Harp Wars

[Wetland10@xxxxxxx]

I have been a member of this digest for a very long time, but I usually tend to read and not post very often.  I thought it would be fun to add my two cents to this discussion.

I have always broken down harmonica players into two categories: 1) Harmonica Players and 2) Harp players.  I don't know why, it just seems to work.

Dylan, Young, and don't forget Springsteen, fall into the harmonica player category, those who play traditional chord-type work.  

Guys like both Walters, James Cotton, and Snooky Pryor fall into the harp players category.

To me it isn't really fair to compare the two, they are both very different.  The harmonica players probably influenced just as many people to pickup the instrument, in some way, as the harp players did, just depends on what style of music you tend to like.

I have a photo of Dylan on-stage with Muddy Waters at the Bottom Line in NYC, and he is playing blues harp.  Anyone who ever heard him do that knows that he can play.

So that's my two cents.

Wayne