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 ...

Deborah Henson-Conant brings her rockin’ electric harp to The Center for Arts in Natick on Saturday, Jan. 26 for a solo blues show. Last year’s show at TCAN sold out. What’s an electric harp, you ask?

Since 2005 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in ...

My harmonica lesson is squeezed in between those for students far shorter and far younger than me, so waiting my turn is a weekly reminder not to aim for an octave I’m unlikely to reach. It’s not that ...

Phillips released two singles from Cotton, “Straighten Up Baby” in 1953 and “Cotton Crop Blues” the following year. Cotton was still a teenager working as a regular on the Memphis music scene when ...

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 ...