Paul Appleton

This issue, my interview is with Stafford-based diatonic player and HarmonicaUK member Paul Appleton. He has been playing the harp for over 14 years now, originally inspired by the likes of the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Walter, and Paul Butterfield, to name but a few. Paul has since carved out his own unique style of harmonica playing, which can range from raw and aggressive to elegant and sweet.

Photo by Steve Luff

But how did it all start?

Paul says, “I was given a cheap harmonica as a gift one Christmas. It PAUL APPLETON came with a little book that taught you how to play simple tunes such as Twinkle Twinkle Little By Dave “Dogfish” Colclough Star etc. and after working my way through it, I was hooked and wanted to take it further.” Editorial Team What was the next step? “After some research, I discovered blues music, a totally new genre of music to me, and my blues education began. I went to a music shop in Stafford Town called Guitar and Son and bought a Hohner Big River harmonica. Next stop was a record shop called Collectable Records where I asked the owner for advice. “It’s the blues you want!” he told me. I bought a blues CD that originally came with a Sunday supplement that had a picture of Sonny Boy II wearing his bowler on the cover and featured various artists.” With no previous musical experience apart from playing 3 Blind Mice at school on the recorder (remember them?), Paul started to play from ear by listening to this blues CD. “I can hear influences in my playing, but I’ve never tried to copy anything note for note but prefer to put my own stamp on it whilst honouring the original style.” Carrying his harmonica everywhere, and apart from a few lessons from Mat Walklate to go through positional playing around 6 years ago, he has worked it out for himself. “I not only work out a tune by listening to the harp version, but sometimes emulating guitar and fiddle parts. There are many other instruments I borrow from, even the vocalist.” Paul performs regularly as part of a duo with guitarist Steve Luff, possessing uniquely distinctive vocals, Steve harnesses the raw energy of the acoustic guitar, while Paul’s accomplished Chicago-based blues marries with Steve’s Delta blues approach. He has performed all over the UK with Steve and several other professional blues outfits including The Eddie Angel Blues Band in several of London’s top blues venues.

Photo by Steve Luff

Are you a pucker or tongue block player, or do you take a hybrid approach? “I pucker on hole one and when executing the blow bends, the rest is all tongue blocking. I can really get the sound and also accompaniment with myself that I’m after, the complete Band in the hand thing if you like.” This style particularly suits Paul’s latest interest of Americana, old time, hill country music and gospel, and in 2021 he recorded and released the album Harmonicana, a CD of completely solo harmonica covering the aforementioned genres, and of which a review can be found in this issue. Another highlight in 2021 was when he entered HarmonicaUK’s Player of the Year Competition, at the October Festival, encouraged by mate Russ Turner, and came in joint second (ironically alongside Russ) with his version of Bonaparte's Retreat. Paul has another album coming out soon, a 9-track collaboration with Steve called Educated Man. I’m also delighted that Paul will be writing for Harmonica World and will be tabbing out some tunes with links to tutorials on his YouTube channel where you can find all his excellent content. Paul’s YouTube channel - https://m.YouTube.com/channel/ UCn1GkKGse7x5xTWjjNyskHA Website: https://www.chicagoblues.co.uk/