Rolling On

This is sorta kinda a continuation of my thought threads from yesterday, so I'm just rolling on. I was going to pull up the post and simply edit and add, but I do have enough swirling around the brain to just do the do again today.

I failed to mention that a few friends from my school days in Brazoria came into town expressly to watch our band play at the Brewery last Friday. My brother and his wife played host while we tried our best to entertain them. It made for a very special night for me. Word is that they'll return at some point down the road.

Let me add a link to David Barrett's marvelous website here. Lots of folks just aren't going to fork over the $17 a month for harmonica related stuff and search out similar free online offers. I balked at doing it for a long time until I decided that I wanted to see his reviews of the numerous small amplifiers and stayed a couple of months. And that's the deal. One can pay out for a year or month to month and cancel anytime. As I said in yesterday's post, I'm back to wandering around the site and finding plenty of value as I go, such as the aforementioned tube rolling vids on the Princeton. That in itself was worth a month's fee.

Barrett interviews a slew of harmonica pros and those are super. Since I re-signed up on the site to glean a bit more info to polish my tongue blocking a bit more, I went through the vid interviews just clicking on each player's responses to Barrett's question on tongue blocking and some on their preferred equipment. What I'm saying is that I haven't viewed each interview in their entirety, so I'm looking forward to watching them. At the time, I just wanted to hear what master blasters like Gary Primich, Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, Gary Smith, etc...had to say about TBing the harmonica.

Now, and I mentioned somewhere in the history of this blog, that I curl my tongue (or UBlock) to get a single hole. Just the way I found it easier. For many years, I really thought I was an odd duck out of water, because I knew of no one else that did such. Everyone puckered or tongue blocked. UNTIL I bought an instructional video from Norton Buffalo who played harp for Steve Miller. Right off the bat he mentioned that he curled his tongue. Anyway, I felt validated. Soon, from online discussion groups such as Harp-L, I found others mentioning they did the same thing. We were rare, but there and maybe even Little Walter did a bit of it.

CUTTING to the chase as to why I'm rehashing all this is the Barrett interviews. One of my favorite present day harmonica players is John Nemeth. Immaculate vocals and his harp tone is wonderful and he said he strictly UBlocks his notes, of course except for playing octaves (which of course, takes tongue blocking to get the split notes). Said it was the way he learned and has never seen a reason to do otherwise and ain't gonna try and change now. Epiphany for me. From there, another one of my favorites, Mark Ford, said he did the same thing and can even manage slapped notes with the embouchure. Steve Guyger even said that he's trying it out, because he was told by a reliable source that Little Walter did employ the method from time to time. SO I was surprised and felt additionally validated and not quite so hell bent to perfect tongue blocking.

BACK to discussing Shoji Naito. I first became aware of Shoji during a trip to Chicago (it's documented in the archives here) and he was playing guitar with harp man Morry Sochat and the Special 20s at the seafood restaurant. They were fabulous, by the way. I later learned that he was also a great harmonica player and I had heard good things about the backing tracks he offered on his website for us harp players. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I did download a few of those and they are wonderful. Anyway, he has been putting out a few videos on youtube during the pandemic stay at home time period and I caught quite  few of those. He plays both tasty guitar and harmonica. His tribute to Eddy 'The Chief' Clearwater, who he played with for fourteen or so years until Eddy passed in 2014, caught my eye and then my ears after I downloaded it.

Westmont to Chicago is a solid unadulterated Chi-town blues release with guest performances by several musicians well known on the Chicago blues scene. Not going to get into an extensive review (mentioned that I've moved away from doing so), but this recording is certainly notable for some of Eddy Clearwater's last recordings and reveal a veteran bluesman that hasn't lost a step, vocally or on guitar. Shoji shines on slide guitar on Ogden Avenue and lays down some tuneful harp on a few cuts, his best while conjuring the memory of James Cotton on Like The Creeper. Great release honoring one of Chicago's great bluesmen. If you lack yourself some of The Chief's stuff, go grab something from his catalogue. Anyway--'Nuff For Now.

Too Much Is Not Enough

Let me begin by saying that I lied in my last post. Not about finally getting around to reviewing something to do with the blues, but about the ones that I said were up next for me to waxed poetically about. I put a Christmas Amazon gift card to good use and received this release yesterday and just had to put my spin on it.

This represents Omar Kent Dykes second release paying homage to Jimmy Reed's music. I have the first one, with Jimmy Vaughn on board, called The Jimmy Reed Highway. It's a good 'un, but I bought this one here because of the Disclaimer that Dykes wrote explaining why he would do another batch of Jimmy Reed stuff. The title, Too Much Is Not Enough, explains some of his reasoning, but what sold me was this: "The most important reason to release these songs: they are the last recordings I did with my good friend, Gary Primich. I believe these songs deserve to be shared and appreciated. I am dedicating this CD to the memory and unstoppable talent of Gary Primich." 'Nuff said!

Once I decided that I'd learn the ins and outs of playing the blues harp, Gary Primich was the first professional that I met and witnessed in action way back in the day. I've documented that show somewhere here on the blog, but the bottom line is that he blew me away and I became a fervent fan of his. He passed away way too soon, but left a legacy of the high caliber harmonica recordings behind. I'm beholding to Omar Dykes for sharing these cuts with me.

Primich kicks off the proceedings on the opening cut with his fabulous deep, fat backed amplified tone and weaves all his tricks of the trade into the fills and solo. Too Much is not a Jimmy Reed staple, but takes the same shuffle path as the master. Same thing with the Dykes penned, I Gotta Let You Go, which is stamped with the signature groove. On this one though, Primich lays down his mic and shows off his unbeatable acoustic chops and enviable talent at bending the reeds to produce impeccable tone. Gary Clark Jr., the fast rising star from the Austin music scene, adds some nice slide guitar into the mix. He pops in and out of the core group of veteran blues cats Derek O'Brien (guitar), Ronnie James (upright bass), and Jay Moeller (drums). Barry Bihm throws down on electric bass when they want to get particularly nasty and Jon Hahn takes the drum sticks on a few.

Matter of fact, the only two cuts without Primich's harp (I Ain't Got You/I'm Gonna Ruin You) are from a stripped down trio with Clark doubling on harp and Moeller's drum kicking. His harp playing is effective, but rudimentary, and I suspect may have been included to contrast just how much more powerful Primich is on the instrument.

That Primich power is on full display on Shame, Shame, Shame on which Dykes turns him loose to do his thang. It is high octane stuff with Primich pulling out all the stops with his signature amped up runs, bends, and octave blasts. Same for You Don't Have To Go which Dykes transforms into a driving, whomping Chi-Town shuffle with Clark doing a bit of Elmore James style of slipping and sliding on the guitar frets. High and Lonesome also represents Primich's knack for getting the the deep, gutbucket grooves slamming with exquisite long drawn lonesome tones being pulled from the reeds and demonstrating his mastery of working the mic cupped and uncupped to add tonal variety.

Primich absolute owns Take Out Some Insurance, not exactly with any solos thrown down, but just proving how he can power a rhythmic groove. He helps it shuffle into the ozone, and on the instrumental Roll In Rhumba, he shifts gears to keep the rhumbaling rhumbaling.

Of course, Jimmy Reed's harp work is synonymous with what can be done in first position and the high end of the harmonica. No one, and I mean no one, nails that style better than Gary Primich. The bends, trills, warbles that he produces on those tiny reeds are nothing short of remarkable, and then he'll majectically swoop down for some low end acoustic thump on such tunes as Going To New York and I'm Going To Move To The Outskirts Of Town (again, not a tune associated with Reed).

Keep in mind that Primich is working as a sideman here and nothing is intended as a showcase for his talents. The songs are all less than four minutes long, some less than three, as should be, so he's just adding his licks to provide the songs with what is needed. Someone who is not a blues harp nut might not even notice, but we know what he's putting down.

I'm not meaning to give short shrift to Dykes. I saw beau coup Omar and the Howlers gigs back in the day and always loved his roadhouse rowdiness and his rough and ready vocals, and the man plays a helluva guitar. He knows exactly what he wants and how to get that across in any songs that he tackles, and here, he's tackled the Jimmy Reed grooves and wrestled them to the ground with a cracker jack group of musicians for an outstanding release. Damn right, Omar, Too Much Is Not Enough. And as he says in his liner notes, "If you think I've gone overboard with Jimmy Reed, just wait until I release my Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley material". Bring it on Omar Dykes. 'Nuff for now!

Gary Primich Lives

Gary Primich
w/Honey B&T-Bones
Wentus Blues Band
Gary, Indiana
Blue North Records

Even though I plan to eventually get around to chatting about Gary, Indiana, the predominantly live recordings that Gary Primich recorded with a couple of Finnish bands, his set with Honey B & T-Bones being recorded back in 1991 sparks a remembrance of one of the most original harmonica men to ever stick the instrument in his mouth.

