Tuesday, January 21, 2014

What Did You Miss This Week? (Week 342 #386)

Walking Thru The Park!!!

The standard Walking Thru the Park was up for scrutiny last night in B1. In the same way that harp players should know tunes like My Babe or Hoochie Coochie Man, you should also be able to play the intro and outro to Walking Thru the Park. It was a Muddy Waters release in 1958 with Little Walter blowing harp and interestingly, that first release was A) not written by Willie Dixon as you might expect and B) did not have the well-known "cha cha" groove to open and close the song. Joe has found some online evidence to show that by early 1959 the band was including the cha cha groove opening on live shows, so their recorded version may not have held for long before the other groove change version became popularized. Joe also noted that Muddy's singing was incredibly strong on the original, even in the key of B. And speaking of keys, Walter opens in second position but then moves to third for this song - one more reason there is a lot to study about this tune, particularly since he holds strong to the opening thematic idea even in his third position outro.

Great tune! Transcription is here.

Mike Caldwell Coming To B1!!!

We have a pretty special guest coming in two weeks to B1 - Mike Caldwell is a terrific country blues harp player from the Nashville area. A student of Charlie McCoy, Mike is also the musical director for Country Tonite. Yes, you read that right, a harp player who is a musical director!

We're looking forward to learning from Mike's visit. Remember, if you're in the Chicagoland area be sure to stop by at 8:00pm on February 3. And for those in class next week, pick up the special four CD Mike Caldwell collection Joe has for sale.

Harmonica Hoedown!!!

The third annual Harmonica Hoedown makes its return to the Hideout on February 16, featuring Joe Filisko, James Conway, Bob Kessler and Yuri Lane. Get your tickets now!

Good Luck Morry and Shoji!!!

Morry Sochat and Shoji Naito are off to the perform as a duo in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis tomorrow! B1 wishes you good luck! Make us proud!

Class Notes 
  • Full house in Level 3 this session - thanks everyone for signing up and bringing great energy to the room!
- Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew