Harmonica Buzz: Buzz Home

HARMONICA BUZZ
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

Don't Miss Buzz's next gigs with the Great Mo' Kauffey from Canada!

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"www.myspace.com/buzzharmonica"

ACOUSTIC SOUL : Rhythm & Cool

With hypnotic shuffles and back porch blues Harmonica Buzz connects with the spirit that makes music personal and real. Peace for My Baby, the new disc, features straight to the heart blues and songwriting. Long Way to Memphis (2002) takes you on a journey through the landscape of American roots music ... picking up an outstanding cast guitar players all along the way!

CHECK OUT THE BLUES ARE BETTER VIDEO

HARMONICA BUZZ with JACOB CLYDE
"WNIT Public TV's Open Studio" (Elkhart, IN - Oct. 2006)

Folk Tradition

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song. ~ Louis Armstrong

HOME (The Carpenter's Song) : Video

CD REVIEW : "Long Way to Memphis" ~ All Music Guide (4 1/2 Stars)

Reverent ~ Organic ~ Earthy ~ Amiable ~ Good-Natured ~ Intimate ~ Bright ~ Gritty ~ Energetic ~ Earnest

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. There is a wonderful, back-porch feel on this disc, but its seemingly loose style actually belies some crisp ensemble playing, and what may appear haphazard here is actually calculatingly exact. This is a hard road to walk, between casual and precise, but it works here, and Long Way to Memphis has charm to burn.

Highlights include "The Colin Shuffle," which features some fine guitar from Alonzo Pennington and the marvelous vocal interplay between Michigan Mark DePree and Sara Q on "The Cornbread Jinx." A paean to songwriter Lucy Webster's feet called, amazingly enough, "Lucy's Feet," works surprisingly well, given the odds. A sample of harmonica wizard DeFord Bailey "doing his train" opens "The Miracle Stop," which is perhaps the most impressive track here.

There are harmonicas everywhere on these songs, of course, but it would be wrong to call this a harmonica album. It really feels like a personal journey through American roots music with a man who just happens to always carry his harps, just in case. - Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

HARMONICA BUZZ: Long Way to Memphis

HB strives for a live, one take feel on everything and that gives a very friendly feel to the record. His philosophy of "less is more" infuses this record with a relaxed and jammy feel. He makes his point and then he's outta there. But Buzz is not miserly with his music. Even though the songs are brief and to the point, he packs 20 of them. "But It Helps" has Buzz on harp and vocals with acoustic guitar rhythm supplied by a cat monikered Michigan Mark and subtle bass by Sara Q. It reminds me of the kind of sassy, bluesy vocal Rickie Lee Jones might do. ~ Steve Bachleda ~ The Blues Ambassador ~ Capital Area Blues Society

"SO YOU PLAY BLUES?"

When someone finds out you play harmonica, the first thing they usually say is 'So you play blues.' And it's true ... I love playing blues. But, if you understand where American music comes from, then you see that it's not all that different. At its roots, real music is about entertaining people and telling stories. Sometimes I'll play a blues song, sometimes I'll play a twangy thing and sometimes I won't play my harp at all. To me it's really about what the story calls for and the important thing is to give credit where due. Once you do that, you can make some real music of your own and find the people and places you should. Music brings people together ... that's what I believe. ~Buzz~

HARMONICA BUZZ W/ MICHIGAN MARK DEPREE: Peace for My Baby

HARMONICA BUZZ : Peace for My Baby
w/ Michigan Mark DePree

These 7 songs are very laid back and spare and rely completely on the singer's personality to bring them off. The closest parallel I can think of for the first few cuts is Rickie Lee Jones. The syncopated chunky rhythm guitar underpins the slinky smooth vocals. 5 of the 7 song ares are Buzz originals, including a very affecting short harmonica vehicle titled "Despite it All Blues." There are also respectful covers of Wilson Pickett's "If You Need Me" and Nick Lowe's "Soulful Wind." This latter item is particularly sucessful, a plaintive cry for the solace that never comes.

Steve Bachleda : The Blues Ambassador (11/05)

Soul

The key is how much you love music. And if you notice I said music. I didn't say country, I didn't say jazz, I didn't say the blues ... I said how much you love music. And music is HUGE ... BIG ... many, many things you can do. And I've always loved music. ~ Ray Charles

The Blues

People ask "So what are the blues?" all the time and personally I like the "I don't know, but I know it when I hear it." answer. Though I write in different styles of music I hear blues in most everything I write. Its just there, hard to define, but constantly revisited.

I also like the old crossroads image where you get to that point and have got to make the decision which way to go. I don't, however, think that blues are about getting to those crossroads, making a bad turn and celebrating it. "Take me down any road, blues gonna cross it, blues gonna show." That's my "crossroads" line from a song I wrote called The Blues Are Better. Its simple, it's true, and there is decision in it.

I don't write a song a day and though I love playing music I really don't write for the fun of it. Some songs will just come, others I write out of observation, experience and craft ... then there are the more personal ones that pretty much all come from blues.

So I really don't play Delta or Chicago blues ... but I do play blues. There's actually a lot of different types of blues and I like the sound of the Piedmont Blues, the country stuff that crossed over into Rockabilly, Travis Style Guitar and Bluegrass.

I also like the horn arrangements and swinging band arrangements you got from Memphis, Texas and LA. My Dad played trumpet and used to play us blues tunes that came from St. Louis, Kansas City and New Orleans. I like to work a lot of that swinging stuff into duos and trios and have "my horn" punctuate the rhythms and breaks.

But as far as songwriting goes I call the stuff I write "Despite it All Blues" ... which for me translates to the question "How do we go on despite it all?" We all have something to overcome and that's how I think of blues and the blues I play. Now if you want me to take a stab at the form of music as a whole I'd say "The blues are about freedom and if you understand where they come from you realize that the whole point of the blues is to get beyond the blues."

peace and harps,

Buzz

buzz@harmonicabuzz.com