[Harp-L] Pulling Hair Blues

["jazmaan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just listened to Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson's live rendition of "Pulling Hair Blues" recorded during
his last tour of Europe in 1970.  Accompanied only by Larry "The Mole" Taylor on bass, the Blind
Owl plays harmonica and sings a dark disturbing blues about his own mental illness.   "I should be
having more fun travelling all around the world" he begins. But he's so tormented by insomnia and
depression that he's literally pulling his own hair out. "The train rides are too long, and its
raining all the time.  And there's just no relief for my troubled mind."  It sounds like he's just
singing the blues, but its a lot more serious than that.  A few months later he would commit
suicide. 

His harp playing, as always, is spare and understated without a single superfluous or misplaced
note.  He's the Miles Davis of harmonica using rests and silence to great effect combined with an
awesome mastery of vibrato, rips and shifting harmonies within doublestops.