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 ...

LA MESALA MESA — Musicians, collectors, vendors and fans converged Saturday at Harry Griffen Park in La Mesa to celebrate a sometimes under-appreciated American art form, the blues harmonica. Hundreds ...

Hear Brandon Bailey perform two songs live in the NPR studio. The harmonica is a staple of American blues, beginning with the Memphis jug bands of the 1920s. In the 1960s, blues-influenced artists ...

If you ask James Montgomery if he remembers playing the Shaboo inn in Willimantic back in the day — the legendary local club that closed in 1982 — he’ll hem and haw and scratch his head and say “The ...

Why are we asking for donations? Why are we asking for donations? This site is free thanks to our community of supporters. Voluntary donations from readers like you keep our news accessible for ...

Back in 1991, East Bay bluesman Mark Hummel called on some of his fellow local harmonicats to help him put on a show at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. It wasn’t anything fancy — just a killer showcase for the ...

Blues harmonica virtuoso and onetime Muddy Waters sideman James Cotton died on Thursday at a medical center in Austin of pneumonia. He was 81. A rep for the musician confirmed his death. Cotton, who ...

For Charlie Musselwhite, the blues has been a companion, a kindred spirit that has been his love and livelihood for the last 50 years. "I've always said that blues is your comforter when you're down ...

Austin, Texas, September 24-- Gary Primich, considered by many to be one of the greatest harmonica players in the world, passed away suddenly on September 23rd. Not only is this the loss of a ...

Tony Glover, a harmonica player who as a member of the group Koerner, Ray and Glover was at the center of the folk music revival of the 1960s and helped introduce a new audience to the blues, died on ...

Fifty cents and a cereal box top. That, and whatever a stamp cost in 1949, sparked one of the most remarkable instrumental careers in music history, one that landed Charlie McCoy in the Country Music ...

For the past few months, the great Chicago blues harmonica player Sugar Blue has been on the run – from the coronavirus. His flight has taken him from Shanghai to Milan to the mountains of Italy to ...