Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast
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Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast
Dennis Gruenling interview
Dennis Gruenling joins me on episode 99.
Dennis is originally from the New York area, where he began his love affair with record collecting, listening to a wide range of music, from country to rhythm and blues and beyond before it all came together when he heard his first harmonica on the great Harp Attack album.
Dennis cut his teeth with the support of local harp players before releasing his first album, Jump Time, featuring the jump swing style of his early output. On this, and subsequent albums, Dennis was a trailblazer in making extensive use of amplified low tuned harmonicas. Dennis has gone on to make some great albums across the jump and Chicago blues genres, and currently plays with the Nick Moss band.
From an early age Dennis has been renovating vintage microphones, and is now one of the leading providers of vintage mics and amps in the world, via his BadAssHarmonicas website, as well as a huge collection of webinars on all things harmonica.
Links:
Dennis Gruenling websites:
https://badassharmonica.com/
https://www.dennisgruenling.co
Nick Moss band:
https://badassharmonica.com/pages/nick-moss-band
Webinars / Membership:
https://badassharmonica.com/collections/memberships
Gear used by Dennis:
https://www.dennisgruenling.com/gear
Bands In Town page:
https://www.bandsintown.com/a/14484438-dennis-gruenling-badass-harmonica
Tip Dennis:
https://badassharmonica.com/collections/tips-thank-you
Videos:
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@DennisGruenling
Playing Rocker with the Nick Moss band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=29&v=2EswyXuWwz
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
or sign-up to a monthly subscription to the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/995536/support
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
Dennis Greenling joins me on episode 99. Dennis is originally from the New York area, where he began his love affair with record collecting, listening to a wide range of music from country to rhythm and blues and beyond before it all came together when he heard his first harmonica on the great Harp Attack album. Dennis cut his teeth with the support of local harp players before releasing his first album, Jump Time, featuring the jump-swing style of his early output. On this and subsequent albums, Dennis was a trailblazer in making extensive use of ample Thank you for watching. This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas. Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas. Hello, Dennis Grundling, and welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, how you doing, Neil? Thanks for having me here.
SPEAKER_00:Absolute pleasure to get you on at last. So you're talking to us from Los Angeles now, but I believe you grew up around the New Jersey, New York area, did you?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, born and raised in New Jersey, about a half hour outside of New York City, and about an hour also the other way outside of Philadelphia area.
SPEAKER_00:So I understand in your early life, your parents were an influence on the sort of music that you liked, and that kind of got you into R&B, and that's quite an influence on your music output, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:It has, you know, kind of in an indirect way. Nobody in my family was a musician, really, but there was always records being played and music being played. My father, big traditional country Western music fan. All I remember my mom listened to was oldies, kind of 50s stuff, and even some swing stuff here and there. I mean, I love that stuff. I remember listening to Johnny Cash and Hank Williams and all the traditional country artists when I was younger and oldies. I mean, Fats Domino and all that stuff. I had no idea that That was rhythm and blues, and I had no idea how much blues was in the old school country music, but I'm sure we'll come up in conversation. As the years went by and I discovered blues through a close friend of the family, I realized this is like the common denominator in all the stuff that I loved. As I became a teen and started listening to my own rock and roll stuff, that was still the common denominator of what I really loved.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and in that music you were listening to at a young age, was there quite a lot of saxophone in there? Because that's clearly had an influence in your playing. In the
SPEAKER_02:oldies, yes. And I played a little trumpet in grade school, but I didn't really learn much musically on the trumpet. And I loved it, but the only thing I did and the only thing I wanted to do was sit around the house and try to make that thing growl. Even at that young age, I was that sound crazy. just grabbed me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So did you have sort of, did you have formal lessons and you needed sort of grades on your trumpet?
SPEAKER_02:For about a year or two, I took some, you know, mainly just some lessons and coaching in school. And when they wanted to get me more serious and transfer me to trombone, which, which I do love now, but I wasn't interested in the trombone back then. I want to play trumpet. So I just kind of, kind of stopped playing years later after I started playing harmonic, I did pick up saxophone, which I love clearly. But once I picked up the harp, It just kind of felt like my thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, and what age were you when you picked up the harp then?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I was, I guess maybe about 17 or so. A close friend. My mom's an only child, but we have other kind of family members. They're not blood relatives, but they're really close. They're family to us. And one of them in the family is a big fan of blues, early rock and roll, early country music, honky tonk stuff. And he plays a little guitar and played a little harmonica. And we were always kind of friendly at family gatherings and stuff. And he used to talk to me about the music. I never knew much about that stuff, but I was, you know, we both loved music. And he asked me one year if I wanted a harmonica for Christmas that year coming up. And I said, sure. I thought it was cool because I always loved, I was always into music no matter what. I just thought, that's cool, whatever. I'll have something to take around. Maybe I'll learn a few songs or whatever on it. Of course, there was a catch. In exchange, he asked for that Harp Attack album on Alligator Records. It had just come out on Alligator with James Cotton and Junior Wells and Carrie Bell and Billy Branch. I was a record collector back then. It was just mostly rock and roll stuff. I knew how to get a hold and order that album. I remember calling the record shop that I would go to, and I ordered it. We met each other around the holidays, and we exchanged gifts And I'm looking at this harmonica. And I'm looking at the album I gave him. I said, well, let me hear that record, because you just gave me a harp. I want to hear these guys play. And I'll never forget, as soon as I put that needle on at that family gathering, we were at a family house. And they had a turntable. And I'll just never forget when I first heard the first few notes of the first song. And it was just like, this is that musical quality that I love so much about all the music I love, whether it was rock and roll or country or big band or oldies. It was that quality. I didn't realize it was
SPEAKER_00:called blues. A great album. I got it myself when it first came out. And Down Home Blues was that first song, wasn't it? And they're all playing on that one, aren't they? And that's a really great one to start with, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And
SPEAKER_00:so this was a quick entry into harmonica. I believe you sort of... dropped out of high school to pursue your love of playing the harmonica and blues shortly after that, did you?
SPEAKER_02:Basically, yeah. Me and the school, public school system, we just did not get along that well. I'm not keen on following rules and doing things the way people tell me to do them. So I just did not click with the system. I wasn't really flunking, but I just wasn't going to classes. Instead of going to gym, I was going to physics. And instead of going to a lot of my other classes, I was going to the radio station.
SPEAKER_00:No regrets, so you made the right choice, I think. No regrets at all. Fantastic, yeah, fantastic. And then you quickly, well, I think you started playing around the jam sessions around New York, around where you live at least, and you were getting into it quite soon and getting gigs early on, were you?
SPEAKER_02:I started going to the jams early on. I met some local players. Dee Karp was actually the first local player I met who was also in New Jersey way back then. A lot of people know me. He's down in Clarkston, Mississippi now doing custom harps for years, but we know each other from way back when. Big Nancy, who has passed now, but she played a lot in the area and also including with Sonny Rhodes. She was a tremendous help and just a supporter and encourager way back then. Trip Henderson in New York City, who was also kind of an encourager and supporter, as well as not long after I got started, I met Steve Geiger, who to this day is one of my closest friends and one of my favorite players as well. I would go to the jams, but normally I'm shy and more introverted by nature. I wouldn't even bring my harps. I would go to the jams and just kind of check out the scene. and maybe see if there was somebody I thought I was compatible with and then maybe talk to them and maybe bring harps next week. I wasn't keen on following the spotlight. I was keen on the music.
SPEAKER_00:So we'll get into the sort of music that you've released. And again, it's quite influenced by jump and swing and things. So what were you playing at this early stage? Were you sort of really into the classic blues harmonica or were you more trying to play that kind of jump swing stuff?
SPEAKER_02:Honestly, all of it. I was as much influenced by Charlie Christian music and Lester Young as I was by Little Walter and George Smith and James Cotton. But I realized quickly, I really need to kind of know how to operate the harp and build a blues vocabulary. So I really studied on harp, the Chicago stuff. I just dove into it headfirst. And I kind of had tunnel vision for a little while, really studying that stuff. But all the while, I was still kind of working out some horn stuff and Charlie Christian stuff and early, you know, kind of swing jazz blues kind of stuff, even at that early in my development because I just loved that music and I loved that way of playing.
SPEAKER_00:So in your studying, what were you doing? Were you transcribing stuff?
SPEAKER_02:Well, there was a period I moved to New Orleans. My girlfriend at the time got an internship there and she didn't want to go without me. I was like, New Orleans, great. One of the, you know, homes of, you know, blues and jazz and all that stuff and such a rich cultural history there. So of course I wanted to go and I did that. And at the time I was learning some things note for note. I had learned some big Walter, especially little Walter stuff and some george smith and james cotton with some various things here and there and when i got down there you know i was this young long-haired yankee from the north and you know it was kind of hard to make friends down there especially being new and not from the area i did meet johnny sansone who was great i met rockin jake down there who was great and we're we're all kind of friends still to this day but it was hard to kind of quickly befriend musicians especially being this younger dude from out of town so i kind of got frustrated quickly and i basically locked myself in the apartment for most of that time and just learned songs note for note every single day. I mean, I was basically practicing 10, 12 hours a day. And when I mean I was learning things note for day, I would write out for myself. I didn't write them where other people can read them, but I wrote them out and I tabbed stuff out for myself. Every single day, I learned one or two pieces, whether it was an instrumental from Little Walter or a solo from James Cotton or this thing from Rod Piazza or anything. But every single day, I learned one or two solos or instrumentals and this was for months and months and it made a big difference in my playing and obviously in my hearing and all that stuff but I was just I wanted to come back home with something to show from being down in New Orleans even though all that all I was being done was just me by myself
SPEAKER_00:yeah definitely and I think you're right absolutely it's essential to do that isn't it to work through and just learn those solos write them down so yeah
SPEAKER_02:music
SPEAKER_00:It's interesting you're saying that you're such a shy introverted type, Dennis, which I'm definitely surprised to hear. And also, you've definitely got a lot of friends in the harmonic community. A lot of people have mentioned you. I think you're really well respected and you built that up. You know, it's
SPEAKER_02:funny. People do seem... surprised i think when i tell them that but i prefer to let my music and maybe perhaps my clothes do the talking
SPEAKER_00:i was going to mention your clothes so that's a good time now so you're definitely a sharp dresser you've got this kind of snake skin suit she got rings you know you got that you say the long ponytail of her definitely looks very important right you feel that's uh your presence on stage is uh it's part of that yeah
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think it is. And you know, it was funny when I first started performing in public, I was just awkward because of my introverted nature. To me, it was all about the music. Who cares what you look like? It doesn't matter because it's about the music. you know, period. When I would go watch people, I noticed that I would be bored and kind of not as interested when I saw people who looked like they didn't want to be on stage and it looked like they just kind of walked out of their living room practicing and, you know, ripped up jeans and t-shirt from their couch. And, you know, I realized it does make a difference because people are going, at least not the jams, when I was doing my own gigs or gigs with other bands, you know, and I was getting paid. You know, people were paying or spending at least time to watch you and listen to you. They're not just sitting home listening to a record of you. They're watching you as well. And I realized I was not into people who did not at least look like they wanted
SPEAKER_00:to be there. So did you practice your stagecraft? Is that part of it?
SPEAKER_02:Not necessarily practice it, but I just kind of slowly allowed myself to be more of myself on stage as I got more comfortable on stage.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because you quite, you know, you move a lot, you move, you know, you move well, you look like you say you're into it, right? And that definitely comes across when you're playing.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks.
SPEAKER_00:And
SPEAKER_02:that's, yeah, I mean, none of that obviously is planned, but it's just like over the years, I'm just a lot more comfortable being me on stage. So what you see is, I mean, I didn't like craft a stage persona. I am on 100% myself when I'm on stage. I mean, I feel most myself when I'm on stage making music more than even just kind of sitting around the house, making breakfast or doing whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So after New Orleans, did you go back up to the Northeast of the US for a while?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So what happened then?
