Blues harmonica master Carey Bell died on May 6 of heart failure in his hometown of Chicago. He was 70. Bell – the 1998 winner of the Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Artist Of The Year – was a ...

My harmonica lesson is squeezed in between those for students far shorter and far younger than me, so waiting my turn is a weekly reminder not to aim for an octave I’m unlikely to reach. It’s not that ...

In the mid-1800s, a German harmonica manufacturer named Hohner started exporting his product to North America. Being relatively inexpensive, relatively easy to play and extremely portable, the ...

From a musical perspective, opposition to the status quo has been a driving force in Deborah Henson-Conant’s art and in her career. Though raised by musicians, she didn’t like taking lessons as a ...

When my music makes someone happy, helps them unwind, relax and have fun, it is a greater achievement and fulfillment than any award I can receive. Born and raised on the prairies in the small farm ...

ASPEN Several years ago, after meeting and jamming with DJ Logic at a San Francisco benefit concert, John Popper put together the John Popper Project. The quartet, a side gig from Popper’s day job as ...

If you ask James Montgomery if he remembers playing the Shaboo inn in Willimantic back in the day — the legendary local club that closed in 1982 — he’ll hem and haw and scratch his head and say “The ...

Back in 1991, East Bay bluesman Mark Hummel called on some of his fellow local harmonicats to help him put on a show at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. It wasn’t anything fancy — just a killer showcase for the ...

Austin, Texas, September 24-- Gary Primich, considered by many to be one of the greatest harmonica players in the world, passed away suddenly on September 23rd. Not only is this the loss of a ...

Hear Brandon Bailey perform two songs live in the NPR studio. The harmonica is a staple of American blues, beginning with the Memphis jug bands of the 1920s. In the 1960s, blues-influenced artists ...

DECATUR — A heavy shot of fast-paced blues harmonica music made for a lot of happy, tapping feet Sunday at Rock Springs Nature Center. There was only one man on stage, harmonica virtuoso Deak Harp ...

Blues harmonica virtuoso and onetime Muddy Waters sideman James Cotton died on Thursday at a medical center in Austin of pneumonia. He was 81. A rep for the musician confirmed his death. Cotton, who ...