Re: [Harp-L] from jug band to Chicago amplified blues



rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Does anyone know how Walter Horton transitioned from jug band music to amplified
Chicago blues? How did his techniques change? Did he switch emborchures?

Rainbow Jimmy
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I don't know how he did it, but that doesn't stop me from having an opinion. <g>

I've seen some debates on another list that has some serious blues scholars as to whether or not BWH recorded with the Memphis Jug Band. He would have had to be pretty young. Regardless, by the late twenties and early thirties blues harp playing had a lot in common with the later amplified styles. Noah Lewis and Robert (Nighthawk) Lee McCoy are good examples of what it was like. SBWI exemplified one of several styles. Other players did more single note lines.

On BWH's recordings for Sun he was playing in a style very similar to SBWII although some of the tunes had a more "modern" sound. I don't think there was a radical change. He had a big fat sound on the earliest recordings available and continued to have one. I'm willing to bet the only thing he changed was learning what worked with a cupped mic.

Seems to me that a cupped mic naturally makes you do things differently. It just sounds different and some things that worked well in un-amplified or near the mic playing just don't work well in a cup.

R. J. Mischo plays both dirty and clean--pre and post LW. He jumps back and forth between a bullet and the vocal mic sometimes in the same song. His tone doesn't change much and his embouchure doesn't change, but he adapts what he plays to the gear. I think that was probably true of one of his idols, BWH.

I'll bet Bob Maglinte has a more informed point of view.





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