SPEAKER_02:Even when I was in New Orleans, I remember, you know, Deke and a few other friends I knew on the scene, because I was all self-taught. And I remember Deke even calling up to me, you know, oh, you know, can you teach this guy? Can you teach that guy? I don't know how to teach this guy. And I started teaching students long distance. And when I got back home, and I had only been playing, you know, less than two years then. And I was already teaching other players just because I've learned so much on my own. I did start going to the jams more. And not long after I got back, I started playing with a couple local bands on a pretty regular basis. It took over my life. Every weekend, no exaggeration, I would go record shopping to find whatever I could, blues, harmonica, jump, swing, rock and roll, or always 40s, 50s stuff, and just learn as much as I could and try to learn stuff each week and get better on the bandstand. You know, and then eventually, after performing for years with other bands, I kind of started to form my own groups eventually.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that's another really important aspect, isn't it? The fact that, you know, you're a record collector, right? You listen to lots of stuff, including lots of harmonica, obviously, but also other stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Silk it all up. That is not only an important part, that is a huge part and one of the most important parts. That is, I think, the biggest thing that separates players who kind of just get to that intermediate level and players who get to a higher level. Gotta listen. And it's gotta be active, focused listening. Because not only are you learning when you're listening, but you're changing how you think and how you hear the music the more you listen. It's crazy nowadays, too. When I started listening, I was buying things on vinyl. Now, of course, that's come full circle now where people are buying vinyl and printing vinyl again. But I learned mainly by listening over and over to records or cassettes and just figuring out the stuff by ear, tracking down recordings where I knew the personnel And these days, it's gone so far from that where I can recommend songs to students or other players, and they don't even know how to find that song because even though it may be out there on social media or streaming somewhere, it's very hard to find specific recordings because things have been released and re-released, and there's no notes about what session it is or who the musicians are. And I'm kind of glad that I came up learning this stuff from the recordings that I bought because I learned so much more about the players and the history. And
SPEAKER_00:one of those players, which of many that I know you've listened to, is George Smith. And you're a fantastic blues chromatic player, definitely one of the best chromatic blues players. Is that something you initially picked up from George?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, via... Rod Piazza, and then William Clark. Yeah. Now, so I had the first blues radio show I ever heard, I think was Niles France outside of the Philadelphia area. And it was right around the time that Rod Piazza's Blues in the Dark album came out and they played that Too Late Brother, the Little Walter song he does on that album. And, you know, and I immediately heard that. And I had been hearing about George Smith just from reading liner notes and reading about blues. I never really heard him, but I was able to see Rod like within my first six months or so of getting into this music because they played his music and I said, oh, yeah, he's coming to so-and-so. You know, it was within, you know, two hours driving distance. So I was like, man, I got to check this out. After witnessing him and a few months after that, seeing William Clark. And then, of course, these few months I was tracking down George Smith albums. It all kind of happened in a very short period where I heard all three of those guys who had a huge influence on me, especially Chromatic. I mean, it all goes back to George for that particular style. But Rod and William Clark really had a big influence as well early on.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, so what about any quick tips on playing the blues?
SPEAKER_02:I would offer the same advice as I would if somebody were to ask me, how do I how can I play like jump swing blues on the diatonic? The first thing I would recommend is learn some blues and technique basics first. whether it's diatonic or chromatic. A lot of people will say, oh, it's easy, just pick up the chromatic and you can't play a wrong note. But I think a lot of people just kind of get away with kind of fumbling around on the chromatic breathing and chords and just kind of finding the notes here and there. But playing something a little more up-tempo, a little more swinging, obviously is a different thing. And I would say, just like I did on my diatonic, learn basics, learn maybe a little music theory, a little bit of where you're going musically on the instrument. And these are all things I just taught myself through listening and experimenting and practicing and trial and error. You just take baby steps with your technique, just like you take baby steps with understanding what you're doing musically on the harp. And then all those steps add up if you're consistent with it.
SPEAKER_00:So, and then you moved across to the West Coast, to Los Angeles. At what point did you do that? Well, you know, I've
SPEAKER_02:always wanted to move out to the LA area for a really long time. And it almost happened a couple of times, but it just never lined up. So it did happen about six, seven years ago. You know, one of the reasons is there is a great scene here. Now, it's not what it used to be years ago, but there's still a good concentration of great players and great music fans out here for this kind of stuff I love.
SPEAKER_00:You know, listen to your music, you know, it might almost describe you as a kind of West Coast swing player. Is that something that drew you there or were you already playing that style before you went there?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, I was already playing. Even when I was living in New Jersey, some people thought I was from the West Coast because they had that, you know, George Swing. kind of swinging blues approach on chromatic and diatonic the first album I did under my own name was with a jump blues band I had jump time and we played a lot of jump blues and you know that's not obviously the Chicago type of thing but I just was recording stuff that I like to play
SPEAKER_00:so let's talk about that album then so that was recorded in 98 released in 99 it was called jump time with your band so what sort of age were you when you released this one
SPEAKER_02:26 i want to say somewhere around there when i think i when i recorded and it was released we recorded the whole album in one day except for one song which is kind of crazy all live takes and yeah i mean it was i was doing it myself so i had extremely limited budget
SPEAKER_00:oh that's great good effort because there's some pretty sophisticated stuff on there so you've done well to knock that out in a day for sure thanks Was that something you'd been gigging for quite a while before? So were you guys really up to speed with the songs? Well, to be honest, no.
SPEAKER_02:That was not a band I was regularly working with that much. It was kind of like a super, like an all-star band of local players that I liked to play with. We have performed together. I mean, I had sheets in just my handwritten sheets of like, you know, here's the intro. We do, you know, vocal here, chorus, you know, a harmonica solo here, another verse here. I had kind of just like those kind of minimalist lead sheets for this, you know, but there weren't songs like we just kind of banged out doing on the gigs because we didn't really really do that many gigs before the recording.
