In the mid-1800s, a German harmonica manufacturer named Hohner started exporting his product to North America. Being relatively inexpensive, relatively easy to play and extremely portable, the ...

“Classic Harmonica Blues,” out on May 21, features 20 tracks by the blues’ greatest harmonica players. Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings In the early 20th-century, southern black ...

Most nights, you can walk into a blues club and find a harmonica player blowing their heart out onstage. The wailing, honking sound associated with Western movies and juke joints is what many harp ...

Among the harmonica’s many wonderful and unique traits, there is this: You have to really suck to be good at it. As one of America’s finest and busiest harmonica players, Denver’s Ronnie Shellist ...

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, ... Telarc Blues culls their considerable holdings to provide a wholly satisfying collection of contemporary blues harmonica by contemporary and ...

Pairing harmonica with guitar can unlock a richer, more soulful blues sound. From classic 12-bar shuffles to expressive bends, the combination offers endless creative possibilities. With the right ...

Getting his start as a member of the legendary Muddy Waters’ band, Little Walter Jacobs took the harmonica to a whole new level. Developing his own unique techniques, blues musicians still look to him ...

“Write this down: Blow 3, blow 4, draw 3, blow 3,” Phil Kaplan said to his new class of Newton harmonica students. Kaplan told the class he pulled the riff from “Mannish Boy,” the popular 1955 Muddy ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Lynn Massa may forget a lot of things, but he never forgets how to play the harmonica. “I have to check to make sure my head’s still screwed on sometimes,” ...