.

00:27:55.361 --> 00:28:00.066
Bruce had told me that before someone's part of the Alligator family, He wants to see him perform live.

00:28:00.105 --> 00:28:03.070
So he came out to California to see Bill perform.

00:28:03.090 --> 00:28:05.473
And he was wowed by his performance.

00:28:05.815 --> 00:28:08.598
That's how the association with Alligator Records started.

00:28:08.838 --> 00:28:10.981
And Bruce ended up signing Bill at that point.

00:28:11.343 --> 00:28:11.462
Yeah.

00:28:11.482 --> 00:28:14.627
And so Alligator certainly then was the biggest blues label.

00:28:14.788 --> 00:28:17.971
And they really upped the game on promoting Bill and getting out there.

00:28:17.991 --> 00:28:18.894
And he started touring.

00:28:19.374 --> 00:28:20.655
I mean, touring internationally.

00:28:21.277 --> 00:28:22.038
Yeah.

00:28:22.117 --> 00:28:23.820
Bill started touring in 87.

00:28:23.980 --> 00:28:24.281
Yeah.

00:28:24.673 --> 00:28:27.737
Neil, he quit his job as a full-time machinist in 87.

00:28:28.057 --> 00:28:28.778
He started touring.

00:28:28.837 --> 00:28:32.540
So he had a few years under his belt before he signed with Alligator.

00:28:32.861 --> 00:28:35.002
He was doing a lot of road work across the U.S.

00:28:35.083 --> 00:28:38.226
and Canada, you know, 200, 250 shows a year.

00:28:38.266 --> 00:28:41.548
And he was doing a little bit of overseas travel as well, too.

00:28:41.949 --> 00:28:45.051
At the same time, he was pitching Bruce at Alligator.

00:28:45.071 --> 00:28:53.558
And I think he ended up calling Bruce a lot, just trying to stay in his ear about what he was doing on the road and also how his career was going.

00:28:53.638 --> 00:28:54.640
And Dick really helped him.

00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:57.423
helped him make that connection with Bruce and get signed.

00:28:57.844 --> 00:29:07.175
So on the album Blowing Like Hell, of course, his signature tune, Blowing Like Hell, we've already mentioned is a fantastic chromatic song, probably my favorite chromatic blues song.

00:29:07.415 --> 00:29:12.903
He also released a song on there called Must Be Jelly, which won him the Handy Award for Blues Song of the Year.

00:29:12.923 --> 00:29:21.854
I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love Because a little girl's so big and fat Kiss me when you can

00:29:24.577 --> 00:29:24.990
Thank you.

00:29:27.938 --> 00:29:34.564
You're right, he did win for Must Be Jelly for Song of the Year, which he was really so proud of that.

00:29:34.864 --> 00:29:48.236
I know him and Jeanette were at the Handy Awards, and he called Jeanette up on stage to accept the award with him because she had been so instrumental in him being able to be a full-time musician, so supportive of his career.

00:29:48.276 --> 00:29:52.078
So it meant a lot to Bill and Jeanette to win that award.

00:29:52.278 --> 00:29:54.520
Yeah, so Bill wrote the lyrics for the song, did he?

00:29:54.820 --> 00:29:55.162
He did.

00:29:55.201 --> 00:29:55.761
His

00:29:55.862 --> 00:30:00.626
uncle had written some lyrics a little bit similar to that in the past.

00:30:00.686 --> 00:30:06.413
And Bill, remember those when he was growing up, he kind of took it further and adapted some of those lyrics to that song.

00:30:06.452 --> 00:30:08.776
But that is an original song by Bill.

00:30:09.036 --> 00:30:10.657
Yeah, and it's got a really interesting sound.

00:30:10.678 --> 00:30:12.159
It's some sort of organ on there.

00:30:12.179 --> 00:30:14.321
What is that, which gives it that kind of eerie sound?

00:30:14.521 --> 00:30:16.903
Yeah, it's really a great song.

00:30:16.943 --> 00:30:20.989
And I'm not sure, I'll have to ask Fred Kaplan about that one.

00:30:21.028 --> 00:30:25.753
But yeah, it's a really unique sound that he gets out of the keyboard on that one.

00:30:26.094 --> 00:30:26.273
Great.

00:30:26.334 --> 00:30:30.261
And then his next album, on Alligator with Serious Intentions in 1992.

00:30:30.561 --> 00:30:33.971
You know, he's starting to add more jazzy influences.

00:30:33.990 --> 00:30:39.343
For example, he records Work Song on here, which is a Cannibal Adderley, you know, sort of full-on jazz song, yeah.

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

00:30:52.834 --> 00:31:19.076
that just goes to show you the influences that that he was developing one of the real benefits with alligator outside of the recognition was that bill was given a budget to make these uh recordings so he had more leeway where he could bring in horn players he could he had more leeway to do the things that he really wanted to do and certainly the work song kind of shows you the direction that bill was heading and a little more freedom to to do things like he wanted to do them

00:31:19.356 --> 00:31:38.080
yeah and another great song on that album is chasing the gator so another great instrumentically.

00:31:38.320 --> 00:31:41.345
Yeah, it was kind of based on a Willis Jackson tune.

00:31:42.145 --> 00:31:44.869
It was a great, great tenor sax player, but you're right.

00:31:44.990 --> 00:31:50.738
Yeah, that's another, this shows another influence that Bill had from some of the jazz players that he listened to.

00:31:51.617 --> 00:31:54.220
And then next up was Groovetime in 1994.

00:31:54.299 --> 00:31:58.064
So I think this had a full-on horn section added to it, yeah?

00:31:58.723 --> 00:31:59.845
Yeah, it did.

00:31:59.944 --> 00:32:07.612
And I know that I had the pleasure of talking to some of the horn players that played on those Alligator releases.

00:32:07.652 --> 00:32:15.459
Troy Jennings, one guy in particular I was talking to, and he said that Bill was thinking more like a horn player with a harmonica.

00:32:15.739 --> 00:32:34.127
They loved playing with Bill and all the tracks would be laid down so when they came into the studio they could work on the horn lines and bill was very instrumental in telling them exactly what he wanted done and they just said they loved working with him because he he was on the same page as they were as far as what what they wanted to see put in the songs

00:32:47.874 --> 00:32:54.836
So you often hear it said about harmonica players that they are, you know, they try to get a horn sound or they're influenced by horn players.

00:32:54.896 --> 00:32:56.541
And, you know, we hear that said about Little Waltz.

00:32:56.903 --> 00:32:57.967
So what do you think that means?

00:32:57.987 --> 00:32:59.893
You know, maybe how did Bill apply that?

00:33:00.705 --> 00:33:03.969
I think that he was thinking more like a horn player.

00:33:04.368 --> 00:33:12.115
And I know I talked to Jason Ricci, and he said a lot of harmonica players will say, like, you know, I'm influenced by horn players.

00:33:12.635 --> 00:33:14.498

William Clarke retrospective, with Paul Barry

Listen On

Featured Episodes

Diatonic harmonica Episodes

Retrospectives Episodes

Chromatic blues Episodes

Harmonica author 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

Annie Raines interview

Paul deLay retrospective with Grant Dermody, Ross Garren and Pete Dam…

Mike Turk interview