Back in 1991, I was aspiring to master the blues harp and had not been at it for too long a period of time. My collection of blues harp blues at that time was but a grain of sand that eventually become the mountain of music stacked around my house. Gary Primich launched his solo career that year with a release on Amazing Records and it quickly became a favorite of mine. During that same year, Gary travelled over to Bryan, Texas for a gig at The Stafford Opera House and his performance solidified my desire to keep working at torturing harmonica reeds.

It's been awhile since that gig, but I remember getting to the venue early, and Gary was poking his head out the door, and I was going in. I think he was wondering if anyone would show up. Recognizing him, I stopped and introduced myself as a blues harp fan, and novice practitioner. He took me inside, up to the stage, and showed me the tools of his trade. Marine Band harps, ceramic element bullet mic, and vintage Fender Bandmaster amplifier. At that time, I was relatively clueless as to the amplified aspects of the music, so that was a sort of epiphanied moment. He seemed as excited about do this as I was about him doing it. Or something like that.

I'm not going to lie and say that I remember exactly what they played. He did work through most of the songs from that debut album and his next. What impressed me right off was the variety of grooves that he hit upon--rockabilly, traditional Chi-Town blues, jazzy interludes, '50s rock, and even Tin Pan Alley standards from his big chromatic. He even proved to be accomplished at slinging guitar licks around. His guitarist at the time was Shorty Lenoir and he really impressed me with his Magic Sam licks and what he could do with a Howling Wolf tune. We spent some time during the first set break discussing his influences while Gary and the rest of the band walked across the street to catch a bit of Doyle Bramhall's show (yeah, who'd know that two substantial talents would end up in downtown Bryan on the same night). Well, it seems that Doyle's stepson played drums that night in Gary's band. Think his name was Chris Hunter.

What knocked me out that night (and ever since then) was Gary Primich's absolute command of the harmonica. His style was his own, although he could absolutely conjure up the spirit of both Sonny Boys, both Walters, Slim Harpo, Jerry McCain, etc... at will. We stayed in touch with each other by e-mail for quite a few years. American Harmonica Newsmagzine ran a couple of interviews that I wrote based on that correspondence. I lost touch with Gary somewhere along the way, but I'll always fondly remember that gig in downtown Bryan. I may have told this tale somewhere on the blog sometime in the past, if so forgive me for repeating the story...but, you see I've just become a granddad, and since that's what granddad's are noted for doing, then this will just have to pass as acceptable.

A couple of other "live" Primich nights stand out in my mind. One took place at one of Sonny Boy Terry's harmonica rumbles in Houston. Lots of good players were playing some kind of impressive blues harp. Then, Gary Primich stepped up and his first note was sooo fat, juicy, and toneful that he sort of separated himself from everyone else. Reminds me now of his turn on one of Mark Hummel's recorded blowouts. His tone just put him on a different plane--not necessarily worlds better, but just on another plane. The last time I saw him play, he recorded two nights at The Big Easy in Houston, and he absolutely played a fire and brimstoned performance. THAT is the "live" show that I'd like to see someone out there somewhere produce and share with the rest of the world--because it represents what Gary Primich was all about and would be a fitting capstone for his legacy.

In the meantime, we have Gary, Indiana with Honey B & T-Bones, the Wentus Blues Band, and Esa Kolonemi from different trips to Helsinki, Finland. The CD opens with a very strange studio recording with Esa Kuloniemi and Jimmie Lawson on a tune called the Hitman, which sounds like Shaft era Isaac Hayes. I really thought that the wrong CD somehow found its way into the case, until Gary's innovative amplified licks kick in and fits the vibe of the music--which ain't exactly blues, but ain't exactly ain't either. The last cut is also from the same session, with Gary holding court with an acoustic style. He pulls out mostly acoustic harp on the 2002 gig and does that style better than anyone that I've ever heard, but I love his dripping, fatbacked amplified tones even more so. The 1991 stuff gets that going a bit more.

After that shocking opener (not really shocking, but it threw me a bit), the recording shares what Gary was putting down in 2002 at a place called Cantina West with the Westus Blues Band, starting off with Hillbilly Blues. The band gets a good rock-a-billy rhythm going and guitarist Niko Riipa rips it pretty substantially. Primich works the heck out of triplets, split octaves, up and down the length of his acoustic harp on this Eddie Clearwater tune. From there he does get some of the fattest acoustic harp tones I've ever heard on a cover of Hounddog Taylor's Sadie. He goes deep and uses great expressive hand wahs and generally just tears up his first solo over the Help Me groove that the band lays down. One of the highlights of the disc for me.

