Roly Platt joins me on episode 108. Roly is a Canadian player who has recorded countless sessions over his 45 year career. He started out playing in a country band which set the scene for him playing a diverse range of genres throughout that time. Roly has recorded 1700 individual session cuts, with the numerous bands he has played in, and also various film, tv and commercial jingles. Roly ecorded his own album in 2017, Inside Out, where he showcased his versatility by including a range of different types of song. Roly produced and sells the great Harp Wah harmonica mute and later this year he ..read more

Yotam Ben-Or joins me on episode 107. Yotam is a chromatic player who attended the Tel-Aviv Music Conservatory, making a name for himself on the Israeli music scene before winning a scholarship to study at The New School for Jazz in New York, age 21. Although predominately a jazz player, Yotam is keen to emphasise the diverse range of genres this encapsulates, including world music and South American influences on his music. Yotam has  previously released two albums under his own name, with a third coming out in 2025. Many of the songs on these albums are composed by Yotam as he helps to ..read more

Eddie Martin joins me on episode 106. Eddie has been described as the ambassador of British Blues, having released seventeen albums over his near fifty year career, with many of the songs self-penned by Eddie. He started out as a one-man band, but also performs as part of his own bands too. In either format Eddie makes extensive use of rack harmonica, and is one of the leading players of using a rack, while also playing some hand-held harmonica as well. Eddie gives us some great tips on playing on the rack.  Eddie also had a two year spell in the US where he regularly played on Beale St ..read more

Paul Barry joins me again on episode 105, for another look at the life and career of the great William Clarke. Paul has now released his biography: Blowin’ Like Hell: The William Clarke Story, writing it from insights he gained from Bill’s wife Jeanette, and Bill's children, and the musicians who played with him, as well as many others. Bill dedicated his life from the age of sixteen to become the bluesman he dreamed he could be, and he worked extremely hard at it. He honed his craft from woodshedding at home, attending the blues clubs of LA, becoming the protege of George Smith, and pushing h ..read more

Mike Turk joins me on episode 104. Mike is a Boston-based player who started out playing blues harmonica, inspired by the great Paul Butterfield, before becoming interested in playing jazz on the chromatic. He recorded some session work in New York and recorded through the 1970s with various artists, with many of those tracks available on anthology albums Mike has put out. He released his first solo album, Harmonica Salad, in 1991. Mike went on to record several more albums, with a letter from Toots Thielemans included in the liner notes for Turk’s Works. He also toured Europe and recorded som ..read more

Konstantin Reinfeld joins me on episode 103. Konstantin is a German who comes from the overblow school of harmonica, studying music at a conservatory and taking lessons from Howard Levy as part of his early development. He released a jazz album at age 18, with two more albums to follow before releasing a classical album played on the diatonic harmonica, for which he won a German Grammy award for classical music. On top of this Konstantin is a music producer, including producing his own recordings bringing the harmonica into a contemporary pop setting. He has a very active online presence and h ..read more

Christian Marsh joins me on episode 102. Christian is an Australian who plays both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica. Starting out playing diatonic, Christian drew inspiration from players such as Norton Buffalo and Charlie McCoy, absorbing as much harmonica as he could lay his hands on  . He picked the chromatic up a few years later after hearing Toots Thielemans play, and even went on to maintain Larry Adler’s harmonicas while he was touring Australia. Christian is a mainstay on the Australian music scene, having 60 album credits sessions to his name, as well as a number of albums wi ..read more

Episode 100 is a retrospective on the greatest ever blues harmonica player, Marion Walter Jacobs, aka Little Walter. Little Walter was born in 1930, probably, and started playing harmonica age 8. He was busking on the streets of New Orleans by age 12, spent some time in Helena, before heading north to Chicago to make his indelible mark on blues and the harmonica. Little Walter teamed up with Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers and cut some classic blues recordings before he went out under his own name after he was launched into superstardom with his instrumental Juke, in 1952. He was riding high in ..read more

Dennis Gruenling joins me on episode 99. Dennis is originally from the New York area, where he  began his love affair with record collecting, listening to a wide range of music, from country to rhythm and blues and beyond before it all came together when he heard his first harmonica on the great Harp Attack album.  Dennis cut his teeth with the support of local harp players before releasing his first album, Jump Time, featuring the jump swing style of his early output. On this, and subsequent albums, Dennis was a trailblazer in making extensive use of amplified low tuned harmonicas ..read more

Michael Pettersen And James Waldron join me on episode 98. In this episode we talk about the iconic Green Bullet microphone, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2024.  Michael is the Director of Corporate History at Shure microphones , and he tells us about the early design of the mic, what it was used for and about how it took years before Shure became aware that it was such an important mic for harmonica players.  James runs SimpleMics.com, where he rebuilds vintage harmonica microphones, including for some illustrious customers. James provides a harmonica-centric perspect ..read more