One of my favorite harp players was featured in a recent article. [not one of the usual traditional blues names] The link and article are listed below. For those of you who don't know Fingers Taylor, he was/is the harp player for Jimmy Buffet from the beginning to around the mid 90's. He's seen occasionally with Jimmy but now mostly on his own. He is prominently featured in many songs, most unfortunately, weren't the big time Buffet hits of the late 70's - early 90's. The album 'Son of a Sailor' has some good stuff as well as a lot of the earlier stuff...He often plays with a clean but bluesy sound but there are many times he's all tube overdriven blues....Glad he's back in the news!
Chris from Long Island.
p.s. please no Buffet bashing
Embed Vid [hopefully]
Video Link: http://www.clarionledger.com/section/videonetwork?bctid=71438768001
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20100314/FEAT05/3140323/1019/FEAT02/Fingers-comes-home--Storied-musician-returns-to-Miss.
Last Edited by on Mar 14, 2010 5:42 PM
Yea Fingers has moved home to be near his elderly mother. My bud has finally seen the light. The old days and ways nearly killed us all. He battled the demons the best he could but we're all getting old as hell now and before it ends bad its time to try something differant.Its good to see him again. He sits in with a few bands between Buffets stuff around Jackson. If you guys want to really hear some killer harp work..get the c.d Fingers put out in the late 80's. I cant think of the name. But its incredible.
You're right DD. I have that CD as a vinyl record. I believe it's called "Harpoon Man." I'm sure that there's a cut on the album by that name. It's a kick-ass cut. Big, big sound. You would not want to get on stage with that guy. He could blow. I've never seen him live. He is a major blues player.
Here's some Fingers Taylor, buried in the middle of this video. Start at 3:25. He really goes off; it's a long solo bit. To my ears he's got a lot of Magic Dick in there, but there's other stuff, too. A player to be reckoned with.
He also plays with KD Moore. [check out Fingers Taylor on ITunes] Also, check out JB's 'Son of a Sailor' cd and find a cut "Livingston Saturday Night" killer solo...still gives me chills.
FT was the guy who turned me on to the harp! Couldn't get enough of his soulful playing...If he is at Hill Country then I'm going to be even more disappointed that I can't attend....damn
Adam: If you can't get the # from DD. This guy [kd moore] might know how to get in touch with him. Here's the FT page on his site. http://www.kdmoorejr.com/FingersTaylor.html
Keep us posted please...There's really nothing online about recent happenings...chris
Greg is one of my most influental harp players. Seen him live many times in Houston playing with Buffett. When he quit touring with Jimmy the sound just wasn't the same. I sat many times in front of the CD player learning his style and licks, so diversified. He can make your heart well up as in the song" Little miss magic" from Coconut telegraph album and really get your heart puming on Tampico trauma on the "you should have been there" live CD set. I can go on but I can tell you this if he will come to the Hill country fest I'm damm sure going to be there! By the way Dixie Diner is on the "you should have been there CD also. Mike
Last Edited by on Mar 15, 2010 8:34 AM
I always liked his Buffet stuff. Didn't even know he played blues until he played at our local blues festival with his own band. He was great. He does some great playing on a Debbie Davies CD whose name escapes me.
I played with a band one night thirty years ago with very very average skills as a harmonica player. In the first set who walks in but none other than Sam Myers. Im thinking no problem just Sam will cringe when i play. But who do you think walks in ten minutes later?....Fingers Taylor! I was one nervous guy. But it all ended well i just let them play all night.
