Re: [Harp-L] Sugested player to learn from AND Norton Buffalo´s sources?

["Mike Rogers" <bullfrog9@xxxxxxx>]

How about John Sebastian?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "martin oldsberg" <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2012 12:56 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Sugested player to learn from AND Norton Buffalo´s 
sources?


It seems as if I´m in a situation where I´m expected to give another 
harmonica player some advice. I´ll do that by my example (and, maybe, by a 
formal lesson), sitting in with the band (who need a half bad harmonica 
player like a hole in the head but that´s their problem). I´ll also point to 
some recorded stuff.
This is not a blues band, although they play some blues, but more eclectic, 
some Tom Waits, some Clapton, some JJ Cale, quite a lot of Dylan. Nothing 
original at all.
As a recorded example I thought of Butterfield´s Better Days live stuff: 
Check when he plays, when he plays not, what he plays when he plays and all 
that jass. Could be nice as a pointer on how to improve. Good stuff but not 
impossible to imitate. (And that´s a totally acceptable way to learn.)

Then I was looking for another example ... and fell short. The harmonica 
integrated in a band as a regular instrument in a ... well, 70´s rock 
context or something like that. Not J Geils, certainly not Bob D!
Norton Buffalo came to mind but no, he´s far too advanced. But then I 
wondered -- when he started out, what were his inspirations? I haven´t a 
clue.
He didn´t spring forth prepared with the chops on "Lovin´ in the valley of 
the moon" just from nothing, so one would assume. (I remember when I first 
saw that record, sometime in the late 80´s. "Hm, here´s a guy who obviously 
plays harmonica -- and it seems not to be blues. Never heard of him. 
Interesting, I´ll buy that one." Needless to say I was quite blown away by 
the level of his playing. Hadn´t a clue what to call the genre he played in, 
but that´s a minor problem.)

So two questions here:
1) Can you suggest another player who sits somewhere in the 
rock-country-blues zone and who´s not only using the instrument for soloing,
and
2) Where, if anywhere, did Norton Buffalo find sources to tap for the kind 
of playing you hear on his two 1970´s LP´s.

I´m down with a bad case of this nefarious swine flu, high fever, and my 
already turgid brain is really working in slo-mo at the moment so forgive me 
if I´m not making myself clear. I may even, from a different angle, have 
asked this question before ... What was the name of that Swiss doctor?

Cheers,
Martin