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I mean, there are a lot of really great harmonica players in a wide variety of styles. While Popper's not really my favorite, I think he's the technically best player in history, and seeing him in concert was always mindblowing.
Sonny Terry on the other hand is one of the greatest blues players, and to me represents a late-transitional player who was steeped in the blues (Piedmont, yes, but more particularly the pre-war, pre-mic'd style) but also well versed in earlier traditional forms and able to walk the line between each pretty seamlessly. Favorite piece: Children Go Where I Will Send Thee.
Other players not named so far that I like a lot include Butterfield, the other Walter (Big aka Shakey), Will Shade, Noah Lewis, James Cotton, Sonny Boy II, Wild Child Butler, John Mayall, Junior Wells. Rory McLeod, too.
And there are some really incredible players who just don't happen to make music I love, or that I might not know as well: Toots Thielmans, Magic Dick, Fingers Taylor, the guys in the Harmonicats, Charlie Musselwhite.
For albums, it's kinda tough b/c most of my favorite harmonica music wasn't really album music, so a lot of what I listen to is only available on compilations. But a few that I can and do endorse:
-East/West - Butterfield Blues Band
-The Turning Point - John Mayall
-Sonny Boy In Europe - Sonny Boy Williamson (II)
-Harp Attack! (my God, I haven't listened to that in 20 years.) http://www.amazon.com/Harp-Attack-Carey-Bell/dp/B0000009ZQ
As far as compilations go, anything from Memphis Jug Band or Cannon's Jug Stompers (lots of other incredible players in the jug bands as well), and anything album from Muddy's Chess period in the '50s will have some incredible playing. -------
so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns
my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband
avy by buckshot_defunct
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