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Mikael Backman joins me on episode 130.
Mikael is from Sweden where he started playing blues harmonica, recording six albums with the band Ramblin’ Minds. He then joined the band John Henry. Initially a bluegrass band, they went on to play country, honky tonk and western swing.
Mikael is truly a doctor of the harmonica, having conducted various academic studies with the harmonica at center stage, as part of his work at the Piteå School of Music. One of these resulted in a music thesis on how practicing the chromatic and diatonic harmonicas can improve the playing of both. Mikael has also recently completed a PhD where he wrote a doctoral thesis on country harmonica, which included an article and recording session with the legendary Charlie McCoy.
Links:
Website: https://harpatwork.com/
John Henry band: www.johnhenry.nu
Mike Caldwell playing Roly Poly: https://soundcloud.com/mike-caldwell-2/roly-poly
Mikael’s recordings on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/07qOtgwTkCHlzYgx6P8Goh?si=d7e648990fd9420b
One Lick - Two Harps: chromatic / diatonic: https://tinyurl.com/yfnh9fcv
PhD thesis My Bag of Licks: https://tinyurl.com/mybagoflicks
Article on Charlie McCoy: https://www.internationalcountrymusic.org/_files/ugd/83ada7_e189b0dca9ad431dbc743cea3ffd5a88.pdf
Charlie McCoy Transcriptions link: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=1510243
Neil’s harmonica transcriptions: https://www.harptranscripts.co.uk/
Videos:
Same lick on chromatic and diatonic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIcnyGTtv6A
Mikael talks through what he plays on Oklahoma song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJeskt_Vo1U
Amazing Grace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h04Q9k6eEok
Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com
Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB
Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ
Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
--------------------------------
Blue Moon Harmonicas: https://bluemoonharmonicas.com
Chapters
1. Mikael Backman interview (00:00:00)
2. Mikael is from Pitea, in northern Sweden (00:01:23)
3. Mainly a Blues and country diatonic harmonica player, although plays some chromatic too (00:01:42)
4. Charlie McCoy is one of Mikael’s big inspirations (00:02:02)
5. Mikael started playing harmonica in the late 1980s after hearing Sonny Terry playing on the Crossroads movie (00:02:30)
6. Plays some bass, but harmonica is main instrument (00:03:29)
7. Plays a little bass harmonica (00:03:55)
8. Teaches music at the university in Pitea, and has taught since 2001 (00:04:09)
9. First band was Ramblin’ Minds, formed in 1995, releasing six albums and still going strong (00:04:37)
10. Plenty of live music in Pitea, although not specifically a blues scene (00:05:21)
11. Ramblin’ Minds has some blues with Swedish lyrics by Ronny Eriksson (00:06:09)
12. Formed the band John Henry in 2008, inspired to play Bluegrass by the movie: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (00:07:15)
13. Went to SPAH for first time around 2008 and heard Buddy Greene playing country harmonica (00:07:44)
14. John Henry band won the Swedish Bluegrass championships in 2009 and 2012, and also played Old Timey (00:08:14)
15. Bluegrass style on harmonica including contributing to the rhythmic drive and melodic style of playing (00:08:37)
16. For bluegrasses mixes the country style of Charlie McCoy with playing chordal approaches (00:09:19)
17. John Henry band started playing country music later after addition of electric guitar and pedal steel guitar (00:09:57)
18. Added Western Swing to the genres of the John Henry band (00:10:42)
19. Western Swing is a form of Jazz played with typical country music style instruments (00:11:07)
20. Western Swing harmonica has lots of improvisation and also arranged parts played with other instruments (00:12:17)
21. Draws inspiration from other instruments to play Western Swing, as well as the playing of Charlie McCoy (00:13:08)
22. Plays chromatic, although uses more diatonic in the John Henry band (00:13:56)
23. Done a lot of work as a sideman (00:14:27)
24. When playing with female vocalists often in the same range, so have to pick what you play carefully (00:14:45)
25. Link to full playlist of Mikael’s recording output available on podcast page (00:15:02)
26. Much of session work has been recorded with previous music students he has taught at the university (00:15:17)
27. Two former students are Mike Fall and Joel Andersson and Joel has done some harmonica customisation work for Mikael (00:15:52)
28. Performed an online concert with Mike Fall at SPAH 2020 and at SPAH 2022 in Tulsa (00:16:08)
29. Mikael has conducted various academic studies of the harmonica as part of his work at the Piteå School of Music (00:16:47)
30. Completed a Masters in Music Education at the Piteå School of Music and started teaching there as part of that (00:17:01)
31. Was able to have harmonica as main instrument on the course as the university wanted to diversify the type of instruments taught from the most common ones (00:17:18)
32. Had to work at music theory for the teaching position (00:18:12)
33. Mikael was able to travel to the US for harmonica tuition as part of the university course, learning with Howard Levy and Robert Bonfiglio and going to some SPAH conventions (00:18:19)
34. First studied with Howard Levy, spending three days with him (00:18:56)
35. Learnt chromatic with Robert Bonfiglio, including tongue switching (00:19:26)
36. Learning music theory has been very beneficial to his harmonica playing, with playing by ear having some limitations (00:19:42)
37. Completed a Masters Degree in Musical Performance in 2017, including a thesis on ‘One Lick - Two Harps: How can practicing the chromatic harmonica make me a better diatonic player and vice versa?’ (00:20:31)
38. The thesis is available online including music clips of the same lick on diatonic and chromatic (00:22:04)
