Harmonica Hinds

Last updated
Harmonica Hinds
Harmonica Hinds - 2014 Chicago Blues Festival.JPG
Hinds performing at the 2014 Chicago Blues Festival
Background information
Birth nameMervyn H.G. Hinds
Born (1945-01-04) January 4, 1945 (age 79) [1]
Trinidad
Genres Blues
Occupation(s)Musician, social worker
Instrument(s)Harmonica, guitar
Years active1960–present
Labels CD Baby, Wolf Records International

Harmonica Hinds (born Mervyn H.G. Hinds, January 4, 1945) is a Trinidadian-American blues singer and musician. He moved from Trinidad to Canada and then settled permanently in Chicago. He was influenced by blues musicians and started playing harmonica at an early age. He became known in the 1970s, when he played on the house band of Theresa's Lounge in Chicago. He shared the stage with and played on albums by many blues musicians for more than five decades, making his first recording in 2008. Further recordings were made in 2010 and 2012. He has been described as one of the most talented Chicago blues musicians and remains active on the Chicago blues scene.

Contents

Life and career

Hinds, born in Trinidad, moved from his birthplace to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and then to Toronto. [1] [2] He moved to Chicago in 1977 and then to New Orleans from 1976 to 1983, and then permanently back to Chicago. [1] Hinds was first captivated with blues harmonica while in Canada when he saw Sonny Terry play. He started playing the harmonica between the age of seven and nine. He started singing the blues in 1968. [2] He received his first music lesson on the street from Lafayette Leake while living in Toronto. When he was studying sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, James Cotton invited him to Chicago. He was also encouraged by New Orleans musicians David Lastie and George Porter. [2]

Hinds became known in the 1970s when he played in the house band of the famed Theresa's Lounge in Chicago, often sharing the stage with Junior Wells. [3] He played on the album Muddy Waters: The Hoochie Coochie Man, produced in 1984. [1] He has played on albums for many other blues artists, including Koko Taylor, Eddie Taylor, and Mud Morganfield, and has appeared on stage with many blues musicians, including Pinetop Perkins, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Louisiana Red, Willie Dixon, Magic Slim and Willie Kent. [3]

Hinds has worked as a blues musician for more than five decades. He remains active on the Chicago blues scene with his own shows and often performed with Eddie Taylor Jr. [4] He continues to play a regular gig at Buddy Guy's Legends. [5] He performed at the 14th, 15th, 20th, 24th, 29th, 30th and 31st Chicago Blues Festival. [6]

Music and performance style

Living Blues reviewer Jim DeKoster described Hinds's first album, Finall (self-produced under CD Baby), as "one of the most enjoyable albums in the classic Chicago blues style to come down the pike lately". [7] Blues Revue critic James Porter, reviewing Finally, wrote that Hinds is "one of the most talented musicians on today's Chicago scene." [8] Critic Matthew Warnock, in a review of Hinds's album Anything if I Could, wrote that Hinds and his band understood the "key emotion that makes the blues the legendary music that it is" and played with "emotional intent behind each note." [9]

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muddy Waters</span> American blues musician (1913–1983)

McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howlin' Wolf</span> American blues musician (1910–1976)

Chester Arthur Burnett, better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chicago blues, and over a four-decade career, recorded blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and psychedelic rock. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Blues Festival</span> Annual music festival in the United States

The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June, that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and always occurs in early June. Until 2017, the event always took place at and around Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, adjacent to the Lake Michigan waterfront east of the Loop in Chicago. In 2017, the festival was moved to the nearby Millennium Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Walter Horton</span> American blues harmonica player (1921–1981)

Walter Horton (April 6, 1921 – December 8, 1981), known as Big Walter (Horton) or Walter "Shakey" Horton, was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming, shy man, he is remembered as one of the premier harmonica players in the history of blues. Willie Dixon once called Horton 'the best harmonica player I ever heard'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carey Bell</span> American blues musician

Carey Bell Harrington was an American blues musician who played harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass guitar for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s before embarking on a solo career. Besides his own albums, he recorded as an accompanist or duo artist with Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Taylor, Louisiana Red and Jimmy Dawkins and was a frequent partner with his son, the guitarist Lurrie Bell. Blues Revue called Bell "one of Chicago's finest harpists." The Chicago Tribune said Bell was "a terrific talent in the tradition of Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter." In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lurrie Bell</span> American blues guitarist and singer

Lurrie Bell is an American blues guitarist and singer. His father was renowned blues harmonica player Carey Bell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lafayette Leake</span> American musician

Lafayette Leake was an American blues and jazz pianist, organist, vocalist and composer who played for Chess Records as a session musician, and as a member of the Big Three Trio, during the formative years of Chicago blues. He played piano on many of Chuck Berry's recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie C. Campbell</span> American blues guitarist and singer

Eddie C. Campbell was an American blues guitarist and singer in the Chicago blues scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Moss</span> American blues musician

Nick Moss is an American Chicago blues and electric blues musician. He has released thirteen albums to date, all on his own label, Blue Bella Records label. He has played with Buddy Scott, Jimmy Dawkins, Jimmy Rogers and the Legendary Blues Band. More recently he has performed fronting his own group, Nick Moss and the Flip Tops until 2008 and then shortening the name in 2009 to Nick Moss Band. The music journalist Bill Dahl stated that Moss possesses "mastery of the classic Chicago sound."

Barrelhouse Chuck was an American Chicago blues and electric blues pianist, keyboardist, singer, and songwriter.

Bob Stroger is an American electric blues bass guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has worked with many blues musicians, including Eddie King, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Eddy Clearwater, Sunnyland Slim, Louisiana Red, Buster Benton, Homesick James, Mississippi Heat, Snooky Pryor, Odie Payne, Fred Below, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, and Billy Davenport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonny B.</span>

Bonny B. is a Cambodian-Swiss blues musician and harmonica player.

Bob Corritore is an American blues harmonica player, record producer, blues radio show host and owner of The Rhythm Room, a music venue in Phoenix, Arizona. Corritore is a recipient of a Blues Music Award, Blues Blast Music Award, Living Blues Award and a Keeping The Blues Alive Award and more. He produced one album that was nominated for a Grammy Award and contributed harmonica on another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Blues All-Stars</span> American blues band

Chicago Blues All-Stars is an American blues band based in Chicago that incorporates elements of funk, soul, R&B and hip hop. Chicago Blues All-Stars is made up of musicians that have been together as friends and musicians for four decades. The band includes numerous inductees in the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame and has been a headliner for shows such as Buddy Guy's Legends featured on PBS and at music venues Kingston Mines and House Of Blues. "Killer" Ray Allison, a W.C. Handy Award winner, and Daniel "Chicago Slim" Ivankovich, who has played with Bo Diddley, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, are the band leaders, co-founders, and Blues Hall of Fame inductees. Chicago Blues All-Stars have recorded with and performed with Chuck Berry, Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, B.B. King, Magic Sam, Gary Moore, Ohio Players, The Rolling Stones, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter.

Edward Taylor, better known as Eddie Taylor Jr., was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He released six studio albums, and a compilation album of his better known tracks, all on the European-based label, Wolf Records. Among the musicians who worked in Taylor's backing band was his fellow guitar player Johnny B. Moore. Taylor also supported other musicians including Moore, Little Arthur Duncan, Willie Kent and Hubert Sumlin, plus Buddy Guy, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Billy Gibbons.

<i>Live in Chicago</i> (Luther Allison album) 1999 studio album by Luther Allison

Live in Chicago is a live album by the American blues musician Luther Allison, recorded in Chicago in 1995 and Nebraska in 1997 and released by the Alligator label in 1999.

Clement W. Triplett who was known professionally as Dusty Brown, was an American electric blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. Over a long career, he variously worked with Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sunnyland Slim, Hip Linkchain, Eddie Cusic, Little Son Joe, Howlin' Wolf, Bobby Rush, Henry Gray, Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson, Lonnie Johnson, Sonny Thompson and Buddy Guy.

Matthew Skoller is an American Chicago blues harmonicist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has released five albums, as well as recording his harmonica playing on other musicians work, including John Primer, Lurrie Bell, Koko Taylor, H-Bomb Ferguson, Toronzo Cannon, Bernard Allison, Larry Garner, Big Daddy Kinsey, Big Time Sarah, Michael Coleman, and Harvey Mandel. On stage, he has supplied part of the backing to Big Time Sarah, Jimmy Rogers, and Deitra Farr.

Ladell McLin is an American blues musician.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Eagle, Bob L.; LaBlanc, Eric S. (May 31, 2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. Seattle, Washington: Praeger; 1 edition. ISBN   978-0313344237.
  2. 1 2 3 Mark Augustine (April 25, 2013). "Harmonica Hinds". Buddy Guy's Legends (Checkerboard Productions). Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Nick DeRiso (2012). "If Speed Was Just a Thought". somethingelsereviews.com. Something Else!. Retrieved October 28, 2013.
  4. ↑ Stephenson, Mike (October 2009). "Harmonica Hinds Finally". Blues & Rhythm (233). Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Buddy Guy's Legends Calendar". Buddyguy.com. Buddy Guy's Legends. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Chicago Blues Festival - Performer Bios". The City of Chicago's Official Site. City of Chicago. 2014. Archived from the original on May 19, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  7. ↑ DeKoster, Jim (December 2008). "Harmonica Hinds Finally". Living Blues. 39.6 (198). Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  8. ↑ Porter, James (Feb–Mar 2009). "Harmonica Hinds Finally". Blues Revue (116). Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ Warnock, Matthew. "Harmonica Hinds Anything if I Could". Harmonicahinds.com. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Finally". emusic.com. All Media Network, L.L.C. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Eddie Taylor Jr./Harmonica Hinds/Tre". Grooves-inc.de. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Wolf Artists". Wolf Records. Wolf Records / Hannes Folterbaue. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  13. ↑ "I Would Give You Anything If I Could". Emusic.com. All Media Network, L.L.C. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  14. ↑ "If Speed Was Just a Thought". Emusic.com. All Media Network, L.L.C. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.