Hi Bro i was listening to the start of the song thinking he's going to Sing Sitting on Top Of the World..great player never heard of the Guy but will see if i can pick up some of his Music,,i been meaning to ask of other not so well known Harp players to suss out i got a few but the only ones i can mention is Papa LightFoot Frank Frost Big mumma Thorton..Im sure there is plenty more Bro's let me Know so my Collection can Grow
Charlie Sayles,Doug Jay,Harmonica Fats,Jerry McCain George "Wild Child" Butler,Joe Hill Louis,Johnny Dyer, Junior Parker,Lightnin' Slim,Little Mac,Little Hatch, Rythm Willie,BBQ Bob Maglinte,Shakey Jake. Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. These guys just scratch the surface,I'm not saying they are all monster players,but you'll learn some variation blues(harp & lyrics)
There are/were tons of great traditional style players that released a lot of great recordings. To find out about them, you've gotta dig deeper than Big Walter, Little Walter and the Sonny Boys. Very few people do that.
Not everyone is going to be a monster player, but some of the guys that didn't set the instrument on fire are worth a good listen. Quite often, they made some very nice contributions to the music.
You can also learn things from them to make your stuff sound different than the next harp player in the long line of harp players.
Big Leon was bad ass. He had huge, huge tone. He passed away way too young. His 1982 LP was fantastic.
When I was on the road with Jimmy Rogers, Jimmy used to talk about Big Leon quite a bit and always said he had a lot of serious health problems. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I wore out a copy of Let's Go To Town back in the 80's. Not only does it have some cool harp playing, but it features some stellar guitar work by Louis Myers and Eddie Taylor.
He also recorded a set for Alligator on the Living Chicago Blues series.
People that like traditional Chicago Blues will probably dig Big Leon Brooks.
