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This Is The Blues Harmonica – Vol. 1
Delmark DE 746
Compact Disc

A collection of the best recordings on Delmark featuring harmonica players including a previously unissued Junior Wells track from the Hoodoo Man Blues session with Buddy Guy. For some, the harmonica is not much more than an inexpensive plaything, but as the artists heard here amply demonstrate, the expressive range of the harmonica is as deep and wide as any other musical instrument in the blues, rivaled only by the human voice. Other unreleased tracks include a Carey Bell instrumental and a marvelous performance from country blues artist Hammie Nixon with Sleepy John Estes. Also features Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, Billy Boy Arnold, Billy Branch, Jimmy Burns, Lynwood Slim, Kim Wilson, “Mad Dog” Lester Davenport, Louis Myers, Golden “Big” Wheeler and others.

This Is The Blues Harmonica
Delmark DE-746

1 Little Walter Red Headed Woman 2:43
(with Baby Face Leroy)
2. Carey Bell Deep Down South 2:27
(previously unissued)
3. Mad Dog Lester Davenport Ain't It Nice 5:11
(with Willie Kent)
4. Louis Myers Top Of The Harp 3:31
5. Hammie Nixon New York City Blues 4:26
(previously unissued)
6. Billy Branch I Got The Blues About My Baby
6:34 (with Bonnie Lee)
7. Harmonica George Sputnik Music 2:13
8. Little Sammy Davis Hey Little Girl 4:45
9. Big Walter Horton Hard-Hearted Woman (alternate)
3:05
10. Lynwood Slim Hopeless 4:59 (with Dave Specter)
11. Jimmy Burns Shake Your Boogie 3:47
12. Junior Wells This Is The Blues 4:29
(previously unissued)
13. Golden "Big" Wheeler Guilty 4:04
14. Billy Boy Arnold Streetwise Advisor 3:55
15. Kim Wilson "C" For Chicago 4:09
(with Steve Freund)

For some, the harmonica is not much more than an inexpensive plaything, but as the artists heard here amply demonstrate, the expressive range of the harmonica is as deep and wide as any other musical instrument in the blues, rivaled only by the human voice. These are among the very greatest blues players ever to pick up the instrument, from world renowned legends like Junior Wells (heard here on a previously unreleased vintage track, recorded at the Hoodoo Man Blues session with his long-time musical cohort Buddy Guy), Big Walter Horton and Little Walter, through undeservedly obscure players whose fame barely stretched beyond their own neighborhoods.


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1. Little Walter Red Headed Woman (Leroy Foster, P.D.) 2:43
Little Walter, harmonica; Muddy Waters, guitar; Baby Face Leroy Foster, vocal, drums; probably Jimmy Rogers, 2nd guitar. January, 1950. From "Little Walter, The Blues World Of Little Walter" (Delmark 648)

2. Carey Bell Deep Down South (Carey Bell) 2:27
Carey Bell, harmonica; Hubert Sumlin, guitar; Eddie Taylor, guitar; Lovey Lee, piano; Joe Harper, bass; Willie Williams, drums. January 12, 1972. Not available on any other album.

3. Willie Kent Ain’t It Nice (Willie Kent, Willie Kent Publishing, BMI) 5:11
Mad Dog Lester Davenport, harmonica; Willie Kent, vocal, bass; Luther "Slim" Adams, guitar; Jacob Dawson, guitar; Timothy Taylor, drums. March 20, 1991.
From "Willie Kent, Ain’t It Nice" (Delmark 653)

4. Louis Myers Top Of The Harp (Louis Myers) 3:31
Louis Myers, harmonica; Magic Sam, guitar; Mac Thompson, bass; Odie Payne, Jr., drums. April 1, 1968. From "Sweet Home Chicago" (Delmark 618)

5. Hammie Nixon New York City Blues (Traditional, P.D.) 4:26
Hammie Nixon, harmonica, vocal; Sleepy John Estes, guitar, vocal; Yank Rachell, guitar. July 28, 1964. Not available on any other album.

