Johnny Dyer -- Come Back Home

Johnny Dyer was born in 1938 in Mississppi and lived on the Stovall Plantation, the same plantation where Muddy Waters was raised. 
Legend has it that Johnny's attachment to the harp began at the age of 7 when he found a harmonica someone had lost on the plantation. He began practicing on the instrument, first secretly under his bed, and later in the fields. (Those were the same fields where the great Muddy Waters once had worked.)
Johnny tried other instruments, but always returned to his first love, the harmonica. His kind of Blues was that of Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Walter Horton; the music he was  hearing on a Nashville radio station. Neither the guitar nor the drums could take the place of his beloved harp. 
At 16, he played the harmonica in his own band -- acoustic harmonica that is.  The first time he played a amplified harp was in the early 50's at a club where he performed with Smokey Wilson.
And then it happened: Muddy Waters discovered Johnny's talent. 

But Muddy left and moved north to Chicago to become the celebrated Blues great he was. Johnny moved too, eventually. But he went to California where he met George "Harmonica" Smith in 1958. '"Dyer and Smith actually played gigs together as father and son, with the elder statesman of harmonica taking Dyer under his wing. Dyer reflected about that time by saying, "Smith was the hottest thing around and the blues was really swinging! He taught me a lot. Everybody loved George."' (http://www.blindpigrecords.com/index.cfm?section=artists&artistid=27)
With his new band, The Blue Notes, he now played such well-knowns  as Jimmy Reed and Jimmy Rogers, for example.
Johnny blames the Motown phenomenon for the decline the Blues scene suffered in the 60's. He's quoted as saying that "Motown just stepped in and crushed everything. Blues was good until Motown stepped in ..." Johnny almost gave up. But once again it was Muddy Waters who influenced Johnny's career. When Johnny saw the large audiences Muddy was still drawing at the Troubadour club, he decided to give the Blues another chance.
In the early 80's Johnny returned to the blues scene, playing with Shakey Jake and other renowned harpists and his music appeared on Hard Times: L.A. Blues Anthology. According to the Blind Pig website, he also "recorded two singles for Shakey Jake's Good Time label and in 1983 recorded an album on the small Murray Brothers label with his old band, the L.A. Jukes. He was also featured on on the Black Magic label from Scandinavia."
Together with guitarist Rick Holmstrom, with whom he teamed up in 1989, he released two recordings: Listen Up! and Shake It! 
For a more complete list of his available CD's go here please. 

Come Back Home is my fav. track from the Shake It album. 

Slim Harpo -- Baby, Scratch My Back

Slim Harpo's Blues is that of a people pleasing entertainer. I'd call it Pop/Blues, which probably sounds more negative than it's intended to do. The mixture of Rock, Country, Soul and Blues is definitely nothing the Blues purists would consider the "real thing." It is probably best described as "Blues light." I like the sound, which Peter Guralnick has been quoted to define as "if a black country and western singer or a white rhythm and blues singer were attempting to impersonate a member of the opposite genre." There's nothing to add to this definition -- it's pefect.

All in all, it appears that Slim Harpo was trying to bleach the blue out of the Blues, so to speak. White musicians loved to cover his material (which was often co-written by Harpo's wife.) His harmonica style as well as singing were rather pleasing and easy-going.

Slim Harpo was born James Moore on January 11, 1924 near Baton Rouge, LA. He left school after the death of his parents and went straight into the Blues business, making a living playing in juke joints, on street corners and private parties. Until the release of his first record, he called himself Harmonica Slim; he had to drop the name because there was already someone recording by that name. His wife came up withe the name Harpo, derived from the vernacular term "harp" for harmonica.
Already his first single "King Bee" turned out to be a double-sided hit. But "Raining In My Heart" was even a greater success in 1961. His biggest hit would be "Baby, Scratch My Back," though, which made it into the Billboard Top 20.
He died unexpectedly on January 31, 1970 of a heart attack while touring Europe.



Best of CD

Little Walter "Sad Hours"

Ich weiss nicht, ob's an der Aufnahmetechnik alleine liegt, aber die Harmonika klingt einfach schaurig-schoen!

"Walter's eternally vicious temper led to his violent undoing in 1968. He was involved in a street fight (apparently on the losing end, judging from the outcome) and died from the incident's after-effects at age 37. His influence remains inescapable to this day -- it's unlikely that a blues harpist exists on the face of this earth who doesn't worship Little Walter." ~ Bill Dahl