harmonicabob

Big Harmonica Bob

was born in 55 and is still just a little bit alive!

Bob has played with famous people and infamous people too! Originally from Long Beach Cal.,and stilll there. Bob can be heard around the Los Angeles and Orange County area with the band

"Big Harmonica Bob and the Outsiders"

His style is his own. His favorites include Paul Butterfield, Little Walter, Big Walter, Magic Dick, and many more...

Big Harmonica Bob is known throughout the world thanks to fm stations like Radio-Total 96.9 in Bucarest Romania, And fm 90.3 in Sacramento California. La Maza in Argentina , wkrp fm Jean Paul ,Things to hear , Mark Smith, the Blues Pilot!

(and many many more in the USA and the World).

Big Harmonica Bob started blowin that harp back in 69 ...

Thats why his hair is gray. At any rate, Bob will be appearing live all over Southern Cal. BHB sings , plays guitar ,and blows the Mississippi Sax.

Bob's C.D. "Straight from The Harp" went to Number One

on mp3tunes.com! Out of about 30,000 C.D.'s.

It is still in the top 4 in Rockin Blues and Electric Blues as of Sept. 2006

Bob had the honor of teaching at the first Jon Gindick Harmonica Jam Camp of 2003. The camp is now visiting various

Major Cities all over the U.S.A.

Jon is one of the greatest harmonica teachers in the World!

One of Bob's solos was played on a NASCAR Broadcast and In Oct. of 2004 Bob again taught at the Jon Gindick Harmonica Jam Camp and played there with Mr. Bernie Pearl and the Jam Camp Jammers!

(You Can Get my Music on itunes! )

Top Secret...my harmonica rig. I started playing through a small keyboard solid state amp. I did it as a joke. When people would see me without the regular Bassman or wanna be little Walter rig they would roll their eyes. Thats the response I wanted. I have played for so long that I wanted my playing to do the talking. I now have a mini stack with the keyboard amp on top and a matching small Bass amp on bottom.

The only problem is unless you get miked through the house P.A. you can't be heard if the band is real loud. In those rare cases I bring another amp and mike myself through if. My microphone is a Radio Shack Realistic cheapo low feq. response junk pawn shop left over. Why? After much trial and error it best matches my amps. Don't be afraid to be different! I once in a while use a Shaker Mic with a volume control just to change up. I also have a bag full of crystal mics...oh yeah, I use an old analog delay for effect....I sometimes play through a Delta Blues Amp with a big 15 inch speaker matched with a CAD mike, but most of the time , I use my solid state rig. I have also played through my little amps while pumped through a Stage pro 100...that combo sounds good. Sometimes miked through the 100, sometime direct. It depends on the situation and the sound I want to get..

A Brief history of Radio Airplay

In 2001 I was asked by other musicians and fans

if I had a C.D. . I never made one until then.

I put together ....

Big Harmonica and Friends...get me outta here.

The C.D. wasn't out too long when I was asked

by Dan Alexandru of RadioTotal to be on his

show. Taxi-Blues is the name of his show.

This is a commercial station in the Capital City

of Bucarest in Romania. Thank You Dan!

Soon after that I began to work with the blues

band The Barnburners. I was asked to send

material to Mario Robles of "Mario's Blues Thang"

at the F.M. Station at the University of Davis

in Northern California. I sent some recently recorded live material to him and he played the cover of "Travlin' South"...that was the first song of me blowing harp heard on the Radio in the USA!

Thank You Mario for your request and for keeping

the Blues Alive in California and the World....

When I made my first C.D. I made it because I love

the Blues. The Second C.D. with the Barnburners

(or The Barnburners with Big Harmonica Bob)

was made for the same reason. These two C.D.s are

now played world wide on Blues Shows in many lands.

In 2003 the C. D. "Blues Highway" was made and it is

also played in the U.S. and in Europe.

The Stations that play them and the D.J.s are mostly

Independent Stations. They play the Blues because they love it too. All the musicians and all the people

all over the world who devote their time to this art do so because they love the blues...Long Live the Blues!

Big Hamonica Bob is now known the world over...

But like all blues people you need to hear him to understand that he is the "Real Deal".

With no Major Label backing Big Harmonica Bob and the musicians he plays with are Spanning the Globe with the Blues!

( Big Blues Dog Productions is

an Independent label and brings you the blues of

BHB and friends. We work hard to do it well.)

If you are a Blues Harmonica fan then I think you will see why BHB has such a wide appeal.

