- Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan's most recognized work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal documentarian and a reluctant figurehead of American unrest. A number of his songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", … - Neil Young
Neil Percival Young OM (born November 12, 1945, Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and film director from Omemee, Ontario. His work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and an instantly recognizable nasal tenor (and frequently alto) singing voice. - Lee Oskar
Lee Oskar (b. March 24, 1948 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Danish harmonica player, notable for his contributions to the sound of the rock/funk fusion group War which he formed with Eric Burdon, and for his solo work. In the 1980s Oskar formed a company to manufacture high-quality harmonicas including diatonic harps in minor keys. Several modern musicians, such as noted blues harmonica player Mike Tetrault, cite the Dane as an important influence. - Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950, name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris), is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Wonder has recorded more than thirty Top 10 hits, won twenty-two Grammy Awards (a record for a solo artist), plus one for lifetime achievement, won an Academy Award for Best Song and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame. - Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 - January 10, 1976), better known as Howlin' Wolf or sometimes, The Howlin' Wolf, was an influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. - Van Morrison
Van Morrison was born in Belfast in 1945, the son of a shipyard worker who collected American blues and jazz records. Van grew up listening to the music of Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson , Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker . As a teenager he played guitar, sax and harmonica with a series of local Irish showbands, skiffle and rock'n'roll groups before forming an r&b band called Them in 1964. - Little Walter
Little Walter (born Marion Walter Jacobs) (May 1 1930 - February 15 1968) was a blues singer, harmonica player, and guitarist. Born in Marksville, Louisiana, Jacobs is generally included among blues music greats: Ry Cooder's opinion is that Jacobs was the single greatest blues musician ever. His revolutionary harmonica technique has earned comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix in its impact: There were great musicians before and after, … - James Cotton
James "Jimmy" Cotton (born July 1, 1935 in Tunica, Mississippi), is an American blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter who is the bandleader for the James Cotton Blues Band. He also writes songs alone, and his solo career continues to this day. His work includes the following genres: Blues, Delta Blues, Harmonica Blues, Electric Harmonica Blues. - Junior Wells
"Junior Wells", born Amos Blakemore, was a blues vocalist and harmonica player based in Chicago who was famous for playing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam, Lonnie Brooks, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison. - Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues harmonica player and singer, and one of the earliest white exponents of the Chicago-originated electric blues style. Paul Butterfield, a lawyer’s son, was born and grew up in Chicago. After studying classical flute as a teen, he developed a love for the blues harmonica, and hooked up with white, blues-loving, University of Chicago physics student Elvin Bishop (later of “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” fame). - Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (24 October 1911, Greenboro, Georgia - 11 March 1986, Mineloa, New York) was a blues musician. He was most widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts. - Toots Thielemans
Baron Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor "Toots" Thielemans is a Belgian jazz artist well known for his guitar, harmonica playing, and also for his highly accomplished professional whistling. He is often credited by jazz aficionados and jazz critics as being among the greatest jazz hamonica players of the century. - Paul Jones
Paul Jones (born Paul Pond, 24 February 1942, in Portsmouth, England) is an English singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio and television presenter. In 1962, Jones became resident-singer with Alexis Korner's Bluesbreakers (alongside Long John Baldry, both towering out above a shorter third vocalist, aspiring Michael 'Mick' Jagger). Jones then went on to be the vocalist and harmonica player of the successful 1960s group, Manfred Mann. - Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson is a US blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known singing lead vocals with the The Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s "Tuff Enuff" and "Wrap It Up". - Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet on January 15 1941, in Glendale, California, USA) is a musician and visual artist, best known by the pseudonym Captain Beefheart. His musical work was mainly conducted with a rotating assembly of musicians called the Magic Band, which was active from the mid-1960s through to the early 1980s. Van Vliet was chiefly a singer and harmonica player, occasionally playing noisy, … - Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1893 or 1898 - August 15, 1958) was a prolific United States composer, recorder and performer of blues songs. "Big Bill" was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in Scott County, Mississippi on June 26, 1893 or 1898 (the exact year is unclear). While Broonzy himself claimed to be born in 1893, another source claims that Broonzy had a twin sister named Lannie Broonzy who had proof they were born on June 26, 1898. - Brownie McGhee
