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 ...

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 ...

Blues harmonica master Carey Bell died on May 6 of heart failure in his hometown of Chicago. He was 70. Bell – the 1998 winner of the Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Artist Of The Year – was a ...

Every once in a while, the mail brings a CD that sparks a small revelation. A few months back, a two-disc anthology arrived called “Blues Harp Women,” and until that moment I didn’t realize that my ...

Norman Davis has played thousands of blues songs on his radio shows. But for some reason, an old tune by the late Big Mama Thornton jumped out at him one day while he was hosting his syndicated blues ...