Tom Ellis interviews Neil Warren on episode 101.
Neil started out playing blues harmonica in his hometown of Blackburn (with it’s 4000 holes). He progressed into learning jazz, taking jazz chromatic lessons for several years, and then folk music. Neil currently plays in two bands around his local area, an acoustic act playing blues and folk, and an electric band playing different genres, such as ska and funk and blues, including use of the DM48 midi chromatic.
He has won three categories of competitions at the UK National Harmonica League festival and helped organise the Chromatic Weekend festival for them for several years.
The discussion then turns to focus on the Happy Hour Harmonica podcast, how it got started, how he sources the people to interview, what the podcast tries to do and some of his own favourite moments from the first 100 episodes.
Links:
Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com/
Contact podcast:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com/contact/
Transcription website:
https://www.harptranscripts.co.uk/
Harp Keys: showing key of harmonica used on over 1000 songs:
https://www.harptranscripts.co.uk/harpkeys.html
Rev John and the Revelations:
https://revjohnh490546051.wordpress.com/
Greg Mayston band:
https://www.folkbluesandamericana.com/
Harmonica UK (was National Harmonica League):
https://www.harmonica.uk/
Videos:
Roseanne soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSE51IAUZ3M
Dark Eyes at UK Chromatic Weekend:
https://youtu.be/fh664YnZcFc?si=mowTd5gPtJJdBvNc
Blair Athol (Scottish folk song):
https://youtu.be/eZ-FT48q05Q
Blowing The Family Jewels:
https://youtu.be/fnOZrIr7AE4
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
Support the show
Tom Ellis interviews Neil Warren on the podcast
Tom recently wrote an article on Neil Warren, and the podcast, which appeared in the Autumn SPAH magazine, Harmonica Happenings
In the article Tom compares the podcast to the efforts of Rick Beato in the US, who is documenting musicians on his YouTube channel
Neil is from Blackburn, Lancashire, in the north west of England, now living near Reading, not far from London
First inspiration for playing the harmonica was Bruce Willis
Then discovered blues harmonica from a low budget record label releasing albums on cassette tapes and started playing along to learn
Played with my friend, Philip James, after he moved to the US and started playing guitar, while I learnt harmonica in the UK, and he came back to the UK and we played together
No other harmonica players around in Blackburn when he started playing
Decent blues scene in North West of England, with Colne and Burnley festivals
Quite a good music scene in the pubs at the time (early 1990s)
First inspiring live gig was by a band called The Harpbreakers
Was also a big fan of Bob Dylan, and his not so great harmonica playing
Discovered more blues harmonica players partly through a blues magazine series featuring different artists
Started playing in a college band with friend who had returned from the US
Joined second band after a visiting workman to the house heard me playing harmonica in my bedroom
How became aware of the National League League (UK harmonica club)
Played a little chromatic when younger, and took it up seriously from age 30
Learned to read music a little when younger, then more seriously later
Had lots of jazz harmonica lessons from the great UK jazz chromatic player, Julian Jackson
Learnt diatonic initially by playing along with records, and had a small number of lessons on diatonic
Always been a dedicated practiser, and follow the Deliberate Practise model now (Peak book by Anders Erikson)
Started learning violin during pandemic, enjoying the classical approach to learning
Also play mandolin (which is same tuning as violin)
Like to play folk music too
Plays in an acoustic blues and folk act, with Greg Mayston
Other current band is Rev John and the Revelations, playing blues, ska, a little reggae and funk
Always keen to show the versatility of the harmonica and not just play one sort of genre or sound
Discovered the DM48 midi through the podcast interview with Erik Lekholm and Jason Keene
Helped organise the Chromatic Weekend festival for the National Harmonica League in the UK
Won three categories at the National Harmonica League competition: blues, jazz and diatonic melodic
Gigging 3 or 4 times a month at the moment while having a day job
Other bands played in, including a trio playing blues and quite a lot of gypsy jazz
The current harmonica scene in the UK
Ran a gig listing website for harmonica gigs in the UK, which allowed Neil to get to know lots of the UK harmonica players and was a precursor to starting the Happy Hour Harmonica podcast
Podcast covers different genres, and not just be about blues harmonica
How people are found to interview on the podcast
Qualifications for people to interview on the podcast
One of main reasons in starting podcast was my own extensive song collection of many harmonica players, and finding the ‘best’ harmonica songs
HarpKeys page shows key of diatonic harmonica used on over one thousand songs
Transcribing has been a part of Neil’s learning process, including for jazz
How structured and pre-planned are the interviews?
The plans to bring more of different aspects to the podcast, such as female players, and players from different regions
Example of sourcing Marko Jovanovic, a German player with Serbia roots
Podcast keeps away from the instructive side of harmonica, which is deliberate
Jazz player Gregoire Maret and want to represent chromatic harmonica strongly in the podcasts
Other research conducted for the interviews
Some of own personal favourite interviews from the first 100, but learns something from every one
Interview with Canadian Mike Stevens
Juzzie Smith and juggling harmonica
Seydel’s sponsorship of the podcast
Interviews with Hohner and Seydel and the gear oriented podcast episodes
Covering the topic of altered tunings and different approaches and development of the harmonica
Learning from the harmonica stories and successes of the people interviewed on the podcast
Podcast is documenting harmonica in our time, such as Los Angeles scene via Rod Piazza, and Piedmont style with Phil Wiggins
Possibility of writing a book based around the podcast
The podcast is a labour of love
Talking to so many different players about the gear they use often results in wanting to buy the gear they talk about
Improvement in quality of harmonicas in recent years
Does some basic set-up of harmonicas
Plays a little bass and chord harmonica, with the chord always getting a good reaction from a crowd
Has a gig bag with all harps needed for performing
Pedals, including the Line 6 patches from Richard Hunter
Plans to do more retrospective episodes, following the success of the 100th one on Little Walter
Top the Little Walter episode by having an interview about me!
The plans for the podcast
How playing is effected by podcast interviews
Spotify playlist is a key accompaniment to the podcast and other wider listening
Now reached the age of 50, intend to play as much music as possible, and attend the SPAH conference
Tom has been a great help behind the scenes of the podcast
