Yeah Paul Lamb is a very good player. I've seen him a bunch of times over the years. He certainly has that big tone down. He is also one of the best Sonny Terry style players around.
AFAIK Paul uses Hohner harps supplied by Antony Dannecker & West Weston (MBs).
He has a huge amplified tone. As well as that, a great knack for giving numbers an infectious hook & identity, whenever I have seen him I have always been left with a couple of numbers stuck in my head, humming them for days. ---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
He's uploaded a lot of videos in which he offers copies of Big Walter's and Sonny Terry's songs and styles.
What's his best original song or performance or recording? I'm afraid that I can't tell what sort of player he is from the material he's posted on YouTube--except somebody who does really good copies of other players. That's not enough for me, and it shouldn't be enough for anybody here.
We don't love and admire James Cotton because he sounded like Sonny Boy Williamson. And as Cotton told me himself--slapping my shoulder with the back of his hand in the dressing room--he fought Muddy Waters hard when Muddy insisted that he copy Little Walter's playing. James Cotton is arguably one of America's greatest harmonica players because he sounded like nobody but himself, even as he carried the tradition within him. It's clear that Big Walter Horton and Sonny Terry, too, were intent on creating their own sound, not proving that they could sound like earlier players.
I'm sure there's much more to Paul Lamb than "doing" Big Walter--even though that's how he's been promoting himself lately. Please name a couple of his original recordings, so that I can educate myself. What cuts are most representative of his original contribution to the blues harmonica vocabulary? Which cut--if it came on the radio--would make me know, instantly, that I'm listening to Paul Lamb, as Big Walter's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" makes me know instantly that only Big Walter could be playing it, or that "Creeper Creeps Again" could only be James Cotton?
Last Edited by on Mar 17, 2012 8:47 PM
Yeah, sure, but do not buy his "Journey throught the blues with a harmonica." Worthless. Listen to his records instead, if that´s the kind of stuff you´re in to.
Well, I don´t "love and admire" James Cotton, he´s second rate, but I think he´s contributed a great deal to the history of the blues harp and should be respected for that (e.g. "Live at Mr Kelly`s"9 Paul Lamb is ... derivative, but that doesn´t have to be bad, depending on who(m?) are your sources. (Can´t handle the grammar.) I have four of his records but can´t say I really think they are more than OK, but if you feel the need for another Sonny Terry there may be something in it. Sorry to be a sourpuss.
@Martin- Not to 'love and admire" James Cotton is fine. That's a matter of taste but don't you think it's rather contradictory to state that "he's second rate" and in the same sentence state "he's contributed a great deal to the history of blues harp"? I'd also ask, since you call James Cotton second rate, what have you done lately, or ever for that matter, that might compare?
@kudzurunner- Cotton said much the same to me, in essence telling me to sound like myself, not anybody else. ---------- LSC
@ Kudzurunner "Please name a couple of his original recordings, so that I can educate myself. What cuts are most representative of his original contribution to the blues harmonica vocabulary?" Aaah, the interweb generation..."spoonfeed me..."
To anyone familiar with Paul Lamb's portfolio, your post smacks of contentiousness, for the sake of it. I should be in the shower, getting ready for Mother's Day lunch, but your post has riled me to the point I now have to sit here & type...if you had the first clue about "research" the least you might do is peruse the 12 albms under Paul's name on Amazon :-I.
You seem to be of the attitude that because you personally aren't aware of his catalogue, that it doesn't exist.
Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes - All covers The Blue Album - All band written, 5 tracks written by Paul. Fine Condition - 8/12 tracks band written, Lamb credited on 6 of them. I'm on a roll - 6 tracks credited to Lamb John Henry Jumps In - 5 tracks credied to Lamb. Live at 100 Club - 4 tracks credited to Lamb, all tracks band written. Mind Games - 6 tracks credited to P Lamb as writer/co writer(note Ryan, Paul's son is now in the band, Ryan credited to 4 tracks as writer/co writer) Shifting into Gear - 4 tracks creditd to Lamb, 2 covers. She's A Killer - 6 tracks credited to Lamb as writer/co writer, 5 covers. Snakes & Ladders - 5 tracks credited to P Lamb, 5 covers. TakeYour Time & Get It Right - 5 tracks credited to Lamb, all tracks band written.
