Q&A: Deak Harp on Rhythm Harmonica and Learning From James Cotton Deak Harp is a renaissance man of the harmonica. He plays in a one-man band and has released the critically acclaimed album Clarksdale Breakdown. He crafts revered custom harmonicas in his Mississippi shop and even offers to host guests in the Delta and teach them the intricacies of old school blues harmonica. Harp learned from one of the best ever: the late blues master James Cotton. He talked to us about what the master taught him and how players can beef up their rhythmic chops. How did you start playing harmonica? I was in sixth grade right around when Whammer Jammer (The J. Geils Band) came out. Someone was playing part of it in the bathroom that day. I talked to my Mom and told her I needed to get a harmonica; that I found what I wanted to do. I bought the harmonica and asked the person I heard playing if they could show me to play. And there was no showing me – he actually said he wouldn’t show me shit (laughs).
RHYTHM HARMONICA… ...with Deak Harp Justin M. Norton
So then how did you learn? I think it might have been a Three Dog Night song and Black Sabbath’s The Wizard (with a harmonica intro from Ozzy Osbourne, who many years later visited Harp’s shop while filming a reality show). I learned those for a little while before my brother hipped me to James Cotton. I found out Cotton was playing in town at a place called the Stanhope House in New Jersey. I got there early and met James, and we hit it off right away. He became a mentor to you, correct? I ended up following him all over. He could be playing in Pittsburgh and I would go see him and he’d ask, ‘Why do you keep following me?’ He offered to hire me for a hundred bucks a day, and on off days he’d pay for my room. He said he had a tour next week, and if I could get to Chicago, he’d get me working. I drove on and off for him for about eight years. Did you have formal lessons with him, or did you just absorb his style being around him so much? I wanted to get the big sound he had. He would sit right beside me and say, ‘Alright now, listen’. At the time I was still puckering, and I couldn’t get
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