Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast

Liam Ward interview

• Neil Warren • Season 1 • Episode 140

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Liam Ward joins me on episode 140. 

Liam is from the north west of England and first took up the harmonica in his late teens. His youthful zeal turned into his career when he chose to become a full-time harmonica player over becoming a school teacher. Liam plays in numerous bands, including his own band, two duos and in an Oasis tribute band. In addition to the harmonica he also plays various jug band instruments including the musical saw, washboard, spoons and the Irish bones. 

Liam runs one of the most popular online tuition sites: LearnTheHarmonica.com, which he started in 2014. He is also a regular workshop leader at harmonica camps, teaching at the EuroBlues week and the Hohner festival in Trossingen in 2025. And he has recently been selected as the face of the Hohner Blues Harp.


Links:

Liam’s website: https://www.liamwardmusic.com/

Online harmonica school: https://www.learntheharmonica.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/liamwardmusic

The World Harmonica Festival (Hohner): https://worldharmonicafestival.de/

Videos:

Learn The Harmonica YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Learntheharmonica

Liam’s critique of his first recording with Lonesome George: https://youtu.be/JNZvs2Mm-mk?si=Jlo-OCWmR4G4rkGP

Lyndon Anderson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGwAnYpxWT0

Oasis Supernova Tribute Band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDqWIuwKbQ

Liam playing the Fat Tone amp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ilXKHh2r6I 


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
--------------------------------
Blue Moon Harmonicas: https://bluemoonharmonicas.com


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Neil Warren:

Liam Ward joins me on episode 140. Liam is from the northwest of England and first took up the harmonica in his late teens. His youthful zeal turned into his career when he chose to become a full-time harmonica player over becoming a school teacher. Liam plays in numerous bands including his own band 2GOs and in an Oasis tribute band. In addition to the harmonica he also plays various jug band instruments including the musical saw, washboard, spoons and the Irish bounds. Liam runs one of the most popular online tuition sites, LearnTheHarmonica.com, which he started in 2014. He is also a regular workshop leader at harmonica camps, teaching at the Euro Blues Week and the Horner Festival in Trottingen in 2025, and he has recently been selected as the face of the Horner Blues Harbour. This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas. Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world, at www.zeidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zeidel Harmonicas. Hello Liam Ward and welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. Well thanks for coming back because of course you were on in the Bob Dylan episode in January 2025 and you provided lots of really great insights into that. I really appreciated your input into that so expecting more today Liam.

Liam Ward:

Yeah it was great fun. It was amazing to hear about the other guys and their involvement in the film and I'd done a little bit of research sort of you know I always Love Dylan's music, but I geeked out ahead of that one. I haven't done any prep for this one, but I feel like I should know about my own life.

Neil Warren:

So yeah, those insights were really great. And I love geeky research into harmonica. That's what I'm all about. So yeah, that'd be great. So I think you're originally from Manchester, are

Liam Ward:

you? Yeah. So I grew up in Macclesfield and in Manchester, so a bit of both. So Macclesfield, being kind of just south of Manchester and actually the town where John Mayall was born. Although I didn't know that growing up there, but since then I learned that.

Neil Warren:

Okay, so I'm from the northwest of England. I'm from Blackburn originally, but I also live down south. You live in Stroud in Gloucestershire now in the south

Liam Ward:

of England. I do, yeah. So I've swapped northwest for southwest. It's quite nice down there. So what's it like around Stroud? It's a pretty small town. So, I mean, it reminds me of Macclesfield, you know, really my hometown, but it's smaller. But it's an old mill town and it punches above its weight in terms of music and art. So, you know, there's festivals and there's lots of musicians and hippies around, people without proper jobs, my kind of place. sounds

Neil Warren:

good yeah so let's talk about your how you got into the harmonica so uh looking into your uh into your many youtube videos and things i found a video of you playing um with your family band lonesome george and your first recording which you very bravely shared and then critiqued yourself on this video so So was that your, this family band, your first foray into music?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, I kind of wasn't expecting that to come up. This feels like a Graham Norton interview when he pulls up a video and goes, oh, remember this from when you were a kid? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I grew up in... a music-filled home. So my mum studied drama, my dad didn't really play instruments but he was a proper muso so their record collections were great and I grew up around music a lot and my sisters got into singing very early and as a teenager we ended up with a family band. It was actually, first off it was kind of a Latin jazz band slash Brazilian drumming band so I started out as a drummer and And then later when I took up the harmonica, my stepdad said, you know, let's turn it into a blues band. And kind of, for my benefit, it was really nice. So Lonesome George was kind of a function band, but with a rhythm and blues leaning. And Lonesome George... The name comes from, it was the last remaining member of a certain species of tortoise. And sadly, he died because they couldn't get him to mate with anyone else. So yeah, we made an album and we put a tortoise on the front of the cover. And since then, my mum and my stepdad have moved on to a canal boat that they live on full time now. And they've called that Lonesome George. So if you ever round the canals of England and you see Lonesome George, that's my mum You started

Neil Warren:

playing harmonica then at this point when you moved from drums to harmonica and this sort of time that that's what started you, was it?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, I mean, I had drum kit lessons at school, but even then I was relatively late getting into it. I think I always loved music and I always felt a deep connection to music and felt moved by music. But I was kind of one of the few out of my many siblings because I'm one of eight. in terms of the step family. I was one of the few that wasn't really doing anything musical till I was a teenager. I do remember my mum likes to tell a story that when we were toddlers, me and my sisters, she took us to kind of toddlers music thing where you just get to bash drums and hit things and whatever, you know, xylophones or whatever. Maybe harmonicas, I don't know. The teacher or the, you know, the person running it when we left sort of Day one. Day two. Absolutely loved it, really shook to it.

Neil Warren:

And you said in the Bob Dylan episode that Bob Dylan was your inspiration to take up the harmonica, was that? It was the first one you heard, wasn't it, and he drew you to it?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, my record, my parents' record collection rather, there's a lot of Dylan and some Neil Young and some other, you know, a lot of the folk revival stuff, the American folk revival stuff. So yeah, I was hearing Dylan and actually, you know, I remember getting a book of Teach Yourself... Dylan's songs and I can't remember if it sort of taught you the melodies or it tried to teach you the solos I mean good luck trying to tab them out but because I've tried but I remember trying to learn these and then I got some lessons with Matt Walklet in Manchester and And I have so much to thank Matt Walklet for. He was great to me. He was extremely encouraging. I loved his sense of humor and he always sort of knew the right thing to say. But anyway, he kind of went, you're not listening to blues. You want to listen to blues, you know, and gave me a few blues albums to listen to. And again, that was another light bulb moment that I just thought, oh, this is the real stuff, you know.

Neil Warren:

yeah and of course I've had Matt on the podcast before yeah and he's a great guy great player and like I say a great sense of humour yeah nice north west humour yeah and you also did some of Howard Levy's online stuff as well didn't you so you sought out tuition in your earlier days oh

Liam Ward:

absolutely yeah I joined Howard's school for a while I got some lessons with Lyndon Anderson up in the North East fabulous harmonica player because I've lived up in Durham and Newcastle for a little time so I had some lessons with Lyndon Anderson and I also lived in Canada for a year and got some lessons with Carlos Del Junco again someone one of my favorite players who are highly raped

Neil Warren:

well i'll second that korlos is uh is fantastic yeah

Liam Ward:

and i also got to play with loads of canadians when i was over there i was in toronto and there's so many incredible musicians and probably looking back i'd be embarrassed to see myself butting my way into all sorts but it's amazing what an english accent can do out there

Neil Warren:

well and it shows that enthusiasm is critical right particularly in those early days you know you just get a It's got to be all consuming, right? And you've just got to want to do it sort of badly.

Liam Ward:

Yeah, it's funny actually because I've been recently trying to recapture a bit of that. I've become very focused, I suppose, and maybe that's meant that... I've sometimes had tunnel vision. the beginner's sort of mentality, you know?

Neil Warren:

We're talking about other instruments you play, so we're getting into the bands you play, but you play various jug band and skiffle instruments as well. So, for example, you play the musical soul. We're talking about a band. A tremendous instrument. I've heard someone, this workshop thing I went to playing, that's quite a great sound, spooky sound it is, and, you know, Joe Harp and washboard and jugs and spoons and all this sort of stuff. So did you... Did you start playing that stuff as a result of playing drums, or was it when you started getting into jug bands that you picked those up?

Liam Ward:

It was definitely the jug band stuff. So the drums I enjoyed, and I loved that sense of rhythm, and I do think it instilled a sense of rhythm in me, but it just didn't feel right, which was why I then kind of went on to the harmonica. But when I started playing jug band stuff, it just so happened that I was kind of the guy in the band... who had his hands free at various points so then everyone else in the band was kind of like well you've got to play the jug oh okay tick i'll do the jug oh why don't you play the washboard on a few tunes oh okay oh wouldn't it be cool if you learned the musical saw you know and it kind of just went one by one and then before i knew it i'd ended up being kind of the novelty noise man which i'm pretty happy with i can't play any real instruments

Neil Warren:

Well, I hope we're not counting the harmonica and the novelty noise count there.

Liam Ward:

Well, you know, when I joined the Musicians' Union, I remember signing up. It was online. and they had a drop-down sort of menu where you selected your instrument. And I couldn't find harmonica. You had to put your main instrument. I couldn't find harmonica. Right down at the bottom, there was a category, novelty, and harmonica was under it. So even the Musicians' Union, who I pay my dues to.

Neil Warren:

I'll have to get that changed. We mentioned jug bands there. So the first band I've got you down, obviously after your family band, is the Rumble Strutters, which you released an album with in 2016. Rumble Strutters Was this your first

Liam Ward:

serious band or did you have ones before this? I suppose it was the first band I recorded with. I mean, apart from the family band, which was just kind of a bit of fun. But there was a few bands I played with in Manchester after being up in the northeast. And then moving to Canada for a year, I ended up back in Manchester and I played with a band called Bullets and Bourbon, but we never recorded anything. And there was a cool band I played with called Minor Blues, young lads. They were dead good and I thought they were going to go somewhere. And then it kind of fizzled out and then I moved away. So there was a few things. I think there's always bands that you... play with before you find sort of something that really goes somewhere. And I was sitting in, again, I was sitting in with bands in Manchester, whoever would have me. But yeah, the Rumble Strutters were the first band I've kind of recorded with proper and wrote music with. So I moved to Swansea, South Wales. Someone was looking to start a jug band I didn't really know what a jug band was but I thought yeah I'll join a jug band and the next thing I knew I was in I was in this trio with a guitarist Jonathan Nicholas and a mandolin player John Toft we were writing stuff but also playing this 20s and 30s stuff

Neil Warren:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I know you interviewed John Sebastian yourself, who I had on the podcast a while ago, and you were very interested in his Jug Band stuff. And so, yeah, that interest in the Jug Band is great stuff in the pre-war side of things.

Liam Ward:

Yeah, he sent me a... a CD and a little signed photo in the post out of nowhere, really. John Sebastian did, nice guy. And he'd written on it something about, you know, watch out for that English jug band. And the other two guys in the band were Welsh, so that didn't go down very well. Yeah, no, he was

Neil Warren:

a really lovely guy, yeah. So, so nice. And one thing, just to comment, you know, you've done great in your harmonica career. You work full time in harmonica, yeah? So you're a professional harmonica player, yeah? Yeah, yeah. So at what point did you decide to do that. And what do your family say?

Liam Ward:

So at one point I had a plan to be a school teacher and I even applied for the course. I applied for a PGCE to sort of qualify as a teacher and it got to the summer prior to the September, you know, when the course would start. And at this point I'd met my now wife. She sort of said to me, hang on, You're working in a care home, which I was, so I had a zero hours minimum wage contract in a care home in Manchester, and you're teaching and gigging harmonica stuff between that. But I can tell that the music is really what you want to do. Do you really want to take this qualification? It's going to cost you money. It's going to... set you down a certain route. And she was like, just do the music. And one, I thought she's a keeper. And two, it sort of gave me permission. It was that outside permission to follow something I really wanted to do. Not that my family had pressured me to do anything in particular, but I think I'd had girlfriends in the past who'd maybe wanted me to get a quote unquote proper job, you know. But yeah, my wife saved me basically.

Neil Warren:

Well, we all say every good man needs a good woman behind you. Sounds like that's her. So, you know, one thing I've massively admired about you is, you know, the way that you're been successful at least relatively successful in you know in working full-time as a harmonica player right and teacher so it's not easy in these days a lot of people I've talked to on the podcast you know they were more in the heyday of bands when you know you could get good paying gigs you know you could tour around easy you're not saying you can't do that now but it's harder these days right to do that sort of thing there's not quite the number of gigs there were and so you've done great and how you've done that a lot is in diversifying a lot what you've done yeah you've got numerous bands which we'll talk through in a minute you've also got all your online content and your school so So you diversified very early. Is that something you decided early on? I don't know if I

Liam Ward:

decided it early on or if it was just part of my personality or makeup from the start. I've always been someone who's not wanted to put my eggs in one basket. And although you could view going it alone and trying to be a self-employed musician in that way, I suppose my kind of trying to diversify as a natural approach when I decided oh okay I am gonna be a full-time musician that's gonna be it I then almost immediately tried as many things as possible and that was just it was probably just a natural thing for me it was like I need to make some money you know so obviously I looked into teaching and I looked into playing with as many bands as possible and I was thinking workshops session work and you know putting videos out and I was just trying everything anything and everything and i was i was working long hours not earning anything just because i i felt if i'm gonna do this i've got responsibility to myself i've got responsibility to my partner to give it my all and to sort of make it work and i'm also i'm quite organized and i kind of keep track of things so i was kind of having these rather tragic but sort of management meetings with myself, you know, every month or whatever. How much have I earned this month and what did I earn it from and what's working and what isn't? What can we let go? What should we push more energy into? That kind of thing. Me and a cup of tea and some biscuits, you know, talking to myself.

Neil Warren:

Yeah, and that's not easy with music, right? Because often you want to follow your passion, you want to do gigs, you know, you want to do the music you like. So to make that decision on more of a kind of business level, I guess, tough at times.

Liam Ward:

Yeah, absolutely. But I mean, I do think that If you're passionate, you are making it easier for yourself to make something work. And I'm not saying that if something fails, that it's your own fault. Absolutely not. I got really lucky in many of the things I've done. But I think if you truly believe that you've got something to offer and you truly want to help people, whether that means teaching them things or providing music that makes them happy, I do think that gives you a bit of an edge I'd also think you just got to work hard and be organized and keep to your promises. The amount of musicians who are way more talented than me, but struggle to make a living, you know, they're not necessarily organized and they make promises they don't keep. And the reality is people employ. people who are reliable whether that's musicians or teachers or whatever they want someone who'll turn up and do the job i very much have moments of imposter syndrome i'm not the greatest musician in the world i know that and there are much better professional musicians and amateur musicians than me sometimes i'm giving workshops and some of the guys in the workshop are better than me which is embarrassing you know but it's not all about talent you know we know that you can see that from the pop stars we have some of them are terrible you know but it's you know you've got it you've got to

Neil Warren:

just do your best But what it has done is it's allowed you to concentrate a lot of your efforts on developing your harmonica playing. And all the teaching you've done and all the videos you've done and looking at all these different styles and songs, all that helps to build up your palette of your harmonica playing.

Liam Ward:

Yeah, and I think teaching really helps with your playing because you have to kind of work out what it is you're doing. Because a lot of the time we're doing things that we don't think about, which is great. And you don't have to know what you're doing to be a great player. Lots of players don't teach and lots of players don't. are very instinctive and that's great, but I've found that certain aspects of teaching have really helped me understand what I'm doing and then helped me to change and adapt my playing to try and further it.

Neil Warren:

. Again, you've done a great job on getting your name out there. People know who you are. And this is culminated in your greatest song so far being the face of the whole blues harmonica, which was announced in April, I think, this year.

Liam Ward:

Yeah, I was dead chuffed about that. I mean, Hohner have been great to me, I have to say. So I got an endorsement with them a couple of years ago. So I play their harps and I record with them. I try and remain open-minded on the teaching side of things. And I specifically said to Hohner when I linked up with them, look, my teaching has to be a separate thing. It can't be a Hohner-sponsored harmonica. So I review other models. For me, I don't care who makes it as long as it's great. But anyway, Hohner that have been great to me and they just approached me and said, how do you fancy being on the blues harp? And for me, it was possibly the first ever harmonica I played. So I was over the moon. It's ridiculous to think, you know, they sent me these boxes in the post and got my man mug on the front, you know, and yeah, dead chuffed with that.

Neil Warren:

Yeah, well done. Yeah, quite an honour. And so, well, just chronologically, I think I've got you down as releasing your first YouTube videos in 2014. Is that right? That sounds about right

Liam Ward:

because I would have been living in Swansea at the time and I can remember I used to have to move the bed in our bedroom so I'd have a wall I could sit against. It's a tiny little house. Yeah, and record my videos there and I didn't have a clue what I was

Neil Warren:

doing. I was just making it up. From what I remember, Adam Gussow was the one who first started releasing YouTube videos about harmonica and then all of a sudden that was a big thing and he was the first out there. So it was after that, right? But was it as a result of that that you saw that gave you you know what point you could bring them out and why

Liam Ward:

yeah I mean I I definitely was aware of I was aware of Adam Gussow and I was aware of Christelle Berton they were the two that I was seeing lots of videos of early on yeah I didn't know at the time and I don't think he knew but apparently Ronnie Shellist was the first so Adam Gussow was told Ronnie that Ronnie was the first but I don't think I'd actually seen Ronnie's stuff at that time but yeah when I when I decided you know finally took the plunge and thought right I'll be a full-time harmonica player YouTube was just sort of it was already a big thing and as you say there was other channels on there I think maybe Tomlin was already doing stuff but I wasn't that aware of it I'm not sure I just thought I'll put some videos out and actually I think my initial thought was maybe if I put stuff on YouTube that shows I can play this instrument, I'll get session work. It seems ridiculous now, but I was sort of thinking maybe somehow people at a studio somewhere will see a video and they'll go, he's a good harmonica player, you know. But I think rather than thinking I'm going to start a channel and a harmonica school and be a teacher that people are aware of, it was just one of these many avenues. It was like, get a video out, harmonica related, and kind of see what happens. Hit and hope, you know.

Neil Warren:

So your first videos weren't tuition ones, they were more of you playing?

Liam Ward:

I think they probably were tuition, but I think I'll put a lesson out because maybe people will watch it because they'll want to learn how to play, but maybe somehow that will get me known as a player. I don't know. I mean, I was in my early 20s and I didn't really know anything about business and I didn't know anything about YouTube. It was just put it out and see.

Neil Warren:

And this was the time you sort of decided to go for the harmonica career? Yeah.

Liam Ward:

Yeah absolutely so I mean I was doing other stuff I was trying to link up with local music shops which kind of still existed at the time you know little coupons if you buy a harmonica come to me for a lesson and this stuff and i was sort of traveling around south wales all over the place i couldn't even drive at the time so i was on trains and buses and coaches trying to sort of make connections and link up with people so i was doing all sorts of things and i was playing in about eight bands as well you

Neil Warren:

know so as you said your first proper recording with rumble strutters in 2016 so two years after this video you put out so Did you have a couple of years where you were really sort of pushing the teaching or did that take some time to take off?

Liam Ward:

I mean, there was a time when I was just flat out doing both. So I was playing with the Rumble Strutters. I'd also set up my own blues band. So we were rehearsing regularly as well. I was in a kind of a jump jive band. I was doing some duo stuff. I was doing some Irish stuff, actually, very briefly with a guy down in Swansea. So I was doing all of this other stuff. And then I was teaching... locally, people coming to the house, but also on, it was Skype at the time, it was kind of before Zoom took over, but I'd be teaching someone in Australia, someone in India, someone in America. So I was getting up and staying up late at night because of all these different time zones. But my wife was a student, so she had no income. So it was like I just had to do whatever I could to try and make a few quid. It was pretty flat out and it did actually get to a point where I was doing too much and I was burning myself out and it was physically doing me in and I had to kind of try and balance a bit more. But I wouldn't change it and it was great. valuable experience, you know.

Neil Warren:

Yeah, well, it certainly sounds like you've worked hard. So you mentioned other bands there. So you're also in the Jake Leg Jug Band, which is still going, right? So the Rumble Strutters isn't going anymore, but you were in that for a few years. So it's not a jug band, is it? But it's kind of that early pre-war stuff, isn't it? Yeah, so the Rumble Strutters

Liam Ward:

was probably closer to a jug band in a way. We were just a trio and we made a couple of albums. The Jake Legs I joined a little bit later. but made seven albums with them, I think. I think I did five studio albums and two live albums. Their stuff is all 20s and 30s. so with the rumbles I was doing originals but with the jakes all kind of I say I was going to say covers but most of the songs people hadn't heard of so they're these kind of quite obscure old songs as you say there's jug band in the name but it's kind of jazzy it's you know it's kind of skiffly I'm actually not in the band anymore recently i took a step back because again they were very busy and i just got so many other things that i want to do so i depth with them sometimes i sit in as a guest but um that's recently been something i've stepped away from i did almost 10 years with them absolutely loved it and it really they everyone in the band really helped me you know expand my playing and repertoire and you know again the novelty noises

Neil Warren:

So you were playing also the kind of various percussion instruments with these, the skiffle, jug band stuff with these as well, weren't you?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, mainly washboard. And then recently I've been learning a bit of spoons and bones. I love the bones. bones are so cool so I've been learning them recently I've been playing them at Irish sessions as well because they work well for those

Neil Warren:

well you know with all this washboard spoons bones etc I mean do you do the one man band thing with the harmonica as well with those I

Liam Ward:

don't but I do try to sort of work these things into the set so I Like I've got a duo gig tonight and I'll do a bit of washboard, probably do a bit of saw. I have to say, by the way, I'm not a very good saw player. It's not always musical saw with me, it's just saw. But I'll give it a go and I can get a noise out of it.

Neil Warren:

But when you're playing the washboard and stuff, are you playing harmonica on a rack or is that just separate? Yeah, I do a bit of rap playing. My rap playing has improved. I'm not out of this world. Okay, so you mentioned your own band. So is this band the Liam Ward band?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, so that's my baby. So all originals, released a couple of albums, classic rhythm and blues thing. Although I do try and put some interesting little bits and bobs in there when I can.

Neil Warren:

And so you write the songs and the lyrics because you are the main singer with this band, don't you?

Liam Ward:

Yeah,

Neil Warren:

vocals and harmonica. Someone up there is shining on me today Yeah, I don't know

Liam Ward:

And then it's basically guitar, bass and drums, although the albums are fleshed out a bit more. So there's a bit of brass on the first album. Both my sisters sing on both of the albums actually as well. So there and there, which is nice. The second album we made is an album called Shine and it's all in aid of the Stroke Association, which is a charity helping people dealing with stroke and their families. And they were really good to my dad. So I wanted to make an album to give something to them. So every penny of every sale of the album goes to them. The title track, Shine, is all about my dad. So I've got my sister singing on that and some other tracks on the album, which is kind of nice, sort of full circle going back to, you know, when we were kids.

Neil Warren:

My son, you were born a... And then, let's say you've diversified a lot, so you're also in two other current acts, which is you with Mark Cole, who, as you say, you're playing with tonight. So that's a duo that you're playing with, Mark Cole, yep?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, so me and Mark, I'm dead excited about it. Mark is, you know, an experienced musician and songwriter. He's also an eclectic musician. He can... The way I see it is I play objects and he plays instruments. He'll play... any instrument you put in his hands, which is amazing for gigging and recording. He's also a really good songwriter. So I find that I'll take an idea to him and he'll improve it. So we released an album, Blues and Other Truths. Was it last year?

Neil Warren:

Yeah. And

Liam Ward:

with just today, day of recording, just today released a new single, which will be on an upcoming album because we're recording a new album at the minute. Again, all originals. It's kind of bluesy, but, you know, there's elements of all, all aspects really of American roots music in there because we're both big into, you know, more than just blues. We just love all of that American roots stuff. Hey

Jason Ricci:

everybody, you're listening to Neil Warren's Harmonica Happy Hour Podcast, sponsored by Tom Halcheck and Blue Moon Harmonicas. Out of Clearwater, Florida, the best in custom harmonicas, custom harmonica parts, and more. Check them out, www.bluemoonharmonicas.com.

Neil Warren:

Malcolm Thorne is another guy you play with in a duo, so that's more bluesy, I think, is it?

Liam Ward:

It's more acoustic. It's kind of bluesy, but it's sort of a little bit folky. Malk plays some nice finger-picking guitar stuff. Me and Malk, again, write stuff. So we've released an EP, You Are My Medicine, a few years ago, and we'll probably release some stuff again in the future. Oh,

Neil Warren:

nice.

Liam Ward:

That's nice.

Neil Warren:

That's nice.

Liam Ward:

Malk also plays in my band, so he was on my second album with the Liam Ward band, and he'll probably be on some future stuff as well. And he's also recorded some backing tracks with me for my school. So me and Malk do a lot together. Yeah,

Neil Warren:

and then another really interesting thing that you do, another current band that you're in is Oasis Supernova, which is an Oasis tribute band. So these tribute bands get some good crowds, right? So you're playing to good audiences with these, are you?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, they're getting some really good gigs. great

Neil Warren:

fun for me and big sounds you know. So Masterplan is a song which Mark Thelton played at Harmonica with him so you play Masterplan with him. Did you play other songs with them on harmonica? Because there are more harmonica on a few of the songs, but not that many Oasis, don't they?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, there's a few, and then they kind of put me on a few that don't have harmonica on. You know, Champagne Supernova, there's like a part I can play kind of thing. So I'm not always playing on tracks that... Did have harmonica at the time So they've sort of come up with arrangements Like the brass often play string parts That have been arranged for brass So they've kind of, you know, come up with their own way of doing things

Neil Warren:

Then it was a good time with Oasis doing their tour now And the tickets being mega expensive I'm sure they're probably benefiting from that, right?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, absolutely I think, you know, he had this plan before COVID But then COVID happened and that stopped it And then sort of he finally got it going And it was just at the right time To be honest, for me, it's just another example. I just feel so fortunate for the things that sort of fall on my plate in life, and this is another one.

Neil Warren:

So, yeah, so as I said, great diversity again, playing with numerous bands. I mean, you're covering a lot there. You're having to learn a lot of songs, right? You met them all in various places, jam sessions, people you knew, yeah? So you're still keeping up these numerous bands, and that's paying off for you.

Liam Ward:

Yeah, I mean, I just... like to say yes to opportunities that excite me you know I sort of take the approach in life that if it's something that excites me then it's probably going to be a good idea also when things start boring me you know I'll walk away from them because I think it's really hard I'm not good at faking it I'm just not good at it I think people can tell if I'm not into something you know they see it on my face or they hear it in my playing or whatever you know so I just keep seeking out exciting opportunities and I love the variety I mean it's all within a certain it's not like I'm doing Mongolian throat singing you know it's all sort of western blues based to a greater or lesser extent but I do like the variety and the challenge I mean some of the Jake Legg songs they were sort of orchestral arrangements in the 20s and then i've had to work out a way of playing them so some of them i'm kind of playing on chromatic and i've tried to work out i'm not really a chromatic player so i've just sort of worked out something that works and I love the challenge again like with the rap playing I love the challenge of trying to improve that it's all for me exciting because I love the instrument I love music and it and it's a pleasure and a privilege to play for people

Neil Warren:

so we'll get on now to your um your teaching more so as we mentioned um you know you've done you started youtube videos back in 2014 so you've got The very successful teaching website, learntheharmonica.com. So you definitely got the best name there as well. So well done for snaffling that up earlier on. So, you know, so you've done great. You're definitely well known. You know, again, your smiling face is forever popping up on my YouTube channel about your latest video, which you're still putting out every sort of two weeks, a new video at least, aren't you?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, every fortnight or so. It's become a bit less structured in a sense that at one point, Well, for many years, I was doing a video every week. And then during lockdown, I was doing a couple of videos a week because, you know, I was stuck at home, nothing better to do. And then I've dropped it a little bit. So yeah, probably every other week rather. I love doing it. And I love learning songs. So, you know, I mentioned earlier, I'm organized and I very much am. And I'm a man of my word, but I've never been... A businessman, I don't think. I've never been an entrepreneur. You know, I know I have friends who are, you know, very good business people. And I know people in the harmonica world are very good business people. For me, it's always been driven by passion and curiosity and excitement. So if I teach something on YouTube, it's almost always because I just fancy learning it myself or I'm excited to tell people about it, you know. So it is very organic and natural for me, but I will keep doing it as long as I have things I'm excited to share with people.

Neil Warren:

Yeah. One thing I really noticed about a lot of the content you put out is you often put kind of like pop songs or, you know, or famous songs which have got a harmonica part, you know, sort of Bob Dylan's obviously an example, you know, Beatles songs, country songs, pop rock songs. So is that a deliberate thing to try and make it more mass appealing or you think that, you know, the harmonica fits well in all those wider genres rather than just blues

Liam Ward:

or... It's probably not either of those things. It's probably as simple as I like that song, I want to learn to play it. And if I'm going to learn to play it, I may as well teach someone else how to play it. I've sort of ended up with this platform where I can share things with people. It gets to a relatively large amount of people. And so I just kind of think, well, if I'm going to work out a song, I'm going to tab it out. That's my method. I'll tab it out and that'll help me play it i may as well put that tab online and if i'm going to do that i may as well put a video out to so people can play along with it you know so i do a lot of these play along videos just encouraging people to to get playing different things so it's really a very natural sort of instinctive thing i like song i play song i teach song you know

Neil Warren:

So of course you've got your learntheharmonica.com website, which is your own dedicated teaching school, and your YouTube videos kind of supplement that. So you've got, you know, people can subscribe and get the additional content from your teaching website and

Liam Ward:

things, yeah. Yeah, so it started, as I mentioned, just as an experiment, and then it was an experiment that grew. So I started a YouTube channel, and then I thought, well, what if I have a website? And at some point, I must have bought the domain. At one point, it was just a catalog. It was essentially just pages of links to my YouTube videos. Then it sort of became a thing where there were blog posts. And then I started putting up specialist lessons on specific blues songs, teaching solos from classic blues songs. And you could buy them for a few dollars. And then it expanded dramatically. massively during lockdown because I recorded loads of courses. I sort of, I set myself quite a strict target of each month I was going to write, record and release a new course. It was pretty intense, but it meant by the end of lockdown that I had, you know, a school basically. And so now people can, they can still buy an individual course from me, but they can also join my school and you pay a monthly or a get a lifetime membership and that means you get all of my courses you also get lots of other resources and you get a forum where you can submit things for feedback from me and that kind of thing so it's happened bit by bit and it's become what it is and I love it because I've got this amazing opportunity to connect with harmonica players worldwide who are inspiring to me and You know, and then often I get to meet them in real life. You know, it happened in London yesterday. I did London harmonica camp and this lady came up and said, when you walked in, I thought, where do I know him from? And it was YouTube. You know, she's sort of seen me on YouTube and I've had it other places around the world. So yeah, just almost every day feel incredibly fortunate.

Neil Warren:

That you mentioned the London harmonica school. So you tapped into this, you know, this kind of teaching, you're teaching at Euroblues, I think in the UK next week, aren't you? Yeah, I'm doing

Liam Ward:

Euro Blues. So that's with Michael Roach, who runs it. Incredible guy, American blues guitar player, whose daughter Sadie is a wonderful singer and piano player as well. I sat in with them in London recently. But yeah, Michael runs these week-long intensive courses and he often gets, it's usually Joe Falisco or this year he's got Grant Dermody. He had Dennis Groening last year, so he'll always have an American harmonica player coming over. He's almost always got Will Wild, who is there again this year, and then he'll have Eddie Martin and then one other, so I'm the other harmonica He also does an acoustic weekend, which I did earlier in the year as well. And yeah, they're just fantastic events. They're not just for harmonica. So if people attend, they can learn guitar, mandolin, vocals, all that stuff as well.

Neil Warren:

You're also appearing at Trossingen and teaching at Trossingen and playing at Trossingen this year, yeah?

Liam Ward:

Yeah. It's a bit daunting, to be honest. I mean, the players who are there, but I just keep saying to myself, just go and do your thing and hopefully it connects with some people. But yeah, amazing to be able to get to do that because I believe it's only every four years it's like the world cup i'm going to the world cup

Neil Warren:

yeah this is the the world championship one every four years they do run other courses but the big ones every four years yeah

Liam Ward:

yeah they asked me if i could do i can't remember it was the masters or something last year they actually wanted me to do a workshop on this was at the the masters thing and on rack playing with guitar. And I just had to say, look, I do play rack, but I am not a guitarist. So if you want, you know, if you want someone to do that, I'm not, I'm not your man. And I thought it was better than trying to pretend I was something I wasn't. So I'm not sure who they got.

Neil Warren:

I think Eddie Martin did

Liam Ward:

that. Yeah. Well, that makes sense because he's much, he'd be much better.

Neil Warren:

Yeah.

Speaker 05:

You've

Neil Warren:

written for various magazines, Blues Matters and Harmonica World Blues in Britain. So, you know, you've won the UK National Harmonica League Player of the Year. Well, what category was that

Liam Ward:

in? I think the category was blues and rock. I think I once entered the jazz one as well and sort of placed... third or something they had some chinese guys over who were incredible wonderful stuff yeah really you know they they had trained hard

Neil Warren:

so uh the 10 minute question next then liam so uh thinking about your teaching head on if you had 10 minutes of practice what would you spend those 10 minutes doing i would do the thing

Liam Ward:

that i am weakest at that i is the thing i want to improve the most so for me it's all about prioritization You know, most people don't even have 10 minutes a day, do they? So if it was me, I would maybe work on my tongue flutters because that's something that I know I'm out of practice with and need and want to improve. So for me, I don't think there's a blanket answer for everyone. I think it depends where you're at and you've got to be honest with yourself and say, what are the things I need to improve?

Neil Warren:

So do you practice now? Obviously, you're busy with doing songs with other bands, doing your teaching material, do you find that you practice or are you so busy doing other stuff that you count that as your, you know, maybe legitimately as your practice?

Liam Ward:

I mean, I try to practice, but I do struggle to find the time because I do think that there's a big difference between playing with someone and even learning repertoire and then practicing techniques, practicing music, aspects of your playing practicing improvising rather than just playing with a band you know i do think they are different things and i've kind of built into my courses approaches to soloing with the view to in your practice routine putting some time aside to trying out different approaches consciously and you shouldn't ever really have to be thinking consciously when you're playing with a band so they are very different things there's what you're doing at home in your practice and then there's what you're doing on stage or with a band and in terms of myself probably at the minute in all honesty almost all the practice I'm doing is actually learning tunes I'm learning Irish and Scottish tunes just because that's kind of the thing that's exciting me at the minute so I'm pretty out of sort of sorts with with working on techniques and it's something I'm aware of and actually if we weren't doing this today I was going to spend this morning doing some practice but it's I stayed out late in London performing at the camp last night and then I didn't get up early enough to do any practice so I have to say you know do as I say not as I do music

Neil Warren:

turn to the last section now and talk about gear so you've already said that obviously you play honer harmonicas and you're an endorser for them so um what's your favorite brand of honer diatonics these days

Liam Ward:

i mainly play special 20s sort of you know does the job no nonsense um also i've got golden melodies that i'll pick for certain tunes you know the tune is a bit more kind of chromaticized in terms of the changes i might play a a golden melody because i'm going to be aiming for single note melodies on a range of chords, Thunderbirds for my low harps, and then a CX-12 usually for chromatic, although I'm really not doing much chromatic. I can't really do much on it, and it's really kind of just for the odd tune. And at the moment, because I'm not gigging any sets that sort of need anything in particular, it's generally just like... you know pull the chromatic out for a minor blues sort of third position sort of cheating it kind of thing

Neil Warren:

well I think that's what every diasonic player should be able to do right because it's sort of easy to make that transition to play third position yeah so i think that's a minimum that i i believe every harmonica player should be playing third position blues

Liam Ward:

there's no reason not to you know get yourself a chromatic it's just another way of giving yourself a slightly different texture and you can apply pretty much everything you're doing you know more or less on the diatonic across and and you know the third position the minor stuff like do it you can do it you may as well so

Neil Warren:

So your diatonic sound, even the CX-12, you mentioned they're plastic-bodied mainly, apart from the Thunderbird. So you prefer the plastic-bodied over the wooden bodies for a particular reason?

Liam Ward:

Well, I found, you know, when I've played marine bands in the past, I had big problems with swelling, cracking wood and stuff. And, I mean, the better wood... you know the the ones that are sealed properly that isn't such a problem but i just got used to i was happy with the plastic combs i've never found for me that it's made a huge difference in terms of tone and for me i just need something durable and you know if you're gigging a lot you want it to survive the night and i want it to be easy to clean and so um i i used to play the low low tuned special 20s they stopped doing them so that's the only reason i'm playing the thunderbirds lovely harmonica but that's the only reason i'm playing it

Neil Warren:

yeah have you

Liam Ward:

tried the rockets which you know they're kind of new yeah i can't really get on with the rockets i don't know why they just i've got some and hona sort of you know kept trying to get me to play them but i can't seem to get on with them i don't know they just i think it's it is very much a personal thing for me um of you know i believe it's for everyone i don't think it's I think the cheapest harmonicas from any brand are no good. Once you get above a certain sort of price range, they're all good harmonicas in its personal taste. What do you play?

Neil Warren:

Well, my two favourite are either the um hona crossovers or the uh zyda lightnings um so the zyda lightnings are very nice it's a bit more premier but yeah they're very nice they're sort of metal bodies so they're my two sort of favorite but i have numerous harmonicas you know i have special 20s i really really like i have one rocket which i think is really great but um yeah some of them is how that particular harmonica is set up and if it's just well responsive and stuff because it's often down to that

Liam Ward:

i found i've tried metal bodied ones and i don't like how heavy they are and how cold they are on my lips

Neil Warren:

It's

Liam Ward:

funny, it's just a personal thing.

Neil Warren:

So I've seen that you do have some custom harps, like you use some sugar cane. So do you use custom harps much still?

Liam Ward:

Not really. I mean, cane was very nice to me when he started doing his stuff and he sent me some and they play great. They're almost too good. I don't gig them, basically. I might record with them. I mean, recently I've been thinking about getting... getting some harps customised because I'd quite like to pick up again on trying to play more chromatically on the diatonic and my overblows aren't very good and so I'm kind of thinking of doing some getting into playing some custom harps but for 99 of what i do it's you know it's not going to make a huge amount of difference so i'm pretty happy with things out of the box sometimes i might tweak them a little bit but yeah i'm not very good at that either so um yeah pretty much out of the box

Neil Warren:

yeah so you mentioned overblows though i know you did do a youtube video on overblows so it's not something you use too much though

Liam Ward:

uh i do use it i mean i probably i probably use them every gig i just don't use them a lot so you you know, there'll be lots of songs where I'm not using and there'll be some songs where I'm using them a little bit and it's, and it's usually probably just the six overblown, maybe the full. Yeah. at various points maybe the five but it's not a lot I'm not that good at it I'm certainly

Neil Warren:

not You're not attempting to play the diatonic chromatically so you know it's more

Liam Ward:

No although I love that and I kind of wish I could do it I wish I could do everything you know all these amazing players out there I wish I could do it all but alas not at the moment maybe maybe next time we speak I will have learnt it Yeah and what about your embouchure do you like to use? mainly tongue block although I say that with these Irish tunes I'm learning I'm lip-pursing them all you know so it does depend on context and there are times I switch to a to a lip-purs and actually saying that when I'm playing anything that is more you know when I'm playing some of the jazz tunes with the jake legs and I am using a golden melody I'm lip-pursing all of that music So it all depends on context, really. I don't u-block. But I have heard quite a lot of people say that that works well for Irish stuff. So maybe I'll need to sort of get into that as

Neil Warren:

well. Yeah. Interesting. When I play tunes, I still tongue block on the diatonic. I'm so used to tongue blocking the diatonic now that I don't like going to purse into me. It just doesn't feel right. But I can do it, but I just don't feel comfortable. But it's interesting because I mainly purse on the chromatic. So what about amps and microphones? What are you using these days?

Liam Ward:

I've got a big... well I say big it's my biggest amp I've got a Vice 2x12 so down sort of London way a bit past you further into London somewhere I'm not sure sort of near Wembley maybe I'm not sure and they kind of make classic amps so I've always liked the idea of having a you know 4x10 but money and weight and all of and you know feedback and all of that stuff so i've kind of never really had the the classic sort of bassman amp but that that 2x12 is the closest i've got i've also got a fat tone sort of i think it's 25 or 30 watts that's custom built amp so i have a friend dave over in monmouth and he built me an amp to my spec so He's put in it, at my request, an analog delay built into it. Because I kind of don't like having loads of pedals and stuff on stage and mess. So I said, look, he said, what do you want in it? And I said, well, delay's kind of the only thing I use. often could you sort of build something into the amp that is essentially like an analog delay pedal but within the amp and so he did it so that's really cool and so that's my medium sized amp and then I've got a baby little Harp Gear HG2 that I never ever really use except I did use it the other day recording something with Mark Cole because for recordings and studio and stuff you know a little amp is quite nice actually because you can sort of crank it up but it would just be drowned out immediately if anyone else was you know playing

Neil Warren:

Yeah, I saw your video with a fat toe when you went round to his studio. So he's got like a little pedal as well, hasn't he? Have you ever tried that?

Liam Ward:

Yeah, I've got one of his fat boxes, which it's a preamp, essentially. So it's really cool because you can... you know get that big amplified sound without needing to lug a big amp around so as long as you've got a way of plugging it into the PA you know you can just go straight into the PA and it sounds great I've used I've gigged with it for certain shows where it's not really worth me lugging an amp around or I just don't want to sounds great he also built me a mic Dave is a great guy and yeah he's great at building things and he's built all sorts of things over the years and At various points they've all been available commercially. I think at the minute Fat Tone are only selling the microphones. I think because the amps were so much work and he likes to do them custom and that means he wants you to come into his studio to sort of go through exactly what you want because that's the fun of it for him. So it was very labour intensive. And what about microphones? I mainly just use a blows-me-away, so a Greg Heumann custom mic. It is a pretty basic model in terms of what he offers. One of his wood mics. Yeah, so I didn't get any fancy... I didn't get my name etched into the grill. I didn't get anything. I didn't even get... I wish I had, but mine's matte, but I didn't get the kind of the coating. But I kind of wish I did because I think they look really cool. but I just got kind of the basic model. The only thing I made sure I got was the stealth volume control at the back of the mic because I do like to have control of volume. And then as I say, I've got a fat tone mic. I've used, you know, the classic green bullets in the past, not, not particularly good ones kind of some of the later i think mexican made ones um but what i love about the blows the greg human one is just how light it is i don't really like having heavy stuff in my hands when i'm playing so i really like

Speaker 05:

how

Liam Ward:

light it is

Neil Warren:

So you mentioned you don't really use effects, much apart from some

Liam Ward:

delay. I do have some lone wolf pedals, but I don't really use them very often, if at all. If I'm using the big amp, so my vice amp, I'll use a delay pedal with that. And I do have some other pedals, but they rarely get used. I just feel like I have so many things to learn on the instrument that gear is just another distraction for me. I like the sound of certain things, and if I go, oh, I like the sound, I want an amp that sounds like that, great, boom. But one, I've never been particularly technical in terms of how things work and all of that stuff, unlike someone like Mark Cole, who's amazing at fixing amps, taking things apart, fiddling with stuff, all that stuff. And two, I just want to learn the instrument. I'll get into gear when I've mastered the harmonica. which is obviously an admission that I'll never master the harmonica. So, yeah,

Neil Warren:

I just use what works, you know. Yeah, no, nice. Well, it's also a faff setting up, isn't it, if you've got loads of gear to worry about. Yeah. Great to speak to you, though. Obviously, you've got coming up, lots coming up. You're doing Euroblues next week. You're doing Trostingen end of October. You've got a gig tonight. You've got numerous gigs with your numerous bands, and you're still doing lots of work with your teaching and online material as well. Yeah, so great. Well done with all your work, and thanks for joining me today, Liam Ward. Thanks a lot. It's been an

Liam Ward:

absolute pleasure chatting to you.

Neil Warren:

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 Liam for joining me today. His modest nature belies the remarkable achievements of his successful career, with his LearnTheHarmonica.com tuition site and YouTube videos, one of the most popular resources available on the internet. And he's also a great player. If only we could bottle up some of Liam's drive and enthusiasm, we would all be better harmonica players. Thanks again for listening. Remember to check out the HarmonicaHappyHour.com website for some more resources, including the ability to find a genre of the harmonica that is most of interest to you by selecting categories in the top menu. From blues to classical chromatic to Irish, MIDI harmonica and the retrospectives on the great players of the past and more. And I always welcome suggestions about players you would like to hear interviewed on the podcast. See the contact page on the website to get in touch. I'll sign off now with a song from the Liam Ward band. This is Gina from the Uprising

Speaker 05:

album. Uprising

Neil Warren:

Bye.