[Harp-L] Good day for the mailman

["Marc Spilka" <marc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I got home other day to find both the new Jason Ricci and Richard Hunter CDs
in my mailbox.  After a couple listens I highly recommend both of them.
There have been previews for both of these.  RH has graciously posted a few
songs on his website and there are a couple live JR archived live shows
recently.

I really like it that there seems to be some resurgence of acoustic blues
lately.  RH and Sugar Mama is a totally acoustic CD.  RH's playing is really
clean and tasteful throughout the whole thing. Very different than a lot of
the heavily produced and processed pieces on his site.

The JR CD is stylistically all over the place, but in a good way.  He also
surprisingly does about 4 acoustic numbers, a couple R&B type songs with
horns, and some of his typical shredding pieces.  To my ears it sounds a bit
more casually recorded and put together (not referring to the playing which
is very high level by all the musicians) than the RH one, which sounds very
professional.

The other blues CD I've had in heavy rotation lately is Sanctuary by Charlie
Musselwhite.  This is a brilliant, haunting CD with some really moving songs
and vocals.  His harp playing is almost secondary on this to me.

The state of modern blues and harp playing is pretty up these days.  Curious
what other people are listening to.

Sky