I got into music as a writer and when I think of the people I have played with it kind of blows me away. For gigs I use a number of different guitar players and am in a bit of a transition now. For the last couple of years Jacob Clyde and I played a lot together. That's Clyde in the videos kicking out The Blues are Better and doing some nice fingerpicking on Home (The Carpenter's Song). He's moved to Kansas and I sure miss his guitar. I have a new trio up called Harmonica Buzz & the Natural Facts with Gary Rassmussen on bass and Cass Dufrien on guitar and sharing the vocals. Mo' Kauffey and I have a great time playing each other's music and that we hope to expand in the next year ...
Mike Medicine Crow Iott is another great songwriter who knows his way around the guitar. All of the above I consider great songwriters and I really enjoy accompanying their songs.
I've gigged with National Slide Guitar Champion Rollie Tussing, III and have gigged and recorded with National Thumbpicking Champion Alonzo Pennington ... it's kind of a dream of mine to somehow do a gig with those two.
In someways it has been an advantage being a songwriter who doesn't really play guitar. When i hear a song one way, I try to find someone who is really good in that style." Michigan Mark DePree has added so much to my music. So has Sara Q, Dave Boutette, Jacob Clyde, Alonzo Pennington as well as long time friend Andy Springsteen.
It starts with The Ozark Mountain Daredevils in 1973 and then crystalizes with blues duo Cephas and Wiggins who I first saw play around 1983 or 84. Between that there are all sorts of roots and rock influences including Bruce Springsteen, the early J. Geils Band, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Chuck Berry and all the early rock guys like Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Carl Perkins. All those great Sun and Atlantic Records. Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, Aretha, Soloman Burke, Carla Thomas and of course Ray Charles. Elvis Presley and Costello, Pete Townshend and The Stones. Ricki Lee Jones, Patty Loveless, Dwight Yokam, Steve Earle, Stacey Earle, Marshall Crenshaw, Peter Case and The Beat Farmers. Moving on to harmonica ... Little Walter, Junior Wells, Charlie Musslewhite, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Lazy Lester. Continuing on with blues ... BB King, Freddy King, Bobby Blue Bland, Little Junior Parker, Professor Longhair, Duke Tumatoe, Jimmy Rogers and then there is my motto which is "When in doubt play Jimmy Reed." You couldn't be from Michigan with out being influenced by Bob Seger and Mitch Ryder and I wouldn't be real if I didn't add the influence of all the musicians I've played with >>> Dave Boutette, Michigan Mark DePree, Sara Q, Alonzo Pennington, Jacob Clyde, Mo' Kauffey and Jen Sygit. Way up there personally is Eddie Pennington. Much admired is Steppin' In It from my home town of Lansing, Michigan and as far as songwriters go for me it's John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, all the people who wrote that great 60's R&B and course ... Chuck Berry.
Sounds Like
Roots & Blues Songwriter from Lansing, Michigan
"Harmonica Buzz loves to explore the multiple boundary-crossings among folk, blues, bluegrass and country music. His performance ... promises to drop listeners right into this thicket." Lawrence Constenino ~ Lansing City Pulse ~ 9/15/04
THE BLUES ARE BETTER : Harmonica Buzz w/ Jacob Clyde
recorded for WNIT Public Television's Open Studio in October of 2006
When we play Clyde and I usually like to open up with The Blues Are Better ... a lot of times after that we'll kind of give the people something they know like a Jimmy Reed tune.
HOME (The Carpenter's Song) Harmonica Buzz w/ Jacob Clyde
recorded for WNIT Public Television's Open Studio in October of 2006
When people talk about blues they’ll usually talk about Chicago Blues or Delta Blues, but there are all sorts of blues. This song Home (The Carpenter's Song) was written in the Piedmont style of blues which is a finger picking style developed on the East Coast of the country around Virginia and North Carolina. I wrote this one for a guitar player so don't think I made a mistake when I say “In my hands I hold this guitar."
Anyway … I’m from Lansing and on February 27th, 2007 we suffered some of the deepest blues there is. Tragically we lost Robert Busby ... a man who meant a lot to so many of us in my home town. Robert moved into Old Town Lansing about 30 years ago at a time when not many wanted to live there. He’d move into one building and then when he was finished fixing it up ... he’d move into another.
Maybe you have been to a festival there or have seen a show at his Creole Gallery. We have a real nice Blues festival right there on Turner Street which I have had the priveldge of playing a couple of times ... Up Above My Head, a the tune you can select to listen to on this page, is an old gospel song that Mo' Kauffey and I played to end a workshop held in the Creole Gallery as part of the 2004 Old Town BluesFest. For those of you who didn't know him and those of you who want to hear his voice again ... you can hear Robert Busby inviting people back to the Creole Gallery for the Honey Boy Edwards worshop that followed us.
Robert was a man I knew and I wish had I known him better. He was a very true artist in that he not only created art, but also opportunites for others. I started imagining that maybe one day he was walking down Turner Street and started thinking something like this:
Home, my heaven, is here
I said Home, my heaven, is here
Well if you don't see it now well I see it clear
In them trees and in these hands
Because home, my heaven, is here.
