Steve Guyger interview

Steve Guyger joins me on episode 82.

Steve is from the Philadelphia area of the US and he absorbed the blues harmonica players when he first got into playing, with John Lee Williamson a big early inspiration. Steve was also great friends with the late Paul Oscher, making  three albums with him. Steve also teamed up with the legendary Jimmy Rogers, over the course of fourteen years. 
Steve has released five albums under his own name, with a great mix of diatonic and chromatic blues.
Steve’s long-standing band is the Excellos, who   are still performing more than forty years after their formation, and Steve is due to play in a Jimmy Rogers tribute in Switzerland with Dennis Gruenling and Nick Moss sometime soon.

Links:
https://severnrecords.com/artist/steve-guyger/

Blues Harmonica DVD on Hal Leonard:
https://www.halleonard.com/product/821042/blues-harmonica

Dennis Gruenling website:
https://badassharmonica.com/

Videos:

Steve's YouTube Music channel:
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCkeHm0xNz2csT5fc4zP-84A

Paul Oscher playing bass harmonica on The Things I Used To Do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIPIrMNiR3M

Live concert with Excellos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50DvEI8VUlQ&t=3576s

I Can See By Your Eyes song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgJ9lFhEa00

Rock This House (live at Austrian Blues festival):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THqRX2PYBdQ

Sammy Lewis playing in 5th position:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyKLRO2x6uE

Snake Oil live performance (outro song):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IrQkiHJVdc

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS

Chapters

• 1:34 Steve lives near Philadelphia, in the US, in the same house he grew up in
• 1:57 Radio Blues album is testament to his love of listening to music on the radio when he was young, and still to do this day
• 2:40 First interest in music was Doo-wop singing, which got Steve into singing
• 3:17 Guitar was first instrument before moving on to the harmonica
• 3:40 Got first harmonica from sister-in-law when Steve was 17 or 18
• 3:53 Friend at college introduced Steve to all the great blues harmonica recordings
• 4:34 Before he heard Chicago blues Steve was playing mostly country style blues
• 4:49 Blue Midnight by Little Walter was a big favourite of Steves, and other greats he listened to
• 5:17 Billy Boy Arnold said:”Steve Guyger is one of the few guys who can really sing and play like Sonny Boy Williamson I”
• 5:26 It was a book in which Muddy Waters said you had to learn to play with John Lee Williamson that turned Steve onto SBW I
• 6:11 Recommended songs of John Lee
• 6:59 Why John Lee was so influential on the generation of harmonica players that followed him
• 7:12 Jazz Gillum was a contemporary of John Lee, but more a jazzy and first position player
• 7:35 Can hear John Lee started using amplification towards the end of his career
• 8:01 John Lee was murdered in 1948 at the age of 34
• 8:24 Knew Paul Oscher very well, releasing three albums with Paul
• 9:31 Paul Oscher, as well as being a great harmonica player, was also a great instrumentalist
• 9:58 Learned some harmonica from Paul Oscher’s guitarist
• 10:54 Steve worked hard at learning (Big) Walter’s Boogie
• 11:37 Released three albums with Paul Oscher
• 12:03 Paul Oscher played some bass harmonica and was a multi-instrumentalist
• 13:15 Paul Oscher was the first harmonica player with Muddy Waters
• 13:41 Steve is also friends with Jerry Portnoy
• 14:20 Steve’s first band was called Rock Bottom
• 14:58 Second band was The Blues Rockers
• 15:24 Steve has played with the his band The Excellos since 1980, a name taken from the blues record label
• 17:23 Played with Jimmy Rogers on and off for fourteen years. Jimmy Rogers played in the Muddy Waters and Little Walter Headhunters band in the late 1940s / early 1950s
• 17:56 Jimmy Rogers was also an excellent harmonica player (he is know as a guitarist and singer)
• 18:51 Jimmy Rogers played harmonica with Muddy Waters before Little Walter joined
• 18:54 Steve got to play with Jimmy Rogers by originally writing him a letter
• 20:03 Got together with Jimmy Rogers in 1980
• 21:47 Went touring with Jimmy Rogers to Europe
• 22:34 Played with Jimmy Rogers until about 1994
• 23:34 How it could have been Good Rockin’ Charles rather than Big Walter on the song Walkin’ By Myself
• 25:00 Big Walter was painting houses before he recorded Walkin’ By Myself
• 25:21 The time when Muddy Waters devoted a live performance of I’m Ready to Steve’s mother
• 27:50 Live At The Dinosaur was Steve’s first album release
• 28:33 Last Train To Dover was first studio album Steve released, in memory of William Clarke
• 29:05 Steve had a great time playing in Memphis, the home of the Blues
• 30:11 Recorded a version of John Henry on chromatic
• 32:05 Took some classical chromatic lessons when younger
• 33:05 Past Life Blues album and influence of George Smith on Steve
• 34:33 Released a duo album with Richard Farrell
• 35:40 Steve bought lots of 78 recordings of the blues harmonica greats, including SBW II
• 36:55 Radio Blues album is the last album Steve released, in 2008. There are songs in the vault Steve would like to release
• 38:01 Steve’s songwriting process
• 38:18 Past Life Blues album title comes from early songs he wrote
• 39:17 Released a tutorial book / DVD called Blues Harmonica through Hal Leonard publishing, and importance of having a guitar player who can play some harmonica
• 40:28 Places played when touring Europe and South America
• 41:57 10 minute question: play the harmonica upside down as well as the right way up
• 45:21 Tone is a little different when playing upside down
• 45:37 Diatonic of choice is mainly Hohner Marine Band and Old Standby, but played some of the Bends from Brazil
• 46:13 Plays both 12 and 16 hole chromatics
• 46:49 Different positions
• 47:11 Fifth position song by Sammy Lewis
• 47:54 Doesn’t play overblows, and doesn’t like to play too many notes
• 48:11 Call and response of SBW II (Rice Miller)
• 48:56 Steve is a tongue blocker
• 50:31 Uses Fender Princeton amp now (no reverb), used to use a Fender Concert
• 51:37 Also uses a small Gibson Skylark amp
• 52:13 Jimmy Rogers told Steve that equipment in the 1940s was the same, except the amps were smaller
• 52:42 Jimmy Rogers used to take over harmonica when SBW I was too drunk to play
• 52:59 Gets mics from Dennis Gruenling
• 53:26 King Biscuit Boy: Canadian harmonica players from the 1970s, gave Steve an Acstatic JT30 that was made in Canada
• 54:40 Mics used to be available for cheap prices
• 54:46 Plays on Dennis Gruenling’s Tribute To Little Walter album: I Just Keep Loving Him
• 55:20 Doesn’t use any effects
• 56:00 Echo Doo-wop song
• 56:44 Future plans: due to play in Switzerland soon to play a tribute to Jimmy Rogers
• 57:23 Musicians in Europe can play the blues well