Walter "Brownie" McGhee (November 30 1915 - February 16 1996) was a folk-blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. He was born in Kingsport, Tennessee and suffered from polio as a child, which incapacitated his leg. His brother ["Stick"] got his nickname from pushing young Brownie around in a cart. McGhee spent much of his youth immersed in music, … - Jawbone
Jawbone is the pseudonym of Bob Zabor, an American blues musician from Detroit. He is particularly unusual in that he is a one-man band. The instruments he plays include the harmonica, the guitar and the tambourine. He deliberately aims for a lo-fi sound, akin to early blues recordings. He is steadily gaining cult popularity in the UK thanks to appearing on the John Peel show, and also being included on various magazine CDs there. - Rod Piazza
Rod Piazza (born November 18, 1947 in Riverside, California) is a blues harmonica player, singer and band leader. He has been the driving force behind Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers since 1979, along with his wife Honey Piazza on piano and upright bass player Bill Stuvee, guitarists such as Alex Schultz and Rick Holmstrom and drummer Jimmy Bott. Their boogie sound combines the styles of Jump blues, west coast blues and Chicago blues. - Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an Academy Award-nominated American singer-songwriter and musician. His primary instrument was the guitar, but he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, bass, harmonica and drums. Smith had a distinctive vocal style characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery", and use of multi-tracking to create vocal harmonies. Although Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and died in Los Angeles, California, … - Slim Harpo
Slim Harpo was a blues musician. Born James Moore in Lobdell, Louisiana, the eldest in an orphaned family, Moore worked as a longshoreman and building worker during the late 1930s and early 1940s. One of the foremost proponents of post-war rural blues, he began performing in Baton Rouge bars under the name Harmonica Slim. He later accompanied Lightnin' Slim, his brother-in-law, both live and in the studio, … - John Popper
John Popper (born March 29 1967) is an American musician and songwriter. He is most famous for his role as frontman of rock band Blues Traveler, performing harmonica, 12-string acoustic guitar and vocals. He is widely considered a harmonica virtuoso, and is listed by harmonica manufacturer Hohner as a "Featured Artist", an accolade reserved for only the best and most successful harmonica players. - Big Walter Horton
Big Walter "Shakey" Horton was an American blues harmonica player. Born Walter Horton in Horn Lake, Mississippi, he was playing a harmonica by the time he was five years old. In his early teens, he lived in Memphis, Tennessee and claimed that his earliest recordings were done there in the late 1920s with the Memphis Jug Band, although there is no documentation, and many have since disputed this claim. - John Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock or roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. He was born in Berkeley, California. John Fogerty plays many instruments including guitar, harmonica, piano, bass, drums, banjo, electronic organ, percussion, violin, and saxophone - Carey Bell
Carey Bell (November 14, 1936 - May 6, 2007) was an American musician who played the harmonica in the musical style of Chicago blues. Bell played harp and bass for other blues icons for decades, including Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Taylor and Jimmy Dawkins. - Howard Levy
Howard Levy is an American harmonica player and pianist. In 1997, at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards he and the rest of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones won the award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, for their live recording of their 1991 song "The Sinister Minister." A renowned interpreter of the jazz harmonica, he has played with Ben Sidran and Rabih Abou-Khalil, among others. He has appeared on over 200 albums and has played on several movie soundtracks. - John Sebastian
John Sebastian (born John Benson Sebastian, 17 March 1944, in Greenwich Village, New York) is an American songwriter and harmonica player. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band named in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His tie-dyed denim jacket is prominently displayed there. - Sonny Boy Williamson II
