“Write this down: Blow 3, blow 4, draw 3, blow 3,” Phil Kaplan said to his new class of Newton harmonica students. Kaplan told the class he pulled the riff from “Mannish Boy,” the popular 1955 Muddy ...

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 ...

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 ...

Paul Green has that Clark Kent thing going. By day, he is a mild-mannered consultant, at night, a blues harmonica superhero. No need to leap tall buildings when he can channel Paul Butterfield and ...

Pairing harmonica with guitar can unlock a richer, more soulful blues sound. From classic 12-bar shuffles to expressive bends, the combination offers endless creative possibilities. With the right ...

Mississippi blues harp player James Cotton was certainly considered lucky for the break he got joining Muddy Waters’ band in the late 1950s, taking over a spot previously held by such venerated ...

Bill Tarsha and the Rocket 88s led the 18th annual blues harmonica blowout last week at the Rhythm Room. More than 35 blues harmonica players performed. Tarsha and his band opened with a couple tunes.

Blues harmonica legend James Cotton died Thursday at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas. He was 81. The cause of death was pneumonia, according to Alligator Records, the Chicago label for ...

Few instruments have a lower barrier for entry than the humble harmonica. Even if you've never played an instrument in your life, after a few hours of practice, I guarantee you'll manage to learn some ...

Among the harmonica’s many wonderful and unique traits, there is this: You have to really suck to be good at it. As one of America’s finest and busiest harmonica players, Denver’s Ronnie Shellist ...

The blues world was changed forever on a sunny day around 1960 when a little boy walked into a five-and-dime in Los Angeles. “I was 8, maybe 9 when I saw it, all shiny in a display case,” says Billy ...

Hear Brandon Bailey perform two songs live in the NPR studio. The harmonica is a staple of American blues, beginning with the Memphis jug bands of the 1920s. In the 1960s, blues-influenced artists ...