SPEAKER_00:So one thing you do on here, and you've certainly done throughout the rest of your recording career, is play a lot of low-tuned harps, which is really interesting. I think I read that you were one of the first guys to use one of the low-tuned harps before this became in vogue.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a
SPEAKER_02:lot of people have told me, and I guess in some ways I probably have influenced that a lot, you know, in the bigger picture, because, I mean, you couldn't get them. They weren't readily available, really, for most people or for anybody back then. I had to get custom-made 10-hole diatonic low-tune harps from Joe Felisco and Richard Slay. And just because I'm a big fan, in case you didn't know, of that amplified harmonica sound, of all the different textures and nuances and overtones that you can get, you know, and the shadings you can get when playing amplified. And the lower tuned harps, I think, are even more fascinating when played that way. But I never really heard anybody use them that way. And I think it was just my love of saxophone, especially trombone, which I grew to appreciate as I got older, and baritone sax and tenor sax. And I just found that there was these really cool sounds that I loved when you can amplify low-tuned harps. And the only ones you can get were really those 12 or 14-hole harps. harps from Hohner that weren't great and they weren't great for cupping with a mic because they were so big too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah and of course later on the Thunderbirds came out and they became more popular. Yeah that was years before that. Yeah I mean it's really interesting because listening to you and I've listened to quite a lot and playing along with some of your songs with the low-tuned harp you know like you say you've really turned me back on to them because I own a lot a few low-tuned harps and a bit like oh they're not very responsive they're a bit quiet you know I always thought they're a bit quiet in a live setting but like you say amplified I'm listening thinking you Yeah, he's great. You know, they're sounding great. You know, you've really turned me on to the fact that I'm actually going to try and get those low tuned harps out some more.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome. It's a sound that I love. Playing live though, you know, it's obviously different with a band. You got to be prepared for different things. You know, it's one thing to have your chops and all that stuff musically, but then in the band setting, like in particular with the low tuned harps, you want to make sure you're not setting the bass too high on your amplifier and then get too muffled of a sound because the notes are low to begin with. It helps you actually to have a little bit of a brighter sound. So those low notes will cut through a little bit. Like if you listen to any old song, with baritone sax. If they're too muffled and muddy, there's no articulation, there's no clarity. But when you hear it's a brighter sound, a more reedy sound on that baritone, it really cuts through
SPEAKER_00:and you can hear it
SPEAKER_02:better.
SPEAKER_00:That's a really good tip. Yeah. And the other thing which I always thought about the low tunes is they're quite hard to bend, right? Those low notes are hard to bend. So is that something that you have kind of worked around a little bit or you've just kind of got them, you know, you've set them up so they're better to bend or?
SPEAKER_02:It's just hours and hours of practice. Yeah. I had a conversation with a student not long ago about bending really high and bending really low and they're both very difficult, you know, but the lower you go, it seems impossible because you have to go so deep in the back of your airstream and your throat to close off and constrict that airflow to bend the note at some point it just becomes physically impossible but you can build up your chops to get a little lower and lower with your comfort zone but if you don't keep up the chops you kind of lose it
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_02:you know you're not playing them and bending them on a regular basis it's going to be difficult So how low do you go on your low tuned harps? I don't use them as much once in a while because I play a little less jump blues, especially with the Nick Moss band now. But, you know, I mean, I have a, you know, double low Fs that I recorded with and I've bent, you know, on the low B flats and the low A flats on recordings and on the gigs back then quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00:So then moving on, I think your second album is it, which is the Up All Night album from 2000. So this is a Chicago blues album. So you've gone, like you say, you studied all the classic blues. So then you were keen on getting a chicago blues album on it's a great chicago blues album as well
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, part of the reason I did that was because I got so much feedback with my first album. I got some good feedback on the first album, but I also got some feedback from players like, oh, you know, he's not playing real blues. And I'm like, well, I studied the Chicago stuff actually first. So I want to kind of put out something that was more like traditional blues harmonica. Of course, I love that style as well so much.
SPEAKER_00:But it's funny, isn't it? Like you say, you did the great jump swing stuff in the first album, but like you said, people almost want to hear what they know, right? And they want to hear that kind of traditional sounding Amplified Blues harmonica instead.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. On that first album, I did Overblows. I played 12th position, but I think a lot of people just didn't even understand what I was doing or why I was doing it or, you know, just maybe they couldn't relate to it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:So that's with a different band then, obviously, than the Jump Time band.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and around that time, I was kind of working and booking both bands. I had a band that did more straight-ahead blues, and then I had Jump Time that had piano and sax, and sometimes even no guitar for a little while when I had Jump Time. It was piano, sax, harp, bass, drums. It was kind of nice to have no guitar in that lineup for a bit.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely nice to have no guitar sometimes. There's enough guitar in the world. And then you did another album with Jump Time. That's right, which I think more is a more sort of jazz album.
SPEAKER_02:A little bit more so than the first Jump Time album. And I was so tickled to have a good friend of mine who was an influence and just a hero of mine, clarinet player Kenny DeVern on there. Just to have that done made it worth it to do that album.
SPEAKER_00:And a good song on there, Mississippi Sax is on there, which is obviously another name for the harmonica, which you're trading solos with a saxophone on. So...
SPEAKER_02:That's an old 50s tune. I think it was Roy Montrell, I believe. And it's a mellow saxophone, but I figured it kind of made sense to kind of mix up the lyrics a little bit to make it fit what I was doing with the harp. I got a good response from that one. It was just a cool tune that I like to play, though. It was just a great sounding song.
SPEAKER_00:And then skipping ahead a little bit, in 2008, you released your tribute to Little Walter album, I Just Keep Loving Him. Great, great title after the Little Walter song, I Just Keep Loving Her. Thank you. So yeah, obviously you were bigly into Little Walter, right, to do this one. So what started this off? And obviously you got some great players. You got Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin, Steve Geiger, and Rusty Zinn playing on here with you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that was kind of like a dream project of mine. I had somebody... A friend who was kind of willing to go in. I had a string of projects kind of ready to go, and this was the first one, obviously. And I was kind of baffled that nobody really officially released a tribute album to Little Walter. Obviously, not only the most important and influential blues harp player in history, but he was just an influential musician in blues and R&B and even across other genres. So nobody really did a tribute since George Smith did one the year that Little Walter passed. I think it was called Blues with a Feeling. It has since been released on CD with one or two bonus tracks. It was George Smith's first full-length album.
