Home of the Blues

For many harmonica players the spiritual home is 1950s Chicago especially in their early days but then they usually dig down into the roots as they hear more and end up in the in the earlier radio and acoustic times. My journey was the other way round. I grew up with 12 bar blues played by traditional jazz bands like Dippermouth Blues by King Oliver, rock and roll like Roll over Beethoven by Chuck Berry and Ray Charles’ What I Say. 

I first came across blues harp in 1963 through the new UK popular blues bands like the Cyril Davies All Stars with Chicago Calling and the Rolling Stones -  Not Fade Away.

It was the work of Cyril Davies and Chris Barber, who helped launch the Rolling Stones and many other of the new British R&B groups, who put the spotlight back on Muddy Waters, Little Walter and the Chicago blues scene, where their inspiration came from. 

The rest is history….