[Harp-L] re: Country Western harp

[martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

>I love the sound of harp in country music. Don Brooks in the early Waylon stuff, Mickey >Raphael just plain killed in Willie's Stardust album. Jelly Roll Johnson has a unique sound >that works will with current styles. I love blues harp, too, but I'm basically a country >player, I guess.
>Steve Webb, waxing philosophical in Minnesota
 
   Yes, Mickey Raphael on Willie´s "Stardust" album, the track was "Georgia", was a sort of "Copernican moment" for me. I remember hearing it on the radio: this was definitely a diatonic harp, playing stuff that was quite a bit outside of blues and trad country. "It can be done!" Somehow in my simplemindedness I´d convinced myself that the diatonic was a "blues harp" and blues harp only and Mickey R with a few bars released me from that & I thank him.
  This was a long time ago, but not long enough, I should have listened up earlier: when I lived in the States early 80s Willie was on the radio all the time, but I didn´t get it at all; thought he was just plain awful ... Country aint big on this latitude.
  Martin, waxing sentimental in Gothenburg.