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 ...

When the discussion turns to great blues cities, it’s not likely that Providence, Rhode Island, heads the list.But for the young man who would become harmonica player and singer Rockin’ Jake, few ...

The harmonica found its way into blues because it was cheap: You could buy a good one in the 1930s for a quarter. But although blues musicians discovered all kinds of tricks with the instrument, it ...

From Blind Willie Johnson to Howlin' Wolf and beyond, Paul McGuinness explores the best blues songs of all time ...

Black-Eyed Sally’s is once again bringing back the popular “Northeast Blues Harmonica Showcase” on Saturday — a gathering of regional and national blues harmonica talent. Headlining will be harmonica ...

Blues harmonica virtuoso and onetime Muddy Waters sideman James Cotton died on Thursday at a medical center in Austin of pneumonia. He was 81. A rep for the musician confirmed his death. Cotton, who ...

Back in 1991, East Bay bluesman Mark Hummel called on some of his fellow local harmonicats to help him put on a show at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. It wasn’t anything fancy — just a killer showcase for the ...

CLARKSDALE, Miss. — On the Mississippi Delta, the blues is more than just music; it's a way of life. Here is "the Crossroads," the famous place in blues lore where Robert Johnson, a father of the ...

Fifty cents and a cereal box top. That, and whatever a stamp cost in 1949, sparked one of the most remarkable instrumental careers in music history, one that landed Charlie McCoy in the Country Music ...