The jump R&B style of Real Gone Lover puts the harp mic in his hands for some classic Primich amplified fat. He knows how to work the vibe of this Dave Bartholomew tune. The band swings the holy smokes out of the song and proves their versatility.

Good Bye Little Girl is not a Sonny Boy Williamson II song, but that's what get nailed down with the acoustic harp licks that Primich pulls out of his harp hat. The Wentus guys drive this fast shuffle as he floats across the tune with an extended solo that eventually has the band dropping the volume while he does Rice Miller's memory justice.

This set wraps up with one of my favorite Primich songs--Company Man. It is the only song on this disc that is not a cover tune. The song has a unique coda and groove and the band acquits themselves quite well with getting it right. Of course, Primich smokes his part.

The 1991 tunes kick off with a rendition of John "Juke" Logan's Hustler, on which the Honey B band sounds very Fabulous T-Birdish and on which Esa Kulomieni demonstrates that he has his book of guitar blues down pat. Sounds to me as if these guys were just flat playing outside of themselves and Primich gets out all of his amplified stops and get down with it. This is PRIMICH getting it the way I love to hear Primich get it.

The deepest tones he saves for the rumba-ish, jazzy feel of The Girl That Radiates That Charm. No, this is the one. This is PRIMICH getting it the way I love to hear Primich get it--until he amplifies Franks Frost's My Back Scratcher pulling some kind of sweet long blue notes that puts the mud in the swamp tones of the tune. Kulomieni gets the reverbed guitar vibe happening much in the same way that Jimmy Vaughan did on the Slim Harpo's version. No, never mind, this is PRIMICH getting it the way I love to hear Primich get it--done.

These tunes sort of exemplify what the thirteen songs here represent, which is the variety of musical ideas that Primich mastered. All in all, this is a good document of what Gary Primich was all about on stages that he frequented a couple of hundreds nights of the year. At 49, he left of way too early, so anything new that can be shared from his legacy has to be considered a treasure. The man was remarkable with a harmonica in his mouth. For a bonus, an interview on his blues harp philosophy ends the program. Many thanks to the Finnish Blues Society for putting this on disc for us. NOW--if someone out there will release his music recorded live at The Big Easy club, we will have much more of his spirit captured for posterity, which we can release at will. 'nuff for now.

What's A Poor Boy To Do?

I've been out of the loop (in way more ways than one) for the past month or more, so I decided to go over to my favorite online record store (yeah, I still like to use the word record)and owner Charlie Lange slaps me in the face all these wonderful new releases for us blues harp enthusiasts. Normally, a must have recording will entice me every month or two and I can slowly part with my cash, but danged it he's highlighting a slew of the good stuff. Anyway--I thought I'd share what made me grab my credit card (not that I bought them all, but maybe I will later...tomorrow...or...dang it!)

Gary Primich
Gary, IndianaCan't pass these
live cuts up, playing
with these Scandinavian
blues cats. Besides, he
left us way too soon, so
I'll take any memories
he left behind. He was
truly one of the most creative
harmonica dudes on the planet.





Mark Hummel
Retro-active
W/Charlie Musselwhite and a
Rusty Zinn
With Charlie Musselwhite and Rusty Zinn on board, this has to be a cooking release. I've got a lot of Hummel's stuff, but I must say that this West Coast icon has become quite the master blaster in recent years.



Johnny Moeller
Bloo Ga Loo!
W/Kim Wilson & Lou Ann Barton

'Nuff said. But really, I know that Johnny's not a harp player, but he is by far one of the best damned guitar players out there or anywhere and I'll buy his stuff forever. Oh...and Kim and Lou Ann...I know they'll do it good!



Rhythm Willie
The Greatest Harp Player
You've Never Heard
I've just heard this guys name mentioned in reverence over the years by fellow harp people. No one has ever been able to point me in the right direction as far as where to find his stuff. Seems that a song here and a song there exited somewhere, but where?... now it seems that we can all judge for ourselves. Cool!

Well, these were just the ones that really tweak my interest. Go over there to bluebeat music and get your credit card out. There's also William Clarke's Tip of the Top if you missed it the first go 'round, a package deal on Paul Butterfield's best blowing, an outstanding price for a 4 cd Howling Wolf package, and the latest Mannish Boys release. Buy now!