Rick Estrin and Nathan James join me on this retrospective on James Harman
Rick is based in the west coast of the US and first knew of James in the 1970s, and they became friends when they spent time in Amsterdam together
Rick and James both write their own lyrics for blues songs
He was a true artist who made no concessions to anything and he should have been a household name
Nathan James played in the James Harman band from age 19, from 1998, playing in his band for 23 years
Nathan has also played with Kim Wilson, Billy Boy Arnold and Mark Hummel among others, and plays some harmonica on a rack
James called Nathan his favourite guitar player on various occasions and they connected well
James played on some of Nathan’s albums
His mother started teaching James piano at age four, and James found his father’s harmonicas under the seat of the piano stool
Used to play hammond organ in the first bands he was in but realised he wanted to get up to sing, play harmonica and dance
Also played some guitar and drums but when he started playing in bands he just sang and played harmonica
Sang in a church choir when younger, going from singing the church music to singing the devil’s music
First heard blues from local busker ‘Radio’ Johnson, and started playing with him
Nathan heard that James’ uncle was a famous Old Timey musician
James was very proud of his southern US heritage and his father was a police officer
He was an outlier, a unique and brilliant guy
First started getting into bands when moved to Panama City in Florida at age 16, deciding he wanted to be a performer after seeing Junior Parker playing in a black club
Part of the first generation of white blues players and probably took some harmonica lessons from Walter Horton
Moved around various cities, including Miami, New York, New Orleans and Chicago, where we went hoping to meet his idol Sonny Boy Williamson II
Played in various bands before joining the Icehouse Blues Band in Southern California, where he got the name ‘Icepick’ James
Rod Piazza was also playing around the same area, and The James Harman Band supported Canned Heat several times in the early 1970s
His band supported and backed big name blues players who were on tour
Recorded first nine early singles in 1964 and another album in 1972
In 1977 released formed the James Harman Band, and didn’t like to have ‘blues’ in the title, although was a blues player (with some R&B thrown in)
Blues was changing through the 1970s to be more rock based, which was far removed from what the James Harman Band played
Well known for bring through young musical talent, including Hollywood Fats and Kid Ramos (and Nathan James!)
Despite a bit of a hard reputation Nathan always got on well with him and never dictated what Nathan should play in the band
Very well known as a songwriter
BB King inspired him to find his own voice with the music
When young the black blues players said he was a boy with the voice of a man
More on his songwriting and observational skills
Groove was critical to the sound of the band and he would move to the rhythm of the song
Thank You Baby album released in 1983, probably his first proper release
Those Dangerous Gentleman album released in 1987, had the track Kiss of Fire which was used on the Oscar winning movie (Best Actress): The Accused
Released Extra Napkins in 1988, which won a WC Handy award, and saw him performing live Rick for the first time around then
Such a creative songwriter and one of Rick’s favourites: The Clown
Live albums, including Strictly Live in ’85 and his live performances often included singing off-the-cuff
Some strong albums released through the 1990s, including Black and White
Rick liked the album Do Not Disturb which had a theme of motels and being on the road
Held artistic control over all parts of his music
Harman wasn’t overly concerned with the technicalities of the harmonica, using it as a tool to serve the song
Rick thinks it’s more important to say something with your music than to just have technical skills
Listened to a lot of different music and drew inspiration from many different sources
William Clarke has a similar sound to Harman and was probably influenced by him
Played with ZZ Top, recording on three of their albums and was good friends with Billy Gibbons from that band
Billy Gibbons had wanted to record him but James resisted that
Played on some Kid Ramos albums in the early 2000s, including a great solo on the album Greasy Kids Stuff
Played on the 2013 album Remembering Little Walter, but didn’t play chromatic on Crazy Mixed Up World, but a solo tuned diatonic: Marine band soloist
May have received the Marine Band Soloist from Junior Wells, and Harman never played any chromatic (that Nathan can recall)
Played in Europe numerous times, often as a guest with other bands (including with the Swedish band Trickbag) due to economics
Nathan produced and played on the album Bonetime from 2015 and played on Fineprint from 2018
Nathan produced the album Didn’t We Have Some Fun Sometime, released posthumously from some live streamed performances
Shakedown’s Th’owdown album made with Belgian Shakedown Tim
Liquor Parking was the last Harman album released (2019) while he was still alive
James Harman passed away in May 2021
Nathan released recordings from livestreams done in the early part of the Covid pandemic, on the Didn’t We Have Some Fun Sometime album, where James was losing his voice due to illness
Had a few tours cancelled due to Covid
Rick’s 70th birthday party was last time he saw James and some other players
Was a true artist right up until the end and that came first above everything in his life
Won various awards through his career, including numerous WC Handy awards and was entered into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame
Played Hohner Marine bands
Mostly played in second position, but played some third and first too
Embouchre: Rick thinks he mostly puckered
Amps: liked to use vintage equipment, but later on started using a Quilter amp
When Rick first met him he used two Fender Vibroverbs with 15 inch speakers. And he removed the reverb
Used a graphic equaliser and understood frequencies
Spent some time working on re-coning amps
Used a mic that was gifted to him by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons
Nathan still has the same band as that which played with James Harman, and they often reminisce about him
Rick recounts a story when he had broken ribs and Harman kept him laughing