My recommendation for an introduction to Paul Lamb & the Kingsnakes - She's a killer, John Henry Jumps In. Paul's favourite for a good while was the Blue Album, but he's released a few since then.
Love him or hate him (most people adhere to the former), there's no denying the body of work, or Paul's immediately identifiable style. He has a deep, deep love of Sonny Terry (he started out playing this style in the folk clubs, switching later to amplified harp in a bid to get more work as the professional blues harp player that he is) and makes frequent tributes to him, but to put it in perspective, I already owned 3 of Paul's albums before I knew this. The Kingsnakes are not a Sonny Terry tribute band.
Other than "Evening Sun" on "Shifting into gear" I can't think of a track linked to Big Walter that Paul has released?
@ Martin - Cotton only plays on 3 tracks on "Live at Mr Kelly's" the bulk of the harp is Paul Oscher.
---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
Last Edited by on Mar 18, 2012 3:56 AM
5f6H: If you search YouTube for the terms "Paul Lamb Big Walter,"the first five videos that come up, all uploaded by Lamb himself, include "Paul Lamb improvises some Big Walter Horton," "Paul Lamb plays Easy by Big Walter," "Paul Lamb with a Big Walter hit La Cucaracha," "Hard Hearted Woman - acoustic blues harmonica" (with the description "Paul Lamb plays the Big Walter Horton number Hard Hearted Woman"), and "Paul Lamb plays Sonny Terry Talkin' Harmonica Blues." I think my characterization of how he's publicly positioned himself over the past year is accurate.
I certainly don't hate him; there's nothing in my earlier post that suggests that. Nor do I love him. I'm capable of admiring a professional player up to a point, based on the limited amount I know of his playing, but I'm also capable of asking for more, and I'm capable of being puzzled by things that don't puzzle other people. That's called thinking critically. The last thing in the world that players like Big Walter Horton and Sonny Terry would have done, in their artistic maturity, is deliberately position themselves in a way that sublimates their originality to other, earlier players. (I quoted my recent conversation with Cotton because it confirmed that conviction--a conviction I've formed over the past twenty years from a range of sources, including many conversations with older men on 125th street in Harlem, Sterling Magee's repeated exhortations to me, and half a dozen blues autobiographies.) So I'm always surprised when I see a pro do this. An occasional homage is one thing--every player does that from time to time--but that's not what this seems to be.
So I asked for guidance in the matter of Lamb's original contribution to the tradition. I couldn't believe that the OP's characterization of Lamb as "arguably the UK's finest harmonica player" was based purely on his skill as a top-level ventriloquist. In fact, I seem to remember a live performance video or two that surfaced in this forum several years back--an uptempo throwdown. Most harp players have a signature raveup. Perhaps that's a Paul Lamb original. Where's that video? Let's celebrate the guy! That's what we do with the harp players who blow us away. We celebrate what makes them special.
Years ago I had to decide whether my chief goal as a harp player was to sound more like James Cotton than James Cotton. Luckily I decided that it was more worthwhile to sound like myself, whatever that was--as Sugar Blue, for example, sounds like nobody but Sugar Blue, or as Sonny Terry sounds a hell of a lot like Sonny Terry, every time out. My self-appointed role here, or one of them, is to keep agitating, at appropriate moments, for a little bit more rather than a little bit less--from the players we admire, from myself, from all of us. That's just Crazy Uncle Adam's trip. My own take on the pursuit of excellence. We certainly need historians, but we also need creators. Where's the creativity hiding? That's the question I ask.
I have an open mind, believe it or not, and am always willing to learn something new. Thanks for your suggestions. I'll follow them up.
