I’ve always considered my playing style to have a mix of both country and blues influences, however I don’t consider myself to be either exclusively blues or exclusively country because a lot of the rigid rules I had put onto me by purists. Specifically for blues: I was told to only listen to Chicago Blues harmonica players, play with only tongue blocking, emulate everything Little Walter did, and ditch the Hohner Golden Melodies I’ve been playing for Marine Bands (because equal temperment “is only made for melodies” according to them). Specifically for country: I was told to mimic Charlie McCoy all the time because I would “sound too much like a blues player” if I didn’t and to play only bluegrass fiddle tunes, melodies, or old time harmonica because they were deemed to be “real country” by these purists.
No matter what label I’d put on my style, I’d be screwed over either way because there’s always somebody saying that I’m “inauthentic” to that genre. These unrealistic expectations put on me hindered my growth as a harmonica player instead of helping me out like the people telling me these things said they would. A lot of the harmonica players I regularly listen to and take inspiration from all had/have similar approaches to playing: Terry McMillan, Mickey Raphael, Don Brooks, Norton Buffalo, Mike Stevens, Sonny Terry, Delbert McClinton, and Jelly Roll Johnson. What connects all of these eight fantastic players together is them all either having influences mainly from country/folk and blues music, as well as having more lead focused styles with a lot of crossover appeal. These musicians were mostly active from the 1970s to the 2000s (with Sonny Terry being around longer than that). Even though most of these guys have passed away, I consider myself to have this kind of sound myself.
However, I can’t pinpoint a name to this playing style. There’s terms like “country-blues”, but most harmonica players online define it moreso as “Orange Blossom Special: The Style” more than a mixture of country and blues elements. Blues harmonica players who don’t know better call this “generic cross harp playing”, but these musicians don’t sound generic at all. I often defined this as “bluesy country” in the past, but not every musician who plays in this style identifies as a country player (especially in the case of Norton Buffalo, who said on record multiple times that he never put a specific genre on his playing style). I really don’t know what this style is called or if it even has a name at all, but I consider this type of harmonica playing to be underrated and not as well researched as something like Bob Dylan style, Chicago Blues style, or Traditional Country.
This is a Spotify playlist I made with some examples:
Just continue working the style include what ever elements into it to make it as versatile as possible. If that’s the type of music you like, go for it. To give you two examples look at Jason Ricci and John Popper, both use unconventional styles to play blues, both highly regarded players. Don’t pigeon hole yourself by playing a traditional way, music deserves better than that, especially from the Harmonica. Do what makes you happy, not what makes others comfortable.
Assigning a specific genre makes it easier to plan development path. Especially in terms of promotion.
I listened some of Your tunes at YouTube. I like your blues recordings the most.
But lack of assignment brings more freedom.
Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (and maybe others) asked for specific genre anwers: “I just play music”.
Genre labels & Music Theory both have their uses when it comes to communicating about music when all you have is words.
However, it should be remembered that both are descriptive, not prescriptive, i.e. their purpose is for trying to describe something that exists in the real world as real music. Neither make a perfect job of it, and there is some really good music out there that neither can adequately describe.
The reason why I made this post is that because of the years of bullying I’ve received on Facebook for not pursuing the stereotypical pro harmonica player route, it made me feel like I didn’t have a community of people who also wanted to pursue a similar sound. In the past, certain “professional” harmonica players have told me that I would be unsuccessful if I didn’t conform to their extremely strict standards of what a harmonica player is supposed to sound like. Usually they preached how post war Chicago Blues and Traditional Country were the only “correct” ways to play the harmonica. Any time I showed a lot of passion in wanting to sound like Terry McMillan, it was viewed as something to be mocked instead of admired. Not only was it because he’s not as big of a name in the online harmonica world except by those who either were influenced by him or knew him personally, but his style was judged as “inauthentic” by those who play strictly Chicago Blues and Traditional Country. This often led to me getting banned from groups and forums for no reason, ableist language being said towards me, and even smear campaigns were made.
My own playing style (which is heavily influenced by Terry) has been considered by gatekeepers to be too bluesy to be country and too country influenced to be “real blues”. When I join blues communities, I was told to sound like a Muddy Waters band member instead. When I join country communities, it was “mimic Charlie McCoy because people like what he plays more”. I believe that the sounds coming out of my harmonica should represent my own musical footprint instead of somebody I’m not. I had to stop labelling my style because of the huge amount of stress this had on me. I don’t play strictly country or strictly blues, I just play whatever kind of music I feel like or what’s on the setlist. However, this constant lack of a community for people like me made me feel like what I’m doing is not normal.
Well, in such narrow-minded communities, what you are doing is not normal! But that is their problem, and should not influence you – unless you seek acceptance from them (which, as I understand this, you do not seek).