6. Bonnie Lee I Got The Blues About My Baby (Lee/Collins, Outer Limit
Publishing Co., BMI) 6:34
Billy Branch, harmonica; Bonnie Lee, vocal; Willie Davis, guitar; Kenny Barker, piano; Willie Kent, bass; Baldhead Pete, drums. March 4, 1995. From "Bonnie Lee, Sweetheart Of The Blues" (Delmark 676)

7. Harmonica George Sputnik Music (George Robinson) 2:13
Harmonica George Robinson, harmonica; Eddy Clearwater, Willie Johnson, guitar; unknown drummer. Possibly 1959. From "Chicago Ain’t Nothin’ But A Blues Band" (Delmark 624)

8. Little Sammy Davis Hey Little Girl (Sammy Davis) 4:45
Little Sammy Davis, harmonica, vocal; Fred Scribner, guitar. November 10, 1994. From "Little Sammy Davis, I Ain’t Lyin’" (Delmark 682)

9. Big Walter Horton Hard-Hearted Woman (alternate) (Leonard Allen,
Embassy Music Corp., BMI) 3:05
Big Walter Horton, harmonica, vocal; Red Holloway, John Cameron, tenor sax; Lee Cooper, guitar; Lafayette Leake, piano; Willie Dixon, bass; Fred Below, drums. November 1, 1954. From "Big Walter Horton and Alfred 'Blues King' Harris, Blues Harmonica Kings" (Delmark 712)

10. Dave Specter Hopeless (Percy Mayfield, Sony/ATV Songs, BMI) 4:59
Lynwood Slim, harmonica, vocal; Dave Specter, guitar; Ken Saydak, organ; Barrelhouse Chuck, piano; Michael Scharf, bass; Mark Fornek, drums. October 16, 1995. From "Dave Specter, Left Turn On Blue" (Delmark 693)

11. Jimmy Burns Shake Your Boogie (John Lee Williamson, P.D.) 3:47
Jimmy Burns, harmonica (1st solo), vocal; Martin Lange, harmonica (2nd solo); Rockin’ Johnny, guitar; Sho Komiya, bass; Kelly Littleton, drums. April 2, 1996. From "Jimmy Burns, Leaving Here Walking" (Delmark 694)

12. Junior Wells This Is The Blues (Junior Wells, Blues Harp Publishing,
BMI) 4:29
Junior Wells, harmonica, vocal; Buddy Guy, guitar, Jack Myers, bass; Billy Warren, drums. September 23, 1965. Not available on any other album. Recorded at the same session as "Junior Wells,Hoodoo Man Blues" (Delmark 612).

13. Golden "Big" Wheeler Guilty (Willie Mabon, BAW Music, BMI) 4:04
Golden "Big" Wheeler, harmonica, vocal; James Wheeler, guitar; Allen Batts, piano, Bob Stroger, bass; Baldhead Pete, drums. August 19, 1997. From "Golden 'Big' Wheeler, Jump In" (Delmark 709)

14. Billy Boy Arnold Streetwise Advisor (William Arnold, WBA Music, BMI) 3:55
Billy Boy Arnold, harmonica, vocal; Rockin’ Johnny, guitar; Herman Costa, 2nd guitar; Sho Komiya, bass; Kelly Littleton, drums. October 20, 1996. From "Blues Before Sunrise, Live Volume One" (Delmark 699)

15. Steve Freund "C" For Chicago (Steve Freund, Fishing Boy Music, BMI) 4:09
Kim Wilson, harmonica; Steve Freund, guitar, vocal; David Maxwell, piano; Harlan Terson, bass; Mark Fornek, drums. June 2, 1999. From "Steve Freund, 'C' For Chicago" (Delmark 734)

Compilation Producer: Scott Dirks
Album Production: Robert G. Koester and Steve Wagner
Design: Al Brandtner