Last Edited by on Mar 18, 2012 5:26 AM
I like James Cotton, have 2 or 3 of his CD's. But only saw him once, sort of. He was the headliner at a festival, 5 or 6 thousand people waiting to hear him play. His band played without him for almost 2 hours before he finally rolled out of his motorhome. He was in no shape to play, kept missing his mouth with the harp. Fortunately a local harp player backed him up, I don't think Cotton ever hit a note. Disappointing. Sad really, because I read some good reviews a few months later. But Adam, there is no denying that James Cotton has made his mark. I think if Paul Lamb toured more he'd have a huge following, great player, great entertainer. Gary might not agree, but I think he does Sonny Terry better than Sonny Terry!
What totally is absolutely undeniable and instantly "ear opening" is Paul's powerful crystal clear SOUND that he's getting...I can not think of hearing any other player producing an acoustic sound as PERFECT as Paul Lambs....I defy anyone to replicate the sound he is able to produce form his harp...IF you can get HIS SOUND through your harmonica, brother YOU have arrived!!!!!
Last Edited by on Mar 18, 2012 9:04 AM
@LSC: Perhaps a bit clumsily put by me, but I seriously think he´s second rate compared to the Walters, the SBW´s, Butterfield and a number of others. What I have done now or ever is completely beside the point.
@5F6H. Thanks, yes I know that -- but I was mainly thinking of his solo on "You don´t have to go". That´s him, isn´t it? If not I stand corrected. Deep dark tone there and intense playing. Otherwise I´m afraid I´m not a big fan of J C.
@ Kudzurunner - I can appreciate that in the US, outside of Paul's regular gigging schedule & where he may not automatically spring to mind as a 1st line harp player, that you might not have a realistic picture of Paul's body of work. Even so, youtube is not really the place to ascertain that, Paul is a hard working harp player, touring the UK & Europe, with an extensive back catalogue...it makes no sense to paste your wares all over youtube, giving it away for free, when you have CDs to sell.
What Paul does on Youtube is relaxing at home, having fun, whilst giving a free insight into the styles featured. It's not representative of his "day job". He has earned his dues through decades of hard touring, a dozen albums, even a dabble in the UK pop charts ("Harmonica Man" as Bravado..."I bought a house off the back of that").
@ Martin - No, Cotton does not play on "You don't have to go" @ Mr Kelly's. Cotton was a VERY big noise in his prime, in the blues world post Muddy Waters band, touring the world with his brand of hi energy blues, I can only assume your exposure to Cotton is somewhat limited...I'd start out with the late 60's releases "2 sides of the Blues" the Norman Dayron Universal studio & on location recordings, "100% Cotton" and the Sam Charters "Chicago The Blues Today" performances...
@Frank - West Weston used to say to me, "don't ever play on a stage with Paul, he will just blow you away" (not that I'd ever be offered the opportunity), I used to think "pffft...Weston's just saying that 'cause he & Paul are mates.."...Paul has a simply monsterous sound, fat, but with clarity & detail...he'll wipe the smile off many a cocky, young buck's face with nothing more than a straight 2 draw!
---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
Last Edited by on Mar 18, 2012 1:07 PM
Originality vs execution. Some seem to judge a blues harp player on the quality of that player's execution of material that's been played before. Others are more interested in innovation when judging a player. Good technique/tone/sound, etc. can be applied in either context.
I think everyone pretty much agrees that PL has good technique and a good sound. (Perhaps excellent technique and excellent sound.) What he does with it that is original is what seems to be in question. I'm not all that familiar w/PL's body of work, but nothing I've heard from him on YouTube strikes me as being particularly original or innovative.
When I listen to PL, I wonder how someone can play so well and not have come up with any original musical ideas. But maybe he has and they are just not available on his YT vids.
Last Edited by on Mar 18, 2012 11:15 AM
His SOUND in a class all it's own - the sound is all his "it originates" from him. You don't have to listen to closely or very hard to here the innovation in his playing.
Great technique and great SOUND, no doubt. His execution is flawless. But I must have a bad ear, 'cause I don't hear anything that is even remotely innovative musically.
What he does he does extremely well--but it ain't anything that's original.
In the first vid he's doing some country style chugging working off a major pentatonic scale. Certainly well executed but not anything original. In the second vid he's using Sonny terry style licks. again, well executed but nothing innovative about it.
Don't know enough about Paul to comment, but I did happen upon him playing some 1st position stuff with one of my favorite blues singers, Angela Strehli (check her out with SRV and Kim in Austin). I think most would consider this classic style 1st position.
