[Harp-L] Famous Harmonica Players

[Hellerman, Steven L.]

Not including the Dylan and Mick Jagger types, the name that I hear the most from the "average" person for a harmonica player is John Popper.
Interesting, as he is rarely considered an "influence" for other harp players (would anyone here cite him as such?), and not mentioned on the Harp-l very often. I do enjoy his playing, though I am only familiar w/ a comparatively small sample, and I wouldn't at all consider him an influence on my own playing. (There is that one Blues Traveler hit that I've played to at open mics/jams.) But that's the harmonica name that tends to get thrown around the most  by "average people", it seems.

SLH



Message: 4
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2019 17:15:44 +0000 (UTC)
From: ian osborn <arctys at xxxxx>
To: Harp-L List <harp-l at xxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Famous "Harmonica players"
Message-ID: <947827022.2581014.1548263744478 at xxxxx>
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 maybe it was just me, but the way i read the question was like... - who is current harmonica players that the average 100 people would recognize, such as the average 100 people would know people like hendrix, clapton, slash etc..?
i would say, again- recent harmonica players would be people like musselwhite with ben harper, and raphael with chris stapleton and willie nelson.??
i don't think the average person would know anyone else- perhaps shane sager with sting-...?
but just think of current artists the last few years- the recent artists are ed sheeran, drake, ariana grande, kendrick lamar, bruno mars, coldplay, maroon 5, kenny chesney
nobody but the harp players i mentioned above are currently using harp...?
overall, i think the average person who listens to average top 40 radio type music would only know artists like stevie wonder, and perhaps jagger and lennon- and they might know that muddy waters used harp but would necessarily know the names like james cotton etc..?
my 2 cents
Ian