Fwd: [Harp-L] canned heat's "on the road" features early overblow

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, randy singer <randy@xxxx> wrote:
> I heard an incredible LONG VERSION of canned heats ON THE ROAD
> AGAIN.

> he does this amazing overbendblow something at the end of his solo 
and 
> does is several times, holding it a long time.
>
> i was floored , heard it on XM radio
>
> Does anyway have any background info on this early, possibly pre-Levy 
> occurence?


Randy - 

Are you talking about the note note that sounds like a 6 overblow? This 
note occurs on the standard studio recording, but it is not an 
overblow. On that version, you can plainly hear him bending up to the 
minor third from a semitone below - somehting that you can't do with a 
6 overblow - unless you lowered the pitch of Draw 6 - maybe the first 
instance of overblowing on an alternate tuning (!). 

If he raised the pitch of the Draw 6 reed a semitone, he could play 
this note without bending, but could start it bent, then release it to 
the minor 3rd of the scale. That's what it sounds like to my ear. 
However, some folks maintain that Blind Owl taped off the blow 6 reed 
to allow the Draw 7 to bend down.

I'm not saying that the live version you heard could not have been an 
overblow, but it seems unlikely if only because Wilson was already 
using other methods to get "outside" notes on that specific tune.

There are other pre-Levy overblows on record. Toots recorded them in 
1968 on an easy listening album (Midnight Blues on Time out for Toots), 
as did Will Scarlett on the first three Hot Tuna albums about the same 
time (and about the same time as the studio recording of "On the Road 
Again.") Then there's Blues Birdhead's 1929 recording of Mean Low Blues.

Winslow