SPEAKER_00:So what did you do then about researching Little Walter? Did you particularly work on making sure you were playing like Little Walter? How did you approach it?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I had learned just about every Little Walter instrumental and solo that he recorded. I mean, years prior. I just had to refresh my memory of some of that stuff. When I was learning this stuff, there was no social media or YouTube. It's not like people knew that I know this stuff because I wasn't posting videos of myself learning roller coaster and learning juke and learning off the wall and learning this muddy water solo. But yeah, I learned all of those things. So I just kind of had to get back in that mindset and listen a lot more to it and just kind of refresh my chops and pick the players and pick songs Yeah, exactly. I was going to make
SPEAKER_00:that point. You chose songs which were, you know, on the real big hits, you know, you didn't play Duke and Off the Wall, you know, you chose slightly less well-known ones. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and some very much less known ones. As a musician, I appreciate that kind of thing because I love juking off the wall, but do we really need another version of juking off the wall? Yeah. It's nicer and more interesting to have other stuff because he had such a great recorded output. I mean, everything he did was great, so why not dig deeper and pick things that are a little lesser
SPEAKER_01:known?
UNKNOWN:Bye.
SPEAKER_00:And so some of the other players, obviously you got Kim Wilson on there, a legend of the blues harmonica and, you know, and Rick Hester and Steve Geiger said, so how did you get the other guys? Was it easy to get them on board? And did you all come together and record in the same location?
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, I did one recording session on the East coast. One day was with my jump time band. And the other, the other one I think was just without the horn with myself and the band and with Steve Geiger, who's, who's on the East coast. And I did a recording session on the West coast at Graceland really before it was Kit Anderson's Graceland studios. him and Bob were there, but it wasn't really officially Greaseland at that time. And I had Kim and Rick and Rusty there, Marty on drums and Bob, obviously playing piano and guitar and some of that stuff. I knew those guys. I knew Kim and Rick just from being fans of them for years and doing microphone work for them for years. And me and Rusty were longtime buddies by then. So yeah, I was kind of friends with all these guys and me and Steve Geiger have been friends forever. So it was mostly just people I knew the hardest thing i think was figuring out dates to do it and songs to choose from And I basically let people choose their songs. I just told them I didn't want to do the typical little Walter covers.
SPEAKER_00:Moving on then, so you played with sort of two main outfits following that time. So you played with Doug Deming for about nine years, and you released various albums with him. Falling Through the Cracks, 2009. Rocking All Day is a good album. That's with Doug as well, isn't it? Yep, yep. Nice third position instrumental picked out. And then your current band, which you're playing with, is with Nick Moss, as you mentioned. So you've been playing with him since 2016, yeah?
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yeah. And I've known me and Nick have known each other for a really long time too, but we just never played together officially until then, like 2016, 2017. And quickly thereafter, things just kind of started happening. We have similar musical visions, at least with the traditional Chicago style blues approach. I definitely have more leanings towards the swing and the jump blues thing. You know, he does some jump stuff and he's such a great player. He can really kind of do all of that stuff without even thinking about it. We just really met with a lot of similar turf with a traditional Chicago
SPEAKER_00:blues kind of thing because we love a lot of that stuff. And Nick Moss was the guitar player in the Kim Wilson band.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I first met him back then when he was with Kim. Sure, at the Spa Harmonica convention I kind of was pushing for them to hire Kim and I first met Nick when he was there backing Kim up, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So did you steal Kim Wilson's guitar player,
SPEAKER_02:Dennis? No, I was not. I remember from that, and we didn't really know each other back then but me and Nick met not long after when he had released his first album when I was working on my first album and he came to East Coast and I helped him get a few shows and we quickly became friends but I remember at the time there was this big threatening looking guitar player and he was having a problem with his guitar so one of the guitar cables on stage was not working right so I was like this dude's not going to be happy so I went and I just I found an extra guitar cable that I had and I gave it to him while the gig was on because I didn't think that this dude was the kind of guy that you wanted upset That's it. So we'd be friends after that, you know, and I'd pass through Chicago and we would do gigs together once in a while. But the partnership musically just felt right and just kind of happened when it happened.
SPEAKER_00:Great. And I think you've released three albums with the Nick Moss band, is that it? Yes. All on the renowned Alligator Records. So that's quite a coop to be on with them. What's it like being with Alligator Records? Well,
SPEAKER_02:that obviously was a big thing for both of us because Alligator is, you know, the biggest independent blues label anywhere. And they've released so many great recordings including the first blues album that i ever heard and bruce does such a great job with what he does and he's been around doing it for a long time and he really knows what he's doing and it's kind of a goal because we both knew bruce and i've been talking to him over the past decades but when we joined forces it felt right he seemed to dig it and it was just it made a lot of sense and he was interested so we were you know super grateful that that worked out and we just put out the third one a couple months ago
SPEAKER_00:Sure, yeah, we're getting to that one. But your first one, The High Cost of Low Living, a good start in 2018. And so are you the main singer with the Nick Moss band?
SPEAKER_02:Nick is, actually. Nick is the main singer and main songwriter, although... We will collaborate on writing sometimes with particular songs of his. I'll have some suggestions or ideas and he will do the same with mine. And I usually write to and sing to on each of these albums that I write for myself to sing. It's more organic where things will happen in the studio and it takes this direction. So then let's go this direction.
SPEAKER_00:I think, were you
SPEAKER_02:singing on your first few albums or did that come later? That came later. I was the first, my most recent one, which is the Ready or Not album. The last one that I did under my own name was the first one where I really sang. I sang one song on the Rockin' All Day album. But Ready or Not, I wrote everything and I sang everything. And I just figured it was just time for me to start
SPEAKER_01:doing
SPEAKER_02:that.
SPEAKER_01:because
SPEAKER_02:i wrote a lot even from my first album but i just was never comfortable singing in front of people and part again it goes back to that introverted nature i'm not really you know not the most comfortable in the spotlight i love making music and performing But it took me a while to kind of talk myself into doing it on the bandstand.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a topic I touch on a lot on here about singing, you know, as a harmonica player. So did you feel that you needed to do that to be more of a front man or is it, you know, more a case of you just felt ready to sing?