That tree, it falls, for me
That tree, it falls, for me
And when it hits the ground I will raise it up
With this hammer and the saw that I got
Because Home, my heaven, is here
That child, he walks, for me
That child, he walks, for me
And when he grabs my had I will raise him up
To the sun and what ever's above
Because Home, my heaven, is here
That child goes walking
That child goes walking
Wave to me son, but keep on walking
Because Home, my heaven, is with you
So now Home, my heaven, is with you
I said Home, my heaven, is here ... right here with you
In my hands I hold this guitar
As I play these strings do I fill your heart?
Because Home, my heaven, is with you.
UP ABOVE MY HEAD : Harmonica Buzz w/ Mo' Kauffey
recorded @ The Creole Gallery - 2004 Old Town BluesFest
UP ABOVE MY HEAD : Harmonica Buzz w/ Mo' Kauffey
recorded @ The Creole Gallery - 2004 Old Town BluesFest
Up Above My Head is an old gospel tune that Mo' Kauffey and I finished with at the workshop we performed as part of the 2004 Old Town BluesFest. On February 27th we tragically lost Robert Busby who was described as "the most loved man in Lansing. For those of you who didn't know Robert Busby and those of you who would like to hear him again ... you can hear him inviting people back to the Creole Gallery for Honey Boy Edwards workshop that followed us. The photo with the tune is one I took of Mo' Kauffey playing for David Honey Boy Edwards with Robert Busby looking on.
Notice how Robert is kind of looking over things and not getting in the way?
How he is there but not there?
Look over us Robert Busby ... you are so missed.
From one Buzz to another ... thank you.
HARMONICA BUZZ: Long Way to Memphis
CD REVIEW : Harmonica Buzz is J.T. Sunden, a Michigan roots and blues harmonica player whose reverence for the form doesn't prevent him from having a whole lot of fun on Long Way to Memphis, his debut album. ~ All Music Guide (4 1/2 Stars) ~
Zo from Kentucky writes:
Q: "Who is that guitar player on The Colin Shuffle?"
A: Alonzo Pennington from Kentucky.
Two Songs from Peace for My Baby
Harmonica Buzz w/ Guitar Tom Toman
It's funny, but when you play acoustic intruments people tend to tag you as being mellow or laid back. Definity, the first song here, is one of the most intimate songs I've put out there and I don't know what you have experienced, but getting to really know one person seems to be rather intense to me. For you harpers out there I'm playing a Country Tuned G Special 20 ... which is a favorite of mine.
The second tune, Peace for My Baby, is definitely the blue-est blues song I've ever written. I saw Peter Case play recently and when he introduced one of his tunes he was talking about how the stuff in the news and how it wasn't the only important thing going on, but that it kind of "takes the air out of you." Well ... that's what this song Peace for My Baby is kind of about.
HARMONICA BUZZ W/ MICHIGAN MARK DEPREE: Peace for My Baby
ACOUSTIC SOUL / Rhythm & Cool
I don't want to lose my girl I want peace ... for my baby
The song DeFord's Train is a tribute DeFord Bailey and the cover of Long Way to Memphis is an interpretation of that song. The more I got into Long Way to Memphis the more it became about DeFord Bailey and the cover for me. This Lost & Found Sounds radio program is really great and will give you an idea about "The Harmonica Wizard" DeFord Bailey.
AS SEEN ON TV?
Payday : Peter Case w/ Harmonica Buzz
The Grand River Blues Society's Mississippi John Hurt Tribute Show
Gault, Ontario (March 24, 2007)
I got into music as a writer and when I think of the people I have met and played with it kind of blows me away. Here's an example:
The first music stage I was ever on was with Peter Case at the State Theater in Kalamazoo ... which I think was sometime in the early 90's. I wasn't playing with him, my brother Dave and I went to see this show he played and when it was over he just let people hang out around him on stage while I kind of hung around the edges and took it in. He put on a powerful show blowing spit through his harmonica which I could see in the stage lighting. I wasn't playing out at the time, but I learned a lot from him and was amazed by his arrangements that he could pull off with just his voice, guitar and harmonica.
Flash forward now to Saturday, March 24th, 2007 and that's me somehow playing next to him at this Mississippi John Hurt Tribute Concert in Galt, Ontario. My bar gig for that weekend had been cancelled, I knew they were having this event because my buddy Mo' Kauffey was playing in it and so I went up to visit him for the weekend. Mo', who I love playing with, asked me to sit in on his tunes and then, somehow, there I am playing with Peter Case.
Amazing ... but then I've had a lot of amazing things happen because of my harmonicas ... and so it goes.
Hey thanks for checking us out...Updates for this years festival and other Blues Coalition matters will be post as they develop. Hope to see ya at the festival!
yea ive only been playin for a couple months now and finally gettin the hang of bendin and 2 hole shake and what not but i appreciate the help and advice i hope to find one of ur ablums soon theyre a lil hard to come by around here just hard to find. but ill keep lookin. keepin jammin and ill probably stop by every now and then for some tips if thats ok haha. peace -miles
It's Official! I'll be playing one Michigan show at the Riversbend in Eaton Rapids on the 23rd of January at 9:30 PM. Hope you can make it out. It's sure to be a blast!!
