Re: [Harp-L] Why I play the blues

["Rick Davis" <bluesharpamps@xxxxxxxxx>]

When I was a teen listening to rock music in the late 60s I noticed a
certain kind of song rock bands sometimes played that was slower
and driving.  I had no idea it was called The Blues, but I started to
recognize the pattern from one band to the next:  Hendrix, Zeppelin,
Fleetwood Mac, Steve Winwood, Clapton, and others.  The pattern of the music
spoke to me... The feel of the chord changes was perfect, emotive, it made
me feel something.  Only later, after discovering Howlin' Wolf, did I find
out this pattern of music I felt so strongly about was The Blues.

Harp came a couple years later.  I was hitch-hiking around the Pacific
northwest and met a guy who played harp.  He pulled out a Hohner Blues Harp
while we were walking along a dusty road and played a few pretty good
licks.  I was stunned.  A few days later I bought a Blues Harp in the key of
E (!) and started working on it.  Three years after that I was playing gigs
around the Rocky Mountain West.

I still have a weakness for 60's rock bands that sometimes played the
blues.  It's not "Blues Rock" exactly... It's the influence Muddy and Willie
Dixon and Howlin' Wolf had on the music of the day.  It was a great time in
music...

-Rick Davis