Harry Harpoon,On the road: July 2014

Harry Harpoon,

Long time Bluesman

& Dean Oliver: Bass Player and Back up Vocals & friends.

Harry Harpoon has played with such greats as George"Harmonica Smith,

Big Joe Turner, Elvin Bishop,& Utah Phillips,

Just to name a few.

Fellow Bluesman,Bobby Walker,one told Harry Harpoon:"You just like to wallow ln lt,MAN.

You start in playing and it;s just one blg blues Wallow.

Your a real Blues hog."

Born & bred in east L.A.,Harry Harpoon Began playing harmonica at age 3 beaouse"it was the only intrument Grandpa didn"t play,"His folks were not crazy about there eldest becoming a musician (:Mom had this idea about me learning to be a draftsman:) but they did give Beatles "(:Wite Album:) one Christmas.(the only song I liked was Revolution,Which turned out to be an Elmoore James lick-,out at the time I bin't know who was Elmoore James was"The only other record Harry owned was a Jimmy Reed album ( to av ellicite manner) .

The girls loved Jimmy Reed and L wanted to get close to the girls .I didn't even know who Jimmy Reed was

or what that music was but L knew that I liked it.

Though he sang il grade school choirs,It was his first love-harp that lured Harry to the stage he was one of four harmonica players in the White Whale Band in high school But his professional

Harp debut occurred at the Crazy Horse in Nevada City ,California in 1973 he found his-self singing on stage when he started the Blue Ribbon Band with Southern California musicians Brennan "Stonefingers" Totten on guitar & Bruce King on drums.In high school,I fooled around on the guitar,but I didn't perform until 1974-always using open tuning's

because I don't know how to tune the thing except by tuning the pegs until something sounded like a chord.At first I mostly specialized ~~in breaking strings.I saw this blind guy playing bottle neck and I liked the way it sounded so I taught myself slide guitar.~~

Blue Ribbon's drummer had "one of the biggest Blues record collections around-stacks of albums along every wall of his house. There, I finally heard The Masters: Big WAlter, Little WAlter, Sonny Boy Williamson l and ll, Elmore and, of course, Muddy. And Son House, Robert Johnson and Booker White. And Howlin' Wold. Until I heard those guys, I was just floppin' and thrashin'."

Harry studied the recordings of The Masters, and when Blue Ribbon entered a Battle of the Bands at the Bolden Bear in Huntington Beach, they emerged the victors over up-and-coming Journey. "Suddenly we're backing up Big Joe Turner and George Harmonica Smith. And it just went on from there." Subsequently Harry also shared a stage with many other blues greats as well as folk luminaries, including Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Margie Evans, Utah Phillips and Robert Cray.

The first time Harry Harpoon heard Booker White "I just flipped. What kind of instrument was that? So I got a National and started playing resonator guitars as well as my Strats. Sonny & Brownie were huge influences, too."

Harry's solo career took off and he headed to Washington, D.C., where the first "Harry Harpoon & The Housewreckers: band was born. Later he returned to the Sierra Foothills and soon after, Blue Ribbon's guitar player Brennan Totten followed Harry north, joined by the inimitable Frankie Ford on drums, then J.D. Nicholson "whoopin' on the ivories". Other Housewreckers included Pittsburgh Willie, Terry Pittsford and Bill Smart.

Home base for the Housewreckers was Nevada City/ Grass Valley. The boys worked seven days a week sometimes two or three gigs a day-- mostly in the Foothills, but touring north to Seattle, east to the Rockies and south to Arizona, providing some of Harry's fondest memories or performing.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR CUTS FROM OTHER CD'S check out his current adventures with DOCTOR MONGO at www.perfectbedlammusic.com

Other contacts for HARRY are bluesthatrock@yahoo.com

For the Seattle area, and other WA. shows contact, Maridel

Fliss at mflissm@aol.com

Over the course of his career, Harpoon has played with (in no particular order)

George "Harmonica" Smith, Big Joe Turner, Charlie Musselwhite, Utah Phillips, The Persuasions, Jerry Lawson, James Harman, Esther Mae Scott, Elvin Bishop, Flying Burrito Brothers, William Clarke, Ron Thompson, Lynwood Slim, Bruce King, Johnny Hearsman, Jack Shaw, Kelvin Dixon, Bobby Walker, Howard Berkman, Nate Shiner, Catfish Copeland, Pittsburgh Willie, Dr. Mongo, Baltimore Red, Fiddlin' Jake, Jimmy Morello, Buster Jiffs, Stonefingers, Herb Superb, Annie Rose, Terri Marie, Kenny Miller, Paul Emery, Backwoods Jazz Quartet, Tom Schmidt, Annie McCann, Eleanor McDonald, Tom McDonald, Cary "Homer" Grzadinski, Virginia Grzadinski, The Halemau Family, The Lim FAmily, ABe Lukela, Cap'n Billy, Ron and Reggie Valenti, Sammy Kameluchi, Tony Colucci, Ted Moniak, Dio, Mario Asti, The Boogie Doctor, Jelly Roll, Archie Edwards, Frank Ford, Bill Tarsha, Susie Tarsha, Meigs Barba, Hot Pepper, Swingin' Sammy Dee, Rusty Weaver, Ralph Dinosaur, East LA Joe, Hoppy (Chocolate), Amos Tuckahoe, Alan King, Mike Stein, Lisa Blue, Barry "The Tripod" Fleming, Darryl Joan Bush, Archie Edwards, John Jackson, Smokey Wilson, Dale Renee, Freeman Lacy, Cecil, Ed Trembly, Glenn Patterson, Don Monson, J.D. Nicholson, J.D. Hamilton, The Anders Brothers, Bob Greenspan, Russ Austin, John "The Grammy Dude" Billings, Rick Estrin, Arturo Monet, Norman "Skip" Matthews, VGO, Joe Glaser, Jeff Reynolds, Cross Bear, Wierd Harold, Johnathon Richman, The Blue Flames...

Harry's played on the same bill with:

Margie Evans, Albert Collins, Lowell Fulsom, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Brownie McGee, John Mayall, George Thoroughgood, Gatemouth Brown, Dave Mason, Marshall Tucker Band, John Hammond, Robert Lockwood Junior, Willie Smith, Son Seals, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Sippee Wallace, Curtis Salgado, Robert Cray, Hamilton Looms, Todd Tijerina, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, Santiago Jimenez, Dakota Sid, Curtis Lawson, Mick Martin, The Dogtones, The Crawdaddies, Sunland Blues Band, Saguaro Blues Band, Eddie Money, Hawks & Eagles, Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys, The Platters, Thicker Than Thieves, Chancellorsville All-Stars, Nitehawks, The Modern Lovers, Journey, Hines Hines & Hines, Dusty Rose (on The Gong Show), Rod Piazza, Joe Houston...

Current members:

Dean Oliver, Bass,

Dean has played with top bands from around the U.S. Recently he has added Stand up.

Bill Hayden drummer,

Bill as well has had lots of experience.

One of Oregon's best.

On special occasions, RANDI, vocals, backup keys. Started in Portland, has toured around the U.S. Strong lead vocals.