Aleck "Rice" Miller, a.k.a. Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Williamson, Willie Miller, "Little Boy Blue", "The Goat" and "Footsie," was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. - Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis (born Hugh Anthony Cregg, III on July 5, 1950) is an American musician and occasional actor. He sings lead vocals and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis & The News, a rock group based in San Francisco, California that was the highest-selling American band of the 1980s by singles. The band is perhaps best remembered in American popular culture by their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film "Back to the Future", … - Larry Adler
Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler, (10 February 1914 - 7 August 2001), was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. He was mostly known for his collaborations with musicians such as Sting, George Gershwin, Kate Bush and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. - Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce (born May 14, 1943) is a Scottish-born musician, composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bassist, harmonicist and pianist, and was most famous as the vocalist and bassist for the 1960s rock band, Cream. He lives in Suffolk, England. - Sugar Blue
Sugar Blue (born James Whiting in 1950) is a Grammy Award-winning American blues harmonica player. Sugar Blue is best known for his harmonica work with the Rolling Stones, specifically on their hit single, "Miss You". Sugar Blue was raised in Harlem, New York, where his mother was a singer and dancer at the fabled Apollo Theater. He spent his childhood among the musicians and show people who knew his mother, including the great Billie Holiday, and decided that he wanted to be a performer. - Charlie McCoy
Charlie McCoy (born March 28, 1941 in Oak Hill, West Virginia) is an American musician noted for his harmonica playing. Born, Charles Ray McCoy, his family left West Virginia when he was a boy to live in Miami, Florida. At age eight, he began playing the harmonica, developing his skills to where he decided to pursue a career in music. In 1959, the eighteen-year-old McCoy moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the country music capital of the world. - Lazy Lester
Lazy Lester (born Leslie Johnson in Torras, Louisiana, 20 June 1933) is a swamp blues harmonica master whose half-century career spans the 1950s to the 2000s. Best known for regional hits recorded with Jay Miller's Crowley, Louisiana-based Excello Records, Lester also contributed as a side-man to swamp blues classics recorded by Excello label-mates including Slim Harpo, Lightnin' Slim, and Katie Webster. - Spencer Davis
Spencer David Nelson Davis (born 17 July, 1939 in South Wales, UK) is a musician and multi-instrumentalist, and the founder of the 1960s rock band, the Spencer Davis Group. Davis was greatly influenced by his uncle Herman's mandolin playing, and first learned the harmonica at the age of six. He moved to London when he was sixteen and began working in the Civil Service as a clerical officer in the Post Office Savings Bank. Some of his early influences were Big Bill Broonzy, … - Mickey Raphael
Mickey Raphael is a professional harmonica player, best known for his work with Willie Nelson. He has recorded with Vince Gill, Emmy Lou Harris, Elton John, Mötley Crüe, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, U2, and Neil Young. Raphael's style is mostly second position, concentrating mostly on draw notes. He is a master of smooth note transitions and melodic riffs. Raphael also appeared in the movies "Songwriter" and "Honeysuckle Rose". - Robert Bonfiglio
Robert Bonfiglio is a harmonica player. - Snooky Pryor
James Edward "Snooky" Pryor was an American blues harp player. He pioneered the thicker, amplified sound of blues harmonica. Pryor was born in Lambert, Mississippi and developed a Delta blues style influenced by both Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II. He moved to Chicago around 1940. While serving in the Army he would blow bugle calls through the powerful PA system, which led him to experiment with playing the harmonica that way. - Jason Ricci
Jason Ricci is an American harmonica player and singer. He grew up in Portland, Maine. After placing first in the Sonny Boy Blues Society contest at 21 years of age, and recording his first album, he has quickly found his way among some of the best harmonica players in the blues arena. He has played with blues greats Junior Kimbrough, R. L. Burnside and Nick Curran. In 1999, he won the Mars National Harmonica Contest, and began playing with Keith Brown. - Watermelon Slim
Bill Homans, professionally known as "Watermelon Slim", is an American blues musician. He plays both guitar and harmonica. Homans has been performing since the 1970s and has been linked to several notable blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Champion Jack Dupree, Bonnie Raitt, "Country" Joe McDonald, and Henry Vestine of Canned Heat. His music is rooted in the Mississippi Delta style, playing his dobro guitar lap-style with a slide.
|
| |