Re: Seattle-area harp information

[GREENWAY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I haven't lived in Seattle for four and a half years, but I worked out
of the Jet City for quite a while before that. There are a lot of great
players in the Seattle/Portland area. I'm not sure in some cases the
names of the bands they're currently in, but here are a few names:

Steve Bailey in Seattle. A great blues player. Also has written a very
good instruction method for blues harp.

Dick Powell. Dick has been around for many years. Learned a lot of licks
from James Cotton during his formative years. Can play excellent harp and
B3 Hammond organ simultaneously.

Mike Lynch in Seattle. Another veteran blues player.

Mark Graham in Seattle. A world-class talent. His forte is Irish fiddle
music on the chromatic and the diatonic. He's also an ace at prewar
blues and rural harmonica styles. Tours with Kevin Burke, a fiddle player,
but also performs a lot of local gigs around Seattle, often with guitarist
Orville Johnson. Great player and a nice change of pace from the blues
players.

Jay Mabin in Tacoma. Jay was one of the first Howard Levy disciples.
He also plays jazz on the chromatic.

Bill Rhodes is a fine blues harpist out of Portland.

Also in Portland are two other world-class harmonica players: Curtis
Salgado and Paul deLay. Curtis is one of the greatest blue-eyed soul
singers ever, which sometimes helps people to forget that he is a
monster harmonica player as well. Paul deLay, who was just released
from prison after doing three years for cocaine possession, is a very
creative player and singer. He writes very fine blues-oriented tunes,
and is a master--and a highly original stylist--on both the chromatic
and diatonic. Both Curtis and Paul play Seattle often. Go and catch
them--it doesn't get any better.

If you run into any of these people, say hello to them for me.

--Kim Field