Re: [Harp-L] Songs for just harmonica and singing

[pdxharpdog@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Grant Dermody's awesome harp and vocal work on "Crossing That River" is definitely worth a listen, although it is not just harp and vocals. 

Ross Macdonald 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Hunter" <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 7:28:05 AM 
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Songs for just harmonica and singing 

"William Keller" wrote: 
<Looking for songs (tab, youtube videos, music files, ect.) of songs for just 
<one man playing harmonica and singing. I have Keith Dunn's CD and a CD from 
<J.C. Burris. Who else is out there with just harmonica and singing. 

Sonny Terry has some pieces that fit this description, I believe. A Sonny Terry scholar, of which we have a few on this list, can probably point you to the right stuff. 

My CDs "The Act of Being Free in One Act" and "The Second Act of Free Being" both consist almost entirely of solo harmonica recorded without overdubs--one man, on harp on every piece. About 25% of the repertoire on those CDs is blues. Not exactly what you ordered, but might be of interest in this regard. You can hear some of those pieces on my website (both live and studio versions) at: 
http://www.hunterharp.com/all-hunters-downloads-in-one-place/ 

Son of Dave is one man playing harmonica and singing, though he uses a looper as well, which means that he has multiple layers of harmonica and percussion going on at once. Brandon Bailey and Dave Ferguson (from south africa) are following a similar path in terms of the approach to solo performance. Again, not exactly what you ordered, but worth a listen as a modern extension of the approach you describe. 

The tough part about ONLY playing harmonica and singing is that without something else in the mix--a looper, percussion, whatever--one or the other always has to stop at some point. You can't sing and play harp at the same time. That's a powerful incentive to put something else in. I admire Keith Dunn, who I first heard as a teenager playing brilliantly on the street in Cambridge, MA in the late 1970s, for his ability to make harp+voice alone work in an extended performance. 

Regards, Richard Hunter 




author, "Jazz Harp" 
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