SPEAKER_02:yeah i just felt like it was time to do it you know i mean for decades people would be telling me to do it you know i was also really writing a lot more i went through a period where i was you know working with doug demming and working with you know other players like dave gross and peter carp on the road and kind of putting my own musical vision on the back burner for a bit when i was on the road with other people and when i started working the latter part of me working with doug on the road i was writing a lot more and that's how that ready or not thing came about and i you know i just they were my songs and i kind of liked them quite a bit and i figured you know well how long am i going to wait to
SPEAKER_00:do
SPEAKER_02:this
SPEAKER_00:and as you mentioned there you've got your latest album out get your back into it which was just uh released this year so uh yeah what about this i mean you know there seems to be a different sound you're getting a little bit you seem to be using more effects on this album maybe is that is that true to say no i mean i don't really use any
SPEAKER_02:effects
SPEAKER_00:when
SPEAKER_02:i record really You know, as far as the harp,
SPEAKER_00:you
SPEAKER_02:mean?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I just noticed it's a bit more distorted and sort of hard driving. Maybe it's the amps you're using. Yeah, it's just the amps.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I basically try to do the same thing as, you know, because I deal with equipment too, and I love my mics and amps and all that stuff. But when I'm recording, I go straight from my mic into the amp. There's no pedals. There's no volume control on my microphones. Nothing. Straight from mic into the amp. It's just a matter of amp choice and how it's recorded. There were a few more than the usual amount of songs on this latest album where I know Nick preferred the sound of a smaller amp just really cranked up. Which I like, but in some cases also a little goes a long way because you do get a less tonal range and texture range with a smaller amp, but definitely is a little more in your face than aggressive.
SPEAKER_00:And you also do a sort of Mexican song on this, Bones Cantina, which is sort of like a Caracha, sort of is quoted in there. It's a bit of Mexican stuff.
UNKNOWN:Yeah. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that's dedicated to a friend of Nick's. Obviously, he wanted me to kind of go a little bit in that Big Walter vein because obviously Big Walter recorded, you know, and played La Cucaracha live as tons of bootlegs of that stuff as well. So I felt like I wanted to go into that
SPEAKER_00:bag a little bit. And someone else you've recorded with is Peter Karp. You've done a few albums where you're the sort of guest on Monica Play on these albums. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And you mentioned Rod Piazza early on, so I think it helped Rod get back out playing and stuff recently, haven't you?
SPEAKER_02:I wouldn't say he stopped, but he definitely slowed down his touring thing before the pandemic happened. Him and Honey and the band have been doing it for so long. I mean, they've been road warriors for decades. So she kind of retired and kind of came back out a little bit while during the pandemic we started doing some other shows again when things started picking up again. He doesn't really tour that much or do fly-ins much anymore, mainly some bigger shows around the Southern California area. I'm more than happy to do it with him, and he knows that because he was a big influence on me when I was younger, and he remembers seeing me all those years ago, you know, just following him around up and down the East Coast. We just did a show together a week ago where I sat in with him at the Battle of the Blues Harps in Long Beach. And he plays as good now as he did, you know, when I first saw him, you know, 30 years ago. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, fantastic. Well, great. Well, it must be such an honor to play with you. I'm a big fan. So yeah, so that's your recording career. So we'll get on to some of the many other things that you do. So you've got lots of content. You've got a very active YouTube channel where you're getting lots of things out. You're kind of like Microphone Mondays and Tuesdays. So you've got a very active YouTube channel and social media and keeping your business promoted and everything.
SPEAKER_02:I try to. I juggle all these things basically by myself, whether it's booking my traveling and taking care of keeping up with the band and the dates on the road with fixing the microphone and amplifiers and doing my social media posts and videos and photos and all that stuff so i juggle you know any given day i'll juggle all these different things for 12 hours and i'll find time to eat and sleep at some point
SPEAKER_00:it's a job in itself doing all that stuff but you're doing a great job you've got a good presence and uh yeah you also you've just returned from um playing on a blues cruise haven't you
SPEAKER_02:yes and i must say it was it was probably my favorite the favorite of mine that I've done. I've done a number of blues cruises now, definitely my favorite. Aside from being with the band and being able to perform on there and Rick Estrin and being there and everything, who's an old time pal of mine, there was a lot of great younger artists on there who were really good. And it was just so great to see that and be around that and to play with some of them and just hear them. It was really cool.
SPEAKER_00:And when you mentioned teaching, so you do do teaching, you know, it's available on your website. You've got slots to book up, although you're looking quite busy on your teaching schedule on your website. So you're still available for teaching, are you?
SPEAKER_02:These days, I'm not so much available for private one-on-one lessons. I've been doing them, you know, for so long, and especially during the pandemic, I was doing them all the time. You know, I did almost 100 webinars now, and what I've been doing now is I have just membership content on my website. And each month I load up different content. And it's not just kind of random, you know, here's a webinar of this and here's a track of this. It's curated and I do it with purpose, focusing on the different types of practice. You know, like if you want to get better at harmonica or really anything for that matter, you don't want to just practice one way and one aspect of it. You know, I present webinars and video lessons for the students. I have jam tracks to jam along with. I have performance videos to watch and I also have playlists and my old radio show to listen to. You got to balance these things when you're listening and when you're learning. It's so important to do these different types of focused practice when you're learning this stuff and it helps you so much. So basically, I've been... building different membership content each month and throwing it out there for my students, which really cost them way less than taking private lessons with me. And you get all month to study materials that, you know, you wouldn't be able to get in one hour with me anyway.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly that. And as you say, you cover lots of topics. It's very much based on sort of tuition and how to play.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And the webinars are all different. You know, I've done webinars, you know, more than half of them are with a featured guest, you know, whether it's Rob Piazza or Kim Wilson or Rick Estrin or Joe Felisco, or, you know, we'll go through their playing, their advice, their career, things that they've learned along the way. And I've done also a lot of insightful, more educational webinars on techniques or how to practice better or blues scale stuff or diving into like little Walter style or James cotton style and jump blues versus Chicago blues. So there's a wide variety of different things to focus on. And I keep it to just a few specific things each month so you don't get overloaded.
