Ruffled Feathers - Ol’ Shep (with special guests Zach Grace & Lachlan - Young’un Shep) Stream/Buy here Ruffled Feathers How to follow up my first hit (well huge in Biddleonia) Locomotive Weave, which uses a train rhythm as its basis? Well why not another ol’ timey harmonica piece - a fox chase. Although only loosely … Continue reading Home To Roost
Two floors above the butcher, first door on the right Life filled to the brim as I stood by my window And looked out on those, Brooklyn Roads Thought of going back. Neil did! Neil at his childhood abode’s entrance. Then looking out on Brooklyn Roads many years later. I can still recall the smells … Continue reading Church Avenue
Jack Harrison (1931 - 2013) My son found this beauty in an op shop for me. Western Australian Jack Harrison was a music prodigy from the age of five when he first blew melodies from the ten hole diatonic mouth organ. One year later Jackie, as he was known, presented his talent to radio 6PR’s … Continue reading ‘Huckleberry’ Harp Hound
Charles Porter blowing his Crackajack upside down (Photograph- Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy ACP Magazines Ltd). The origins of this dissertation came about due to the discovery of this newspaper report from 1933 (see below) that expounded Charles Porter’s upside down technique in drinking beer and playing the harmonica. It … Continue reading Over Under Sideways Down Hey!
Melbourne Ladies Crackajack Mouth Organ Band With permission from Ray Grieves ‘Band in a Waistcoat Pocket’ Melbourne Ladies Crackajack Band at Mr. Harris’ funeral. Thomas Harris died suddenly while playing cricket. He had just been elected President of the Mouth Organ Bands Association that week. Thomas was a cousin of Harold Collier MLCB conductor (from … Continue reading All Crackajackies
Fairlight Festivals 1971 Venue: 200 acre farm (Fairlight) four miles south of Mittagong on the way to Berrima NSW. Set in a gentle sloping clearing divided by a stream. One side set for camping the other music. Stage: An old Sydney tram elevated six feet off the ground with a twenty foot extension out the … Continue reading Fairlight Festival Revisited (or the adventures of the Mittagong Mafia).
Bring back the harmonica in schools. Teach them blues and country licks. Throw out the recorder, ukuleles and triangles! Just saying! Vine Vale School Tanunda (South Australia) Mouth Organ Band 1933 Bulimba (Queensland) State School Girls Mouth Organ Band 1939 Boys of the Buranda (Queensland) School Mouth Organ Band 1937 Orange Grove (New South Wales) … Continue reading Ring Ring Goes The Bell
Popping up in my research a few years back was evidence of the existence of a Jazz Master Chromatic. Victorian Laurie Smith evidently possessed one. A year after publishing this information, so did Canadian collector Doug Dawson. Where did he locate this Australian brand harmonica? Of all places in Sweden. Doug Dawson’s specimen. Recently I … Continue reading Wizard Master Blaster
I’m sure most of you have heard of The Great Train Robbery of 1963 when the Roy Mail train from Glasgow to London was brought to a halt and robbed. Some of you may even be familiar with The Great Bookie Robbery of 1976 when six men stole between fourteen and sixteen million from bookmakers … Continue reading The Great Mouth Organ Heist
1946 The Smilers Club 2BH began broadcasting in July of 1934. In 1936 The Barrier Miner newspaper acquired the proprietorship of the radio station and announced that, “they are now in the position to give the people of Broken Hill the most up-to-date and complete service in the form of news and entertainment.” (The Barrier … Continue reading Bluey Watkins & the Harmonica Humbugs
Harmonica Riff Raff 