[Harp-L] old generation vs new

[rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I don't know if I'll ever hear anyone who moves me like Sonny Terry or Paul
Butterfield because those are the guys I listened to when I was a kid. All the
crazy old days come rushing back when I hear them. All the love and the newness
of those days when I first started playing, the whole magic of discovery. Man, I
wore those old records out. Still, in the last few years I've heard Cotton,
Carey Bell, Billy Branch, Mark Hummel, Phil Wiggins, Magic Dick, and Jerry
Portnoy all of them playing traditional harp, all of them top notch, phrasing
tone, everything. Any debate about various merits would be a matter of taste.
For pushing harp into new realms, Paul Delay, Charlie Musselwhite, and Curtis
Salgado are doing some very cool stuff, fast flashy, but certainly these guys
are stellar musicians, not just blowing riffs real fast.

Although the harp players are good, I'm not as impressed by the bands. Perhaps
it's the venues where I see most of these guys (blues festivals) but it's rare
to get a cohesive groove like Muddy's old band (or Bob Marley's band for that
matter), that feeling that everyone in the band is one organism, that almost
telepathic instinctive groove of a good solid band that's played together for
years. More like a bunch of guys just out of Berklee that have practiced their
scales a lot and listened to too much Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.soundclick.com/theelectricstarlightspaceanimals.htm