His sound speaks loudly of innovation. The Masters can be innovative on (one note)Paul Lamb passes that test with a huge smile on his face, he seems like a really pleasent fellow from those youtube clips :)
"If you search YouTube for the terms "Paul Lamb Big Walter,"the first five videos that come up, all uploaded by Lamb himself, include "Paul Lamb improvises some Big Walter Horton"
Kudzu - That's a loaded search that will offer certain results based on those parameters. Hardly a fair example. If you search for "Adam Gussow Big Walter" the very first video that pops up is you and Charlie Hilbert doing "Easy". If you did the thing most people would do and typed into YouTube "Paul Lamb harmonica" or "Paul Lamb blues". You would find numerous examples of Paul's original work.
West Weston used to say to me, "don't ever play on a stage with Paul, he will just blow you away"
5F6H - Yes I agree with Steve Weston. I saw them both at a harp convention in the late 90's and they were both played their sets through the exact same amp (a Reissue Bassman - Steve's I think),they possibly even used the same JT30 if memory serves me correctly. Anyhow Steve Weston sounded great as he always does. Then Paul and the Kingsnakes got up. Paul didn't touch a single dial on the amp at all. He had almost twice the volume of Steve and an unbelievable monstrously fat tone.
@Kingley: I like your story about the difference one player can make on a given rig. Ronnie Shellist has a deep, strong sound on his own rig, but when teenager Nic Clark sat in, his sound was twice as big. It frightened me.
Here's a long video that Jodanchudan posted a couple of weeks ago that showcases that Paul Lamb "big sound" in a good way. We need players who have mastered the ability to deliver this sort of live sound!
I've got all sorts of sliding filters when I appraise harp players and I'm sure they can be confusing. I believe that the non-African American blues world, such as it is, has been engaged in a half-century-long chase sequence in which white artists have entered, studied, and deeply meditated on the black blues tradition, determined to prove that they've got a "right" to play the blues--in part because the charge of inability-to-play and inauthenticity was leveled early on (primarily by white folklorists and black cultural nationalists), and in part because of their own anxities, anxieties that may not always be obvious to those looking and listening from outside.
The question of originality and creativity in the blues means something entirely different--or almost entirely different--to white blues artists than it does to black blues artists. Or at least that's been my experience. Paul Lamb is certainly not alone in invoking the names of and mastering the sounds of his chief black influences! As I say, my formative experience was playing with an older black artist who kept on insisting that he was beholden to nobody--and urged me to find my own sound. (You might say that I'm beholden to that particular bluesman, my chief black philosophical and aesthetic influence, for my resistance to describing my own harmonica style as a melange of other (black) blues players' styles. And yes: there IS a paradox there.)
My own feeling is that the English blues harmonica tradition needs and deserves a Paul Lamb: somebody who has thoroughly, indisputably mastered the tradition, ending once and for all the But-can-they-REALLY-play?" argument about white blues artists from that region of the world.
But there's a difference between really being able to play--and Lamb indisputably can REALLY play, with a big, powerful, idiomatic sound and full command of the vocabulary--and being a creative force for the advancement and enlargement of the tradition. Those two things aren't quite the same. This point is particularly important because the black players in whom Lamb has deeply grounded his own style--Big Walter and Sonny Terry--most certainly WERE, in their own time, figures who didn't merely master the folk tradition, but added huge new rooms to the mansion.
Mastery of the tradition is one thing; enlarging the tradition is something different.
Please note that I haven't claimed anywhere in this thread that Lamb hasn't, in fact, made his own original contribution. In fact, I've specifically asked that evidence be brought forward for that contribution--better evidence than saying "He sounds more like Sonny Terry than Sonny Terry." That last achievement IS an achievement, but it's not the same thing as an original contribution.
As I say, my gut tells me that Lamb's signal contribution may be--MAY be--as a master and consolidator of the tradition on British soil: someone whose sound can stand up to any American player on those specific terms. That's quite an achievement in itself--and well worth celebrating.
Anyway, I believe that this conversation is an important one and I thank those willing to have it on the forum of this particular website.