His band is really a great sounding band. Not average at all, this band is

beginning to really kick some serious blues fanny!

Big Harmonica Bob....Long Live the Blues

...come and see a show...you will be glad you did

As of 2006 we play at The Blue Cafe in Long Beach Ca.

at 7pm on The 1st and 3rd Sunday of Every Month!

I would like to thank all of our friends, families and

fans for the support you have given us.

Thanks also to all the places that have let us play the Blues.

The World Famous Buffalo Chip ...

Martini Blues, The Blue Cafe, The Coachhouse , The Galaxy, The Oasis, The Classroom, The Black Watch Pub, The Main Street Blues Club... Thanks to Martin Brown of "Live" Magazine.

Thanks to Steve and Fay for the endless web site help.

Thanks to Limo Lady Sue, who knows the songs by heart. Like em or not. Special thanks to all the Radio Stations and the Blues show hosts from around the World who have played our songs and who keep the Real Deal Blues

alive by letting us be a part of their shows.

Thanks to all the people who have given us a hard time....really...that is why we can play the Blues from the Heart...you dirty....

Thank you Bro Ryan and Big Bob Kuhn for crowd pleasers...

"I'm tore up" We have had some good years and it has been hard work.

Thank You Everybody...

You can thank yourself if you read all this...

Long Live the Blues

We Are Comin' to get you....Los Angeles and the World!

Big Blues Dog Productions is the Independent Record Label of Big Harmonica Bob.

This label is 110% the Blues.

Big Blues Dog Productions has produced many

C. D. s since it began in 2001. All of them are regularly played on Blues Radio Shows around the world!

Keeping the Blues Alive is what this is all about.

Independent blues production is a labor of love...

Like so many other musicians around the world

Big Harmonica Bob does it for the love...baby.

Thank You Blues Radio Stations around the world

for helping the "little guy" to be heard. Many of

the D. J. s also do it for the love!

If you need a great act for your show or event

please let us know....

Long Live the Blues!

More Big Harmonica Bob info...

I started playing the Blues as a teenager some (gulp) thirty years ago.

I started to play guitar and harmonica about the same time. My first love was always the Blues. When I first heard the amplified harp I just couldn't believe how great it sounded. When you think about it the amplified harp predated the distorted guitar sound .

Like most young teens of the time I first heard the amplified, electri-fied harp from people like Paul Butterfield. Being from the Love and Peace generation and growing up in California I didn't think of

what "race" the sound came from....just the sound.

Like most other guys I later learned of Little Walter and the other great harp players who predated my favorites of that time.

Magic Dick of the J. Geils Band has been accused of being a "Rock"

harmonica player as well as Paul Butterfield.....but they were a great part of the music world of the time and did a lot for the harmonica. Lee Oskar was also an influence on my generation of harp people...doing horn parts and super clean one note things...always his own style..

When you think about it...Little Walter was very progressive for his time also. In the never ending quest to find out who developed the distorted Chicago sound...I would say he was the best known.

Big Walter Horton was one of the early innovaters and Snooky

Pryor...oh well ...it depends on who is telling the story.

I just recently had a chance run in with James Harman and I got to ask him

many questions about these early Blues harp players. He told me many James Bond top-secret things about the rigs these guys used. James knew many of

these greats while they were alive and he was nice enough to answer some of my questions about what type of mics and amps these guys used.

He talked about Big Walter Horton, Little Walter, and he told many stories

about his life ...which is also very interesting to say the least.

It was nice to hear from a harp player who has spent the better part of his life involved in the Blues world. Don't you wish he would write a book?

...Just thought I would give a little more information to those who wanted to know a little more about me and the harp related things going on in the blues neighborhood today....Thanks and Long Live the Blues!

For the record. I have many different types of amps and mics that I use

to blow harp with. I am always finding new combinations. One thing of interest is that many of the old timers used what you might call "pawn shop"

rigs. Today there are endless combinations of amps and mics.

One small tip is....whatever amp you use...in order to distort the sound to the place where you get the amp to give you that "Chicago Sound" you need to

turn down the treble and mids as they cause feedback. Turn up the amp until

it starts to distort or "break up" your tone. Turning up the Bass is usually

O.K. as those frequencies are not likely to feedback.

You need to use a mic that has a poor frequency response. That can be found on the printed info that comes with the mic. 20-20,000 range is

too good. You need a mic that has a narrow range so feedback isn't a problem. That is why the cheesy mics of the past worked so well for harp playing...and why special tubes are put into "harp amps" today. Oh well just a note...the possibilities are endless....