The harmonica has long been a neglected instrument in Rock music.  In a musical environment ruled by guitars, drums, keyboards, and vocals (including harmonies), the harmonica – AKA mouth organ – is often used as a novelty… and even then, very rarely. There are those artists who have managed to fit the harmonica into their hits – Billy Joel, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, etc. – but by and large, there aren’t many Rock musicians who proclaim themselves as first and foremost a harmonica player. However, if you’re talking about the Blues, that is a completely different story. Blues musicians known chiefly as harmonica players include James Cotton, Sonny Boy Williamson, Charlie Musselwhite, Junior Wells, Kim Wilson (Fabulous Thunderbirds), Paul Butterfield, Mark Feltham (Nine Below Zero), and many others.

TIME CAPSULE:

STEPHEN SPAZ SCHNEE: STONECHILD is just about to be released. How are you feeling about the album and the reaction you’ve had to it so far?  

JESCA HOOP: I feel very connected to the songs on STONECHILD. I feel that I grew as a writer through this process and the songs are communicating from a clarified place. I feel that the songs were served and protected by John Parish in his approach to producing the album. He kept the arrangements simple. Outside of my trusted comrades in art, I am honestly hesitant to pay attention to the response.

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The Blues genre may have spent the last century travelling around the world, but it has remained America’s music. Born from the crust of the earth, the Blues came to life when it was introduced to the sweat of humanity and the darkness buried deep in the hearts of America’s downtrodden. While Blues Music had been around for decades, Robert Johnson’s deal with the Devil helped to propel the genre forward. In the 80 years since that deal went down at the Crossroads, Blues has remained the music of the people. It is also the foundation of practically every genre that has come since – from Folk to Country to Jazz to Rock. The Blues is part of us and we are part of the Blues.

Up through the ‘80s, the term ‘Pop Music’ was not a derogatory term. Technically, it is shorthand for ‘Popular Music’ and didn’t refer to one particular genre. , Pop Music could refer to a Rock band that played songs with substance and melody. The Beatles are a perfect example of what one used to refer to as Pop Music makers. That term could also be applied to the teen idols and the one hit wonders like Frankie Avalon, Edison Lighthouse, and other artists known for a catchy chorus we all remember decades later. None of those artists sounded alike but they easily fell into the Pop Music category. In more recent times, Pop Music has been used to define the current state of the Top 40 – manufactured, paint-by-numbers music written by committee and enhanced by Auto-Tune. Well, I’m here to take the term ‘Pop Music’ back and apply it to artists that best exemplify what Pop Music was, is, and shall always be.

STEPHEN SPAZ SCHNEE: Your 2018 album NO GOOD DEED is just about to be released. How are you feeling about the way the album turned out and the reaction to it so far?

MINDI ABAIR: This album is deep to me. It feels like the band has gelled … we complete each other’s sentences musically and play together so effortlessly at this point. We joined forces as Mindi Abair and The Boneshakers at the beginning of 2015, but I had played with Randy Jacobs for 20 years before that, and Rodney Lee has been in my band for 17 years. Third Richardson is from my hometown. I hear the camaraderie and the friendship and the sheer abandon we have playing together, and I love it. We chose songs we loved, whether we wrote them or someone else did, and we played them like only we would.

In Celebration of Topic Records’ 80^th Anniversary:

An EXCLUSIVE Q&A 

with 

Glen Johnson 

(Project Manager with Proper Records Ltd who oversees Topic Records)

STEPHEN SPAZ SCHNEE: Topic Records, the world’s oldest independent label, is celebrating their 80th Anniversary in 2019. While the machinations of the music business have changed over the years, has Topic’s core musical focus remained the same?

GLEN JOHNSON: Ostensibly, yes.  The emphasis has always been on preserving the voices and songs which may have otherwise gotten lost and to create a space for those that hear those songs to make new recordings of their own.  So, there’s an archival element coupled with a curatorial one.