[Harp-L] Re: Harper, an inspirational player

[Stephen Simon <stephensimon17@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Dave,

Welcome to Harp L. I totally agree with you. I caught Harper & his band mates for the first time at The Bradfordville Blues Club in Tallahassee., a couple of weeks ago  Harper & his band totally blue the roof of that 80 year old jook joint.  Harper is one of those cats who are out there touring 300 shows per year, here in the US plus he hits the UK, Europe, Canada & his homeland of Australia.  He certainly deserves alot more recognition because he really has a unique style.  Very fast, but not over done. He can rip up a Sonny Boy Williamson 11 tune then do some amazing tricks on one of his original tunes.  & to top it off he plays a didgeridoo. I spoke to him about circular breathing & he said that he uses that technique in his harp playing. He said it really helped him with his playing.  Harper has also done a lot of session work in his homeland including performances with several Australian orchestras for some pretty major US films & a performance for
 the Queen of England. Now thats pretty cool.!!!  & yes he is very humble indeed. & only has nice things to say about other hard working harp players in the scene.  You know he even played harp with super group "Journey". Harper said the band rocked up to one of his gigs in Desmoines Iowa & they asked him to play with them.  Now that's a compliment!  Apparently he has an open invite to play at any of Journey's shows.  WOW.

Peace, Stephen S..




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