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Ross Garren joins me again on episode 122.
Ross lives near Los Angeles, where he has established himself as a leading session musician for harmonica recordings on movies, including Marvel’s Logan and the new Joker film, as well on albums with numerous pop artists, including recently on Beyonce’s album, Cowboy Carter.
Initially a piano player, Ross came to love the harmonica from the age of twelve and plays a wide range of harmonicas, from diatonic to chromatic, bass, chord and other types.
Ross plays in the roots meets electronica duo The Sheriffs of Schroedingham, and has just released a self-produced ambient album called Of Winds and Reeds and Very Old Trees. He also recorded the harmonica for a Bob Dylan biopic coming out soon.
Links:
Website:
http://www.rossgarren.com/
Selection of session recordings:
http://www.rossgarren.com/recordings.html
Bandcamp release: Of Winds and Reeds and Very Old Trees:
https://magneticvines.bandcamp.com/album/of-wind-and-reeds-and-very-old-trees
Harpsmith custom harmonicas by Kinya Pollard:
https://harpsmith.com/
Gamechanger harmonica:
https://bushmanmusic.com/shop/bushman-harmonicas/game-changer-harmonica/
Simple Mics:
https://simplemics.com/
Videos:
John & Ross Present: 'Caldonia' (feat. Nic Jackson):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTQ0QrHhcwA
Blue Rondo A La Turk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ceFONN_Mcs
Sous le Ciel de Paris, Pomplamoose ft. Ross Garren
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vol9dZ-t93s
Bass harp:
https://youtu.be/WgfKEE1QPiA?si=bEmyT8VPqwnjDt30&t=112
Royal Albert Hall from 2023:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cumStSUVX9w&t=134s
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. Ross Garren interview (00:00:00)
2. Ross was a guest on the Paul deLay retrospective on episode 120 (00:01:31)
3. Ross lives near Los Angeles, which has helped him tap into the movie session work there (00:01:43)
4. Originally moved to LA for college, but not to study music, and didn’t know would become a professional musician at that stage (00:02:10)
5. Has lots of great recording credits to his name already, at the tender age of 39 (00:02:51)
6. Plays numerous types of harmonica, but first instrument was piano and composes and produces records (00:03:08)
7. Harmonica was also around from a young age, which he first thought of as a toy (00:03:24)
8. Took lessons on piano (00:03:44)
9. Really connected with harmonica from age 12 (00:03:57)
10. Played other instruments when young: violin, saxophone and trombone (00:04:16)
11. How piano playing informed his harmonica playing (00:04:22)
12. Ross is an analytical person and the piano can feed into that (00:04:41)
13. Diatonic was first harmonica and enjoyed figuring out how to play it without the masses of material for piano (00:05:28)
14. Had classical piano lessons (00:06:32)
15. Knew two guys where he grew up, one who guided him on diatonic and another on chromatic, who played with the Sharp Harp group based in San Jose (00:06:36)
16. Did Ross learn differently on harmonica coming from classical piano knowledge (00:07:54)
17. Early on had heard Adam Gussow, Carlos del Junco and Howard Levy but overblowing was not well known at the time (in the 1990s) (00:08:18)
18. Most of players Ross admired early on were the classic blues players and Stevie Wonder and Toots Thielemans (00:08:45)
19. On chromatic loved the playing of Stevie Wonder, who plays melodically and not hugely complex (00:08:58)
20. Moved away from playing harmonica for a few years when started playing more complex music (00:09:25)
21. Started getting interested in jazz and fusion at this time and became frustrated with the difficulties of playing in different keys on a C chromatic (00:10:22)
22. Got back into harmonica in early to mid-twenties used the knowledge gained to use the harmonica more effectively (00:11:28)
23. Had some lessons with David Barrett on diatonic harmonica (00:11:54)
24. David Barrett gave Ross the opportunity to start teaching harmonica at some of his workshops and providing transcriptions for some of his books (00:12:58)
25. Went through David Barrett’s accreditation programme (00:13:36)
26. Ross has created an overblow series on the BluesHarmonica.com website, for using overblows in traditional blues playing (00:13:59)
27. Still uses overblows to enhance his blues playing, but isn’t an expert overblow player, preferring the chromatic at times for this purpose (00:15:06)
28. Uses the Gamechanger harmonica, which is a diatonic with a slide, allowing chromaticism (00:15:27)
29. Uses Brendan Power’s overblower booster, modified further by Kinya Pollard, allowing use of overblows without setting up diatonics specifically for overblows (00:15:41)
30. Andre LaFosse description of Ross’s playing stylesl: "Ross Garren’s sound world is a meeting of vintage Americana, retro-futurism, classic songcraft and whimsical surrealism." (00:17:48)
