Re: Lee Oskar album reissues (was F harps)

[Spschndr@xxxxxxx]

A 1997 catalog from what is now Best Lil' Harp House shows that Rhino 
reissued Lee Oskar's first three solo albums on CD: Lee Oskar as Rhino 71719, Before 
the Rain as Rhino 71721, and My Road Our Road as Rhino 71720.  I didn't buy 
them at the time and haven't checked to see if they are still in print, though; 
I dug out my vinyl to listen to "BLT" again.  

Gotta hope that if the recording industry ever works out its policies/method 
for burning tracks on demand, they'll realize the wisdom of licensing 
out-of-print records for sale that way, so that U.S. players could get things like 
Johnny Winter's White, Hot and Blue, Levon Helm and the RCO All-Stars, or John 
Hammond's Source Point in domestic pressings.  There's going to be a continuing 
niche market so long as word of mouth about records like that circulates among 
harmonica players.

Speaking of which, it looks like Hip-O Records has issued a two-disc 
anthology of Slim Harpo's Excello singles, so there may be a bigger chunk of Slim 
available in your local store in the U.S. now, if anyone's looking.  IMHO, Slim 
Harpo is one of (if not the) best artists for beginning blues harp players to 
study by ear, for several reasons:

1.  His playing is fairly simple but employs many important techniques
2.  He's seldom amplified, so what he's doing is clearer to the newbie
3.  He wrote actual melodies that often relate to the vocal melody
4.  His ballads/swamp pop cross over from blues into pentatonic major melody
5.  It's good music that people still play live, so you can learn it and play 
out
6.  He apparently was truly a nice guy, making him a good role model ;-)

Of course something like Little Walter is not as daunting to learn now that 
one can get tab for much of it, but as ear training is especially important for 
the blues harmonica player, Slim's what I always recommend to the blues harp 
newbie as a starting point.

Stephen Schneider