SPEAKER_00:Again, the link will be on there. You can find it on your website and everything for the webinars that you've got available. So that's great stuff. So you mentioned you had a radio show. This was in the New York area, wasn't it? So what sort of radio show was that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so for close to 15 years, I had a blues radio show. And it was in Teaneck, New Jersey and WFDU. It was the New York City metro area radio. Mainly, it was a blues show, but I played everything from some late 30s, early 40s jump blues and blues. based jazz stuff to 50s and 60s blues and R&B vocal group stuff. A lot of Chicago blues, a lot of jump blues, but I kind of just played basically records from my collection. I did promote newer stuff that came out from artists who were on the scene and touring, of course, you know, because you got to do that too. I think one of the reasons why I got such a big fan base when I was doing that radio show was I was just playing not the normal stuff because I have a huge record collection and I would just... a you know anything from really 40s jump blues that nobody heard of to you know a 60s kind of jazz organ trio that may have inspired you know somebody to Rick Estrin or somebody to play this record and you know all kinds of stuff like that
SPEAKER_00:again showing the importance right of that wide listening that you've that you've done yeah I'm talking about awards you've won various awards on harmonica you've won the spa harmonica player of the year in 2019 and also same year the blues music award for best instrumentalist harmonica so yeah you got some some awards there for your harmonic playing. Well done for that.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Thank
SPEAKER_00:you. The question I ask each time, Dennis, is a 10-minute question. You've already sort of answered this a little bit earlier on with advice on the chromatic playing, but if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?
SPEAKER_02:If I had 10 minutes to practice, I would probably spend five minutes listening and five minutes playing. You know, whether trying to improvise or just kind of trying to duplicate something new if I was learning something new. And when I go through this with students, I tell people, you got five or 15 minutes a day or you have three hours a day. Either way, you can still learn a lot and progress a lot. It's all about how and what you practice. And the most important thing is you practice what is level appropriate for you. That sometimes is hard for players and or students to figure out what do I want to do that's within my grasp, maybe not too far ahead of me, but not something that I already know where I'm not learning at all. And that I think is the key that helps people learn so much. And I've always tried to Keep that too. I always have my sights a little bit ahead of where I am with what I'm learning and practicing. So I'm just reaching, you know, a few steps ahead. That's the most important thing, really.
SPEAKER_00:So we'll get into the last section now and talk about gear. So, well, so Dennis, you probably have the best gear in the world, right? So this is going to be an interesting conversation with you. So you've got, you sell mics and amps very famously around the world. And I bought one of your microphones and a fine microphone it is too. So the first question is, where do you get all this stuff?
SPEAKER_02:I've heard that question a few times. I'll tell the story and it's not that long, but when I first started playing, You know, I was kind of hurt about all these ecstatic mics and crystal mics and everything. I'd saved some money and I bought one from a local player and it was utter garbage, for lack of a better term. And I was so upset because, you know, I spent more money on it than I had and than I should have. And it really did not work well at all. So since I was, you know, I'd recently dropped out of high school, I was like, I'm just going to find my own microphones, you know, forget this guy. And, you know, I'm not going to buy any more mics from people. But the very first flea market I went to, I found an Aesthetic JT30 on one of the first tables I stopped at for$5. And I was like, man, you know, of course it never happened again like that. But I took that as a sign that I, you know, I need to kind of look into this. And I eventually found some microphones that worked and started repairing them and working on them for myself, basically. And then when other players heard I was doing that, I would get asked to do repairs and then I would, you know, start finding more and come back. collecting them and building them for other local players that I knew or friends of mine who played. This is kind of before eBay was a big thing, really. As the years were going by, I was like, ah, this one's really cool. I'm going to hold on to that one because that's got a different model number or this one has a different element. I'll just put that one aside. It turned into this crazy obsession. that I have now, and in no small part, because I just am fascinated with the amplified harp sound. You know, when I first heard Sad Hours, still my favorite Little Walter song and still the first one I learned. Just fascinated with the sounds and the tones and the textures that you can get amplified, which is why I still love collecting and playing through this gear.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's great to go to someone who's so knowledgeable about it to buy it. So definitely recommended. But on the last podcast interview, we talked about the green bullet and interviewed Michael from Shure. And we also had James Waldron on. And we talked about crystals on there. And so I just give you the chance to sort of represent your view here because James wasn't so enamored by crystals. He thought, you know, a lot of them didn't last and, you know, they weren't very durable and things. But he did mention you and say, obviously, you sell a lot of crystals. So, you know what would you say about crystals in their defense and obviously they get great bright clear crystal tone yes
SPEAKER_02:I'll say a couple things in their defense one I've been performing now over 30 years I have never had a crystal microphone go bad on me and all my and that's including touring I tour worldwide only with crystal microphones and I take them with me I have not had one go bad on me as I'm traveling or performing on the road. Another thing to keep in mind is I also work with a lot of pro players, and I would say 90% to 95% of those players ask for crystals. And the only other thing I will say, which is a personal thing for me, but I've noticed just from going through so much equipment and so many microphones for all these years, is crystals and ceramics, to a certain point, their impedance is almost like infinity. So they have higher highs and lower lows. than other types of elements. You know, when we talk in harp, you're talking about like the green bullet, the CMs and the CRs and all that stuff. But a good crystal will have higher highs and lower lows than that. And a little more what I refer to as dimension and texture. It's almost more 3D compared to a CM, like a green bullet type of element, which are great, and those green bullets are very durable, but there's something different that you get with a crystal that you just do not get with a magnetic type of element.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you do sell CMs and CIs as well, right? I do, sure, and it's not like I don't like them, but they're like my second favorite. So the mic I bought off you was a crystal, and I bought it specifically because I wanted a crystal that I knew would work, right? So I bought it from you, and it's lasted and i've had it for a few years now and it's still sounding great and doesn't seem to have lost anything but i mean are you using the sort of new old stock crystal or do you try and find the old crystals or you know what do you normally use and sell i all vintage
SPEAKER_02:stuff and there have been really no good crystal elements for the purposes of our of a good bullet harmonica mic made for several decades so they're all either going to be vintage and used or vintage new old stock most of the american ones are the ones that are usually the most robust sounding and the ones you can find the most of but you know a lot of times you find them they haven't worked not because they just always fail but because they are more fragile and a lot of times They weren't used by harp players taking care of them. They were just used as a PA mic in the grocery store in 1947, or they were used as a ham radio mic for years, and it was just sitting in the sun in this guy's shack for years. So a lot of them, they are more fragile, but if you take care of them, they can last decades and decades. I still have some here from the 40s and 50s that sound amazing.
