AN INTERVIEW WITH SHAWN HALL Around the world with 80 great harmonica players Sam Spranger Editorial Team
After interviewing chromatic virtuoso Cy Leo last issue, I continued my journey ‘around the world with 80 great harmonica players’, and was lucky enough to speak with Shawn Hall, better known as ‘the Harpoonist’ from the duo The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer. The duo have shown a clear bridge for blues to move from its traditional roots into the 21st century. Purists, for example, will enjoy the 2008 self-titled debut album, while progressives will love their modern blues approach exhibited on albums A Real Fine Mess and Apocalipstick. Based in Canada, Shawn has gigged across the world and was kind enough to talk to me about all things harmonica. What are you looking forward to post-lockdown? I just co-wrote a song with Gordie Johnson (from the band Big Sugar), an amazing guitarist and long-time friend of mine. It’s hilarious, as he’s based in southern Texas and I’m in the farthest point in Canada, but we go way back. The song is called Show Me The Green. It’s pretty classic blues, and I’ve enjoyed returning to my roots after my more progressive projects. I think The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer is the best name ever for a harp/guitar duo, can you describe your progression from traditional blues to your more modern sound? Sure – we started out as a short-lived coffee house duo with a view of taking our music careers back to basics. Just folk blues, acoustic harp, Gibson hollow body guitar and ‘porch stompin’’ for percussion. We did that for three or four years as we toured through the Rocky Mountains through the chitlin circuit around the whole of Canada (about a 1,500km route!). But the audiences got bigger and louder! So we adapted by adding magnet-based percussion by the fantastic Pete Farmer. I started using pedals (including an octaver, delay, envelope filter, and lone
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The magazine for HarmonicaUK