39. Used a C diatonic and a C chromatic and played licks only in the key of G (00:23:04)
40. Also did some recordings with the John Henry band as part of the Masters Degree in Musical Performance (00:23:53)
41. Before completing this thesis had mainly played third position blues style chromatic (00:24:50)
42. Went on to complete a PhD on understanding of how performers can develop and/or transform their artistic voice through the process of transcribing and imitating an iconic musician (Charlie McCoy) (00:25:18)
43. Completed the PhD in 2024 (00:26:40)
44. A large part of the PhD was to study the licks of Charlie McCoy and has written a paper on Charlie McCoy, published in the International country Music Journal 2022 (00:26:58)
45. As part of the PhD transcribed the first thirteen of Charlie McCoy’s albums and learned to play the transcriptions (00:27:33)
46. Transcriptions were mostly hand written, but has put some of them into musical notation and the transcriptions are available online (00:28:23)
47. Neil has done transcriptions, which are available at the Harp Transcripts website (00:29:15)
48. Real value of doing transcriptions is putting the work into transcribing the songs yourself (00:29:42)
49. As part of the PhD Mikael interviewed Charlie McCoy, Buddy Greene and Mike Caldwell and discovered they all move their jaw when playing an adjacent hole, which brings speed (00:30:11)
50. Charlie McCoy recorded with Mikael on the John Henry album Lucky Luck (00:31:31)
51. The idea for the Lucky Luck album grew out of the PhD project and it was recorded in the same studio Charlie McCoy recorded many of his albums (Cinderella Sound Studios) (00:32:01)
52. Charlie McCoy played mainly bass, but also harmonica on two tracks some vibes on one song (00:33:00)
53. Charlie McCoy has been interviewed on the podcast and is a lovely guy and a great pro (00:34:28)
54. Charlie McCoy invented the Nashville numbering system and Mikael shared notations of the Lucky Luck album songs with Charlie ahead of the recordings (00:34:47)
55. The Nashville numbering system writes numbers for chords (00:35:14)
56. Jazz chord numbering uses roman numerals, which is a different system (00:36:27)
57. Nashville Yodelling Blues song from Lucky Luck album, which imitates Charlie McCoy ‘yodelling’ on the harmonica (00:36:48)
58. Charlie McCoy uses a jaw flick to play yodels on harmonica, so Mikael does the same (00:38:02)
59. Another song from Lucky Luck album is Oklahoma, which is about Mikael’s visit to Tulsa, and what it used to be (00:38:51)
60. Two guest musicians who perform on the song are from the band Time Jumpers (00:39:41)
61. Has created some YouTube videos talking through some of the harmonica parts on songs from the Lucky Luck album (00:39:59)
62. Uses country tuning (originally invented by Charlie McCoy) on some songs (00:40:23)
63. Mikael has come up with the Western Swing harmonica tuning (00:40:45)
64. Advantage of country tuning is the major 7th and being able to bend it down to the flat 7th (00:41:11)
65. One advantage of Western Swing tuning (00:41:50)
66. Western Swing tuning has 5 draw raised a semitone (as per country tuning) and also the 7 blow raised a semitone, which is a blow bend as per 8-10 blow holes (00:42:49)
67. Not aware of anyone else using this tuning yet (00:44:01)
68. Ten minute question (00:44:47)
69. Uses overblows sparingly (00:45:34)
70. Played on the ‘MS-Blows’ album, along with some US players, to raise money for Jimmy Gordon, who developed Multiple Sclerosis (00:46:14)
71. Did a presentation in 2022 in Brussels on the diatonic playing style of Toots Thielemans (00:47:32)
72. Toots played diatonic over a ten year period, from 1967-1977 (00:47:57)
73. Toots was a pioneer of overblows, discovering them himself during this time (00:48:18)
74. Rob Paparazzi verified that Toots did play some overblows when Mikael talked with Rob (00:48:49)
75. Toots may well have been the first person to ever record a 4 hole overblow on Midnight Blues, with the Bert Paige orchestra (00:49:30)
76. Toots discovered overblows at the same time Howard Levy and Will Scarlett started playing them, and they didn’t know the others were playing them (00:49:41)
77. Toots probably stopped playing diatonic as he was recording less sessions, where he may have used diatonic at the request of the studio (00:50:21)
78. Interview in a documentary where Toots references overblows without calling them that (00:50:59)
79. There is a book coming out in a year or so about Toot’s harmonica life, where Mikael has written a chapter on Toots playing overblows (00:51:23)
80. Plays Hohner Marine Band and Crossover diatonics, Hohner Ace 48, Meisterklasse and Super 64X for chromatics (00:51:39)
81. Has a chromatic made by Joel Andersson (00:52:16)
82. Uses fifth position when playing minor country songs (00:52:24)
83. Uses some third position on the Western Swing tuning, which provides a major scale (00:53:00)
84. Embouchre: mainly tongue blocks, which is unusual for country style as that is typically pucker, but Mikael uses a lot of corner switching, which suits tongue blocking (00:53:30)
85. Mics: uses Audio Fireball for clean playing (00:54:00)
86. Sonny Junior amp when playing blues, the first model with four eight inch speakers (00:54:20)
87. Has some vintage mics but has been using the Hohner Harp Blaster HB52 dynamic mic recently, liking the small size for cupping (00:54:32)
88. Effects: sometimes a little reverb either via a pedal or added by the sound technician (00:55:42)
89. For country and western swing goes for a clean sound through the PA, and likes to record using a ribbon mic (00:56:08)
90. Future plans include more studies of the harmonica and the Toots book which is to be released (00:56:43)
91. Also contributed to a book about the song Amazing Grace, which has reached it’s 250th anniversary, about why it is so popular with harmonica players (00:57:11)
92. Mikael performed Amazing Grace at a conference in the place where the song was composed and first played in Olney, England (00:57:21)
93. Mikael is truly a doctor of the harmonica (00:58:22)
137 episodes