The harmonica - a/k/a the tin sandwich, the Mississippi saxophone, the
mouth organ, the harp. With its affordability and portability, it's the most common musical instrument in the world. John Steinbeck rhapsodized its virtues in "The Grapes Of Wrath", and Abraham Lincoln reportedly played
one. Almost every cowboy or prison movie ever made features a scene with a
harmonica. It's truly the people's instrument - almost anyone can pick one up, and within a few minutes succeed at huffing and puffing out a rudimentary tune or two.
It's probably for the very same reasons that make it so popular that the
harmonica doesn't often get much respect in the musical world. "Serious"
musicians think of it as not much more than a toy, and for the vast majority of people around the world who play it, it never rises above that level. But in the hands of a select few, the harmonica has reached a level of musical expressiveness matched only by the human voice, and this unique quality, when combined with the others, makes it the instrument most perfectly suited to the blues.
It's been said that the harmonica is the easiest instrument to play, but
the hardest to play well. This collection pulls together some of the blues
harmonica players who have put in the years necessary in order to be able to play it well. These are among the very greatest blues players ever to pick up the instrument, some of them widely recognized masters, others who toiled in relative obscurity, but all of them maestros of the blues harp.
Marion "Little Walter" Jacobs is the single most influential blues
harmonica player of the last 50 years; virtually every player who picked up
the instrument after his ground-breaking recordings both with Muddy Waters
and on his own in the early 1950s has been effected at some level by his
approach to the instrument. His swinging phrasing, his dynamic and tonal
range, his jazzman's approach to constructing a solo, his fits-like-a-glove
ensemble work - the echoes of his style can still be heard reverberating loudly wherever blues harmonica is played today. But he wasn't "born full grown", as they say; his earliest harp hero was the most influential blues harp player of the FIRST 50 years of the 20th century, John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. Here we can hear Little Walter in a rare early recording, straddling the fence between Williamson's more rhythm-oriented playing, and Walter's own emerging improvisational solo style.
Carey Bell arrived in Chicago in 1956, and the first blues artist he saw
there was Little Walter, who along with Big Walter Horton, became his most
important harp influence. Carey's first release, Carey Bell's Blues Harp (Delmark 622), came in 1969, and brought him wide recognition as one of the modern masters. In 1972 he re-entered the studio for Delmark to record a follow up release for the label, featuring his friends Hubert Sumlin and Eddie Taylor on guitars. The proposed album was never completed, and presented here for the very first time is an instrumental called "Deep Down South".
"Mad Dog" Lester Davenport played and recorded with Bo Diddley in the 1950s (replacing Billy Boy Arnold when Arnold left Bo's band to pursue his own
solo career), and has been making occasional re-appearances on the Chicago scene ever since, much to the delight of local blues fans. Here he backs his friend, bass player and vocalist Willie Kent, on the funky title tune from Kent's 1991 release Ain't It Nice.
Louis Myers is better known for his guitar playing as a member of The Aces (the band that first gained fame backing Little Walter on his early solo
recordings), but that's not due to any shortcomings in his harp playing. In fact, he was considered one of the very best harp players in Chicago during the heyday of blues harp in the 1950s, but when you're in a band that also includes Little Walter, you're not going to get many chances to strut your stuff on harp. Still, Louis' first record under his own name in 1956 gave Walter a run for his money, with outstanding harp instrumentals on BOTH sides of the release for the tiny Abkco label. And when he next recorded as a front man in the mid-’60s, Louis again chose the harp as his instrument, doing the funky and original instrumental "Top of The Harp" presented here.
Hammie Nixon spent almost his entire music career backing fellow
Brownsville, Tennessee native Sleepy John Estes (often joined by the third
great blueman to come out of Brownsville, Yank Rachell). The first of their many recordings together took place in 1935, but with a few rare exceptions, Nixon stayed in the background. It's a shame, because on the previously unissued track presented here, Nixon shows an impressive vocal talent in addition to his raw-but-right harp skills. It's also worth noting that although he's the only harp player presented here who recorded in the pre-war (and pre-Little Walter) era, he shows just how wide-reaching was Walter's influence; Nixon starts his song with the signature harmonica figure borrowed from Walter's #1 hit instrumental, "Juke".
Billy Branch is one of the leading lights of the current blues harmonica
scene, and one of the few younger generation black blues harp players recording today. He first made a name for himself in the late 1970s as a member of the band "Sons Of Blues" (a/k/a "S.O.B.s"), which he led for almost twenty years. In addition to a successful solo career, his harp talents have graced many fine recordings by other artists in recent years, including this one by Chicago singer Bonnie Lee.
