Hear Brandon Bailey perform two songs live in the NPR studio. The harmonica is a staple of American blues, beginning with the Memphis jug bands of the 1920s. In the 1960s, blues-influenced artists ...

Carey Bell, 70, a Mississippi-born blues harmonica player and singer whose clipped and growling style won him wide admiration during a five-decade career, died Sunday at Kindred Hospital in Chicago, ...

Blues harmonica master Carey Bell died on May 6 of heart failure in his hometown of Chicago. He was 70. Bell – the 1998 winner of the Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Artist Of The Year – was a ...

Every once in a while, the mail brings a CD that sparks a small revelation. A few months back, a two-disc anthology arrived called “Blues Harp Women,” and until that moment I didn’t realize that my ...

Years ago, Scott Christoffel wanted to learn how to play the harmonica. A big fan of blues music, he had friends who played, and he wanted to join them. Christoffel, an Aurora resident and owner of ...