31. Ross got into session work ‘unintentionally’ (00:18:11)
32. Studied music composition and jazz piano at college, and when left college was teaching piano and doing gigs on piano (00:18:39)
33. Was not playing harmonica at this time (00:19:04)
34. Got a gig with an old friend, playing some harmonica at the Monterrey Blues festival (00:20:06)
35. Used Seydel harmonicas for Monterrey gig (00:20:35)
36. Playing harmonica brought some stress relief from music career in LA (00:21:02)
37. Took some lessons with Winslow Yerxa and got exposure to bass harmonica and other types of harmonica (00:22:22)
38. Video of Ross accompanying Alex Paclin with bass and chord harmonicas (00:22:51)
39. When first started playing again it was on diatonic at first, with chromatic coming a few years later (00:23:21)
40. Has done lots of great session work, including with Beyonce earlier in 2024 (00:24:04)
41. In the Beyonce session they wanted a Little Walter vibe. There was no tube amp, but they managed to find a retro speaker (00:25:41)
42. Didn’t get to meet Beyonce but thinks she gave her seal of approval to the harmonica parts (00:27:30)
43. Often harmonica used in pop tracks in quite minimal, and in some cases you almost wouldn’t recognise it as harmonica (00:28:04)
44. What people want from different recording sessions varies between traditional harmonica playing to more of a layered approach (00:28:45)
45. Ross was employed as a bass harmonica player as part of a woodwind section on the Bon Iver album (00:30:11)
46. Has made some great chromatic recording sessions (00:31:45)
47. Played chromatic on song Something That Matters, from an album which won an Emmy for best TV theme on Palm Royale (00:32:18)
48. Has played on some big movies, including Logan, Flowers of the Moon, and the new Joker: Folie a Deux movie (00:33:30)
49. Ross seems to be the man they call for session work around LA, taking on the mantle left by Tommy Morgan, and did some work with Tommy Morgan (00:34:01)
50. Kim Wilson gets some of the more bluesy session work in that area whereas Ross gets more of the Tommy Morgan type sessions (00:35:02)
51. Ross plays in an roots meets electronica duo The Sheriffs of Schroedingham (00:35:56)
52. Ross has improved his music production skills (00:37:06)
53. New release on Bandcamp: On Winds and Reeds and Very Old Trees, mainly produced and mixed by Ross (00:37:29)
54. Has eclectic tastes and has enjoyed playing and creating varied types of music (00:39:30)
55. Doesn’t play a lot of concerts under own name (00:40:28)
56. Ross lists many of the great sessions he’s recorded on his website (00:41:25)
57. Wrote a series of articles for the UK National Harmonica League magazine: Reeds for the Record, focused on recording approaches (00:41:42)
58. Ten minute question (00:43:18)
59. Spent some time with Bill Barrett and his playing of the chromatic contrapuntally (counterpoint) (00:44:19)
60. Has ‘informally’ been taking lessons from Joe Filisko, tone production and the harmonica train (00:45:04)
61. Diatonic of choice: played Seydel for a long time and recently been using Kinya Pollard custom Hohner harmonicas (00:45:44)
62. Chromatics: Suzuki Sirius 64 (00:46:45)
63. Uses Brendan Power’s Slider Bass Harp on a Suzuki bass harp (00:47:26)
64. The Gamechanger harmonica, a diatonic with a slide, which Kinya Pollard is distributing (00:47:35)
65. The Gamechanger could be similar to the Morbendz discussed episode 113 (00:49:43)
66. Embouchre: uses different ones at different times, including U bend occasionally (00:49:57)
67. Mainly tongue blocks on 16 hole chromatic and puckers on 12 hole (00:50:30)
68. Amps: favourite tone produced on an album was from a small 1940s Gibson amp (00:51:08)
69. Not too picky with amps when playing live: playing through the PA or from his collection of small amps (00:51:43)
70. Sometimes records cleanly and then adds effects in post-production (00:52:18)
71. Played through Dave Barrett’s Masco PA head, which blew him away and bought something similar. This the type reputedly used by Little Walter (00:52:30)
72. Likes the traditional Chicago Blues sound (00:52:54)
73. Mics: used Ultimate 57 for a while, now uses the Lone Wolf Jason Ricci mic (00:53:11)
74. Has a collection of bullet mics, mainly purchased via Simple Mics (00:53:29)
75. Likes to take more robust mics on the road, which can be replaced like for like (00:53:54)
76. Often uses a SM58 dynamic mic (00:54:15)
77. Future plans (00:54:43)
78. Recently played a solo harmonica show, which he really enjoyed (00:55:15)
79. Been playing with neighbour (Nathan James), the blues guitarist from James Harman band, and has played with Kim Wilson Southern Californian harp players (00:55:27)
80. Will be recording harmonica on an upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, emulating Dylan’s style of harmonica (00:56:22)
137 episodes