SPEAKER_00:oh definitely i say i love mine so yeah so great so that's something my extent so we'll move on just talk about your other gears so you're uh you're definitely a honer player and in fact you've got your picture on the crossover box so uh you're an endorser for honer and uh you play the thunderbirds and the and the the honer chromatics as well yeah
SPEAKER_02:for sure yeah and and that me getting on the box was kind of a surprise to me and i was working and i still do work behind the scenes with honer because i love their harps i didn't you know, endorse them because I wanted to get some kind of deal or anything. Basically from day one, I started playing them. I experimented when I was younger and I still get other harps given to me from time to time. And I never really play anything or I'm happy with anything aside from the honer, especially in the Marine band style, whether it's the classic Marine band, which I still play some of those out of the box or the Marine band deluxe, or especially the crossovers and the Thunderbirds. To me, nothing sounds and plays and feels like them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And
SPEAKER_02:do you have them customized or do them yourself? Lately, most of them I play straight out of the box. For a long time, I had, was playing them customized from Joe Felisco and Richard Slay. And I still have a lot of those custom harps that they do upkeep. And, you know, I mean, some of these are even from like the late nineties, early two thousands, and they still just kind of upkeep them. When I get new ones, I play them straight out of the box.
SPEAKER_00:They're so much better these days, aren't they? The quality is great nowadays. Really? So you mentioned overblows earlier and you say you're playing overblows. So, you know, what, What extent do you use overblows? Is it the odd notes or are you quite extensive with them? Well,
SPEAKER_02:to what extent do you use a bent note? For me, my answer would be I use it when I want to use that note. And that's going to just depend on the musical setting and the context that I'm playing in. If I'm playing straight ahead Chicago blues, I'm not going to use much of them really. You know, I may use the six overblow and some people may not notice, but they'll hear a bluesy note. But if I'm playing more jump swing kind of stuff, I'll use more of them because stylistically I'm going to want more, a few of those quote unquote missing notes to do some more intricate lines or lines using some of these chromatic, you know, notes that are missing in the, in the scale. Yeah. So my approach and my philosophy is to play musically. I can do tongue trills. I can basically do all these tongue blocking techniques, but some gigs may go by and you don't hear one or two techniques at all because it's just not fitting for the style or the song. I view bends and overbends the same way. I mean, there would be no reason that I see to use them unless you want that note that's missing.
SPEAKER_00:So amplifiers is another thing that you sell a lot of and you sell some beautiful looking amplifiers. But I mean, I was reading it saying that your preferred amp is the Harp King, which is the amp that Rob Piazza uses, and this was kind of designed for him. So is that your favorite amp, or you've got so many amps, you just kind of choose one of the many that you have? Well, that's my favorite amp
SPEAKER_02:to tour with, because it's the most versatile amp and the most reliable amp I feel on the road to use in a variety of different settings. So I can play a huge festival and even a small club with a Harp King, get the sound I want, get the tone I want, and have it respond the way I want. And it really, really really, there's no other amp that I've played where you can do that. I mean, there are other devices and pedals you can use to help other amps. I, you know, I have a basement reissue that I really love a lot, you know, but I only use it in certain rooms that I know it's going to work the best in. And as far as vintage amps, I mean, I absolutely love the sound of the vintage amps. And when I record, I only use vintage amps, but a lot of them aren't quite loud enough, especially on a bigger club or a bigger stage to use. So I don't, you know, and I don't tour with them and throw them in the back of the van, obviously, But I record strictly with a lot of the vintage amps, especially the small, medium-sized amps. amps you know i mean i love especially you know some of the gibsons and the premieres from the 50s or some of my favorites but you know on a gig it's just not going to cut it
SPEAKER_00:it's great so you also have you know with all the gear that you sell you know tremendous business you've got there you you've got your website which is badass harmonicas right so that's where everyone can go and find your mics and amps and all the other wonderful you sell cables like megami cables that are sort of specially set up for the harmonica mics and you sell all sorts of merchandise t-shirts jam tracks and rings and things it rings with harmonica it's quite fancy one of those actually and um yeah so you've got great stuff is that your main website now the badass one or your dennis grunling one or you know you sort of go in between the two still
SPEAKER_02:i'd say yeah i mean the badass harmonica.com is the main one i do have dennisgruling.com it's just kind of a gives a little history on me and all that kind of stuff but i mainly keep up with the badass harmonica one on a regular basis just because when i'm not on the road you know um fixing gear and selling gear and updating my webinars and all that stuff. So there's a lot more there for sure.
SPEAKER_00:And you also got, there's also a bands in town site that you've got where you could, people can see all your gigs. You've got plenty of gigs coming up in December, so people can check you out. Whereabouts are you playing in December?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. In a few days, we're going back East. So we're playing in Wheeling, West Virginia. We're playing in Delaware. We're playing Asbury Park, New Jersey, up in New York state near Rochester and Syracuse and you know, outside the Boston area and then, then Pyrmont, New York at the turning point. So a lot of kind of my old hangs and other places up in upstate New York for this run. So it'll be a little colder than I would be at home, but it'd be good to see a lot of old friends and a lot of the clubs that I love out there.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely. Yeah. So, uh, people should definitely go and check you out playing. And of course, if they want any gear, you've got a tremendous selection on your website. So people can go and check that out and get themselves a nice Christmas present as well, maybe. So you could probably even deliver it out East, right?
SPEAKER_02:I have that out before, yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So it's been great to speak to you today, Dennis. So thanks so much for joining me, Dennis Grinling.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much for having me, Neil. Really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:Once again, thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast. Be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zydle Harmonicas. Thanks to Dennis for joining me today. A tremendous player, and if you want some of the coolest harmonica gear available, then his badass harmonica website is hard to beat, as well as his great webinars where he deep dives into a wide range of playing techniques and all things harmonica. You can also tip Dennis to help support his obsessive devotion to the harmonica. The link is on the podcast page. Thanks to you all for listening again. Episode 100 is up next, and we'll be out in time for Christmas, so be sure to check that one out. I'll leave you now with Dennis playing with the Nick Moss Band, cutting the monkey's tail.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah!