No one know when the harmonica first got the blues, but WC Handy reported hearing train imitations being played on the instrument in the 1870s, and by the 1920s, after Mamie Smith hit with Crazy Blues ...

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 ...

GA-20 has spent the last several years proving that the blues isn't a museum piece. The Boston trio has built its reputation ...

My harmonica lesson is squeezed in between those for students far shorter and far younger than me, so waiting my turn is a weekly reminder not to aim for an octave I’m unlikely to reach. It’s not that ...

There’s a soft, sweet hint of Memphis in every word Charlie Musselwhite murmurs, and a long, rich lifetime’s worth of blues in every harmonica note he plays, but don’t be sad for him. “The blues don’t ...

Mark Hummel’s 20th annual Blues Harmonica Blowout came blowing into town the other night at SOhO Restaurant and Music Club with Rod and Honey Piazza, Sugar Blue, and Billy Branch with Mitch Kashmar.

Mississippi blues harp player James Cotton was certainly considered lucky for the break he got joining Muddy Waters’ band in the late 1950s, taking over a spot previously held by such venerated ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. This harmonica was made by M. Hohner ...

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 ...

ASPEN Several years ago, after meeting and jamming with DJ Logic at a San Francisco benefit concert, John Popper put together the John Popper Project. The quartet, a side gig from Popper’s day job as ...