Well what can you say about a blues piece produced by the head blues guy at the head contemporary music station (is that what we’re calling now? Seems all the rage)?

Not much really, except WOW! What a great piece. The producer and host knows a hell of a lot about the blues (as he should), how to write (as he does) and how to pack a lot of content into shortest amount of time to maximize listener impact (and he does like a Whirlpool Trash Compactor)!

Harmonicas are well intentioned instruments full of romantic history of the muddy backwaters of the Blues Highway. And let’s face it, we all wanted to master it as a seven year old and to this day are envious of those, like Springsteen (see gang, I can work Bruce in anywhere!), who can actually make music on it!

The producer balances a description of the music itself, the event and also manages to critique the performances politely and with the listener in mind. An artful sense of space is created and that’s a tough thing to do when you’re covering an event, but somehow the aura of Chi town is always present in the piece, hanging like a harvest moon low in the sky and illuminating the discussion.

This is a wonder series and this piece is a great example! To be a pit picky on the production---the music is a bit too high under the narration. At several points they compete for the listener’s attention. This is a common problem for many of us…we’re so excited by what we’re doing, that we forget that the real world listening environment is full of distractions like crying kids and noisy traffic. That can make it hard to focus on the information.

I’m running out to the five and dime to get one of those toy harmonica’s to play around with!

Not only is Blues Harmonica alive, it is thriving. Mr. Meister creates a wonderful composite of the artists on the album explaining why each are different from one another, and backing it with musical examples from the album. The piece is tight and very upbeat. Must for any music stations.