Harmonica Podcast: The Kids Are Alright

Harmonica Podcast 1Download the podcast (19.7MB)

As the world stumbles into a new decade, we at the Harp Surgery find ourselves contemplating the future. But we’re not thinking about jetpacks or three-course meals that you can take as a pill. No, we’re thinking about the future of the harmonica. Okay, jetpacks would also be pretty cool, but for his debut podcast, Elwood the Apprentice mumbles his way through five young players who are poised to become rising stars of the harmonica.

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Great Blues Podcasts

Elwood's House of Blues radioElwood the Apprentice samples some juicy blues folklore

The problem with the information age is that there’s just too damned much of the stuff. With all this delicious info floating about in cyber space, who has time for real life? Instead of playing harmonica, I can fritter away hours watching harp on YouTube, listening to harp on last.fm, reading about harp on forums, thinking about playing harp all the time but never actually doing so.

This is a filthy habit, as I’m sure you’re well aware – but like most filthy habits, worth indulging in every so often. One such indulgence is this treasure trove of interviews conducted by the other Elwood, Dan Ackroyd, on his House of Blues Radio show.

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The Good Doctor’s Patent Blues Remedy

See me, feel me, touch me, heal me.

with Gordon RussellThe Harp Surgery has been live for many months now, crammed with advice about how to do it, who else did it, when they did it, why they did it, where to hear it and what’s good about it. A lot of words for a music site. Well, we think it’s about time the Good Doctor opened his harp case and shared the medicine round. At some point you have to cut the chat and let the music do the talking. People, the Patent Blues Remedy is now live. Close all the doors, slide the phone off the hook, click here and get your fix.

You will hear edited highlights of tracks from both albums by The BlackjacksWhat’s The Deal? and High Roller, samples from the Doc’s contribution to The Blue Hearts, The Elevators, Boy Cried Wolf and a secret snippet from a recent commercial music library blues CD.

We look forward to adding further tracks in the months to come and also embellishing the Surgery’s instructional pages with sound bites. Oh, and keep it strictly between yourselves, but there is rumour of the Doc making his inaugural podcast on YouTube. All coming to a PC near you. Stay tuned.

Happy harping!