"Harmonica George" was George Robinson, a Mississippi native who settled in Chicago in the early ’50s and was intermittently active on the fringes of the Chicago blues scene for the next couple of decades. His romping, wild
harmonica instrumental was titled "Sputnik Music" after the Russian satellite that was making headlines worldwide when Robinson laid down this crudely recorded track in 1959. Judging from his swinging, heavy-toned playing, he deserved better than the obscurity that marked his career, but he only made one other known studio appearance after this one.
Little Sammy Davis recorded a few tracks with his pal Earl Hooker in Memphis in the early ’50s, and then wasn't heard from again on record until Delmark released his first CD in the 1990s. Davis was influenced equally by the popular Chicago school of amplified players and the pre-war acoustic stylists, and in the intervening years has also incorporated more current musical styles into his harp playing, even adding a bit of Stevie Wonder-style chromatic harmonica. Here he reprises one of his Memphis recordings, "Hey Little Girl", done in a stripped down style that highlights his excellent acoustic harp playing.
The vintage Big Walter Horton track presented here is a genuine treasure, recorded at his first session as a leader in Chicago, while he was at his peak during the prime blues years of the early 1950s. Horton is widely recognized as one of the greatest blues harp players of all time, with a uniquely deep and resonant harp tone that has often been imitated but never duplicated.
Lynwood Slim is one of the veterans of the thriving West Coast blues harp scene in California, although he made his home in Minneapolis for a number of years (where he came under the spell of the above mentioned Horton, who played there regularly when on tour in the 1970s). The footloose Lynwood was residing in Chicago and playing with local guitarist Dave Specter when he recorded this fine track for Specter's Left Turn On Blue CD.
Guitarist / vocalist Jimmy Burns is the younger brother of Detroit bluesman Eddie Burns, and like his older sibling, learned to play harmonica
listening to the records of John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson in the 1940s.
Here Jimmy is paired with one of the best young harmonica players on the
Chicago blues scene today, Martin Lang. With Burns on the acoustic harp
and Lang playing amplified, together they create a fine updating of one of
Sonny Boy's ’40s hits.
Junior Wells is the blues harp player most closely associated with Delmark; his groundbreaking Hoodoo Man Blues album, recorded in 1965, is these days acknowledged as one of the all-time classics, a "desert island disk" for many blues fans, considered by most to be the high-water mark of his long
and fruitful career. All of which makes the track included here a special treat - it's a previously unreleased, mostly instrumental number recorded at the Hoodoo Man Blues sessions, held back at the time only because they'd already recorded a full LP worth of material. In addition to hearing Wells work out on both the standard Marine Band and the large Chromatic harp, this track also gives us the added bonus of a nice guitar solo from Junior's musical partner, Buddy Guy.
Golden "Big" Wheeler was a fine harp player and singer who first made a
name for himself in Chicago during the heyday of blues harp in the 1950s. Towards the end of that decade, as the harmonica was supplanted by the
guitar and blues gave way to rock & roll, R&B and soul, Wheeler (like many
of his harp playing contemporaries) turned to a day job to make his living,
and only played part time for the next few decades. In the early ’90s he retired from the day job and turned his attention back to music, picking up almost exactly where he left off, playing in the raw, swinging style from the classic years of Chicago Blues. The track presented here is from his second Delmark CD, Jump In.
Billy Boy Arnold was a bona fide blues star in the 1950s; he played harp on some of Bo Diddley's classic recordings for Chess, before breaking out on
his own with a string of local hits for the competing Vee Jay label. Arnold's early recordings exerted a strong influence on the British blues boom in the 1960s (his songs were covered by The Yardbirds, The Animals and even David Bowie), and after a period of inactivity, in recent years he's re-emerged as one of the elder statesmen of the Chicago Blues scene. Here we hear a driving version of one of his more recent original numbers, recorded live at the club B.L.U.E.S in Chicago in 1995.
With the final track here, in many ways we've come full circle. Kim Wilson
(who when he's not working on one of his many blues projects, leads the popular rock band The Fabulous Thunderbirds) is widely considered one of
the greatest living blues harp players, embodying the fire, excitement and
boundless creativity of Little Walter. Like Walter in his time, Wilson plays with his own unique approach that builds upon the work of the past masters while staying true to the sound and spirit at the heart of the blues. Wilson is heard here backing guitarist and singer Steve Freund, on the title track from Freund's recent Delmark release "C" Is For Chicago.
In the hands of some, it's a cheap toy, not much more than a plaything, but as the players heard here amply demonstrate, the expressive range of the
harmonica is as deep and wide as any other musical instrument in the blues.

--Scott Dirks