Take a look at the video above, especially after the 11-minute point. That is some solid playing.
Last Edited by on Mar 19, 2012 12:21 PM
"But there's a difference between really being able to play--and Lamb indisputably can REALLY play, with a big, powerful, idiomatic sound and full command of the vocabulary--and being a creative force for the advancement and enlargement of the tradition."
Kudzu - Here's the thing though. Not all people want to be a creative force for the advancement and enlargement of the tradition. Some simply choose to play within the tradition and make there statements within those established parameters. Just because somebody plays within a tradition in a traditional manner doesn't mean they can't find their own voice within it does it? Paul Lamb has his very own distinctive sound within the style that he plays. Ok it might not pass the three second test, but he still does have an original musical voice. He's not a Little Walter, Big Walter, Kim Wilson clone like so many others. He has taken his influences and fused them all together to create his own sound. I think based on seeing him many times over the years and having listened to most of his recorded output, that Paul Lamb's originality is probably based more in songwriting and arrangements of songs and/or covers than in creating a new style of modern blues harmonica.
Good point Kingley, I'd reiterate that by adding that Paul not only has a mastery of the harp, but also is keenly aware of the need to put that in a context...he uses the harp to play "music", to play "songs" with infectious grooves & identities. He understands synergy, the parts coming together to make a whole that is greater than the component parts. He puts a fair amount of showmanship into his performances, slick little tricks here & there, but he does it supporting the rest of the band, not trampling all over them. He knows how to put on a show. Bands like the Kingsnakes & Big Joe Louis & The Blues Kings often attract quite a different & younger demographic to the majority of "blues bands".
There will be those reading this thread, watching Paul's videos, thinking, "Pah! I can do that!" ...in all likelyhood, trust me, you most probably can't. There's really no such thing as "simple music", play less notes & you can put more into them - it's certainly not easy to play - Paul epitomises that & how to make it look easy, lulling folks into a false sense of security, then maximising the impact when he cuts loose. Dynamics. But there is a quality, a robustness, a tangible solidity & size to his playing that is easy for those not paying proper attention to underestimate. When you hear him pick up a harp and play it, informally, just in the room with you...it's quite a thing, humbling is the only way I can describe it. There are a fair few UK & European players who handle a harp on par with many of the better US players, but few have the sheer impact in their sound that Paul has.
His influence on this side of the Atlantic is immeasurable.
---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
Last Edited by on Mar 19, 2012 2:32 PM
I agree with @5F6H about synergy. Paul's recordings are right now among my most listened to but not just because of the harmonica virtuosity, it was the lyrics that first grabed me. I heard the songs, "Hey Woman", "Why Do You Treat Me So" and "Once Too Often" and found them to express a situation I find myself in so well, I just want to hear them over and over.
I have also found it true that the harmonica licks he plays that sound like they might be easy, are not easy to emulate. Of course that could just be my lack of skill.
@5F6H. Thanks, yes I know that -- but I was mainly thinking of his solo on "You don´t have to go". That´s him, isn´t it? If not I stand corrected. Deep dark tone there and intense playing. Otherwise I´m afraid I´m not a big fan of J C.
@Martin, I have had a bit of a rethink on this one, I suspect that you are right and that it is actually James Cotton on "You Don't Have To Go" (also Nineteen Years Old, sounds like Cotton, sounds like Cotton's voice at 03:20, he doesn't play anything like Oscher's versions & Muddy calls the key...suggesting a sit in?) @ Mr Kellys. It's not listed as such on the liner notes, nor on Wright & Rothwell's Muddy Waters discography, but I guess they followed the liner notes...and Chess liner notes were not the most accurate. Chess may have been keen to play down Cotton's full contribution at the time, he is not mentioned at all on Linda Solomon's publicity release for CH 50012. ---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
http://www.facebook.com/markburness
Last Edited by on May 30, 2012 8:34 AM
I love Paul's harp, but it was the lyrics that first commanded my attention. Hey Woman, Once too often and Why do you treat me so, could have been written about the way my wife has been behaving the last few years. Music is a good way to discover you are not alone.
