Mark Hummel’s harp ‘Blowout’ show is preserving the revered art harmonica blues, but it ain’t easy.
He had no burning ambition to corner the market on the world’s greatest blues harmonica players. But after getting a bracing shot of energy from bringing together a bevy of top harpist at the San Francisco Blues Festival in the early 1980s he was eager for more.
Over the decades the Blowout has featured just about every major harp player on the scene, from James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite and Billy Boy Arnold to John Mayall, Lee Oskar, and Howard Levy. For the 30th anniversary lineup Hummel is joined by fellow harp experts Sugar Ray Norcia, the J. Geils Band’s Magic Dick, John Németh, and the South Bay’s Aki Kumar.
“So many people featured on the Blowouts have passed on,” Hummel adds,” Snooky Pryor, Lazy Lester, Carey Bell, James Cotton, William Clarke, Sam Myers, Norton Buffalo, James Harmon. It’s gotten a little bit hairy. The old guard is gone and the second generation is dwindling.”Given the rigors of the blues life, third- and fourth-generation players are also facing health challenges.
“I would have had to sell my house to pay for this, but friends and family and fans loved what I do and wanted to see me keep on doing it,” Németh said. “I really couldn’t believe it. You play this music for the love of doing it. You travel around the world and it doesn’t pay very much. If it did I’d be able to pay for good insurance. It wound up working out and everybody took care of me.”
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