Even in the environs of Northern California, January winter days can be gray, wet and may seem a long way from the warm days of summer, top-down convertibles and music festivals. Many people, however, feel lucky to live and work here and experience all that the Bay Area has to offer. And as it is often said, it pays to be lucky.

Blues harp fans of Northern California are lucky to have one of today's great touring harmonica players, Mark Hummel, living and playing in the area. In January they were lucky indeed to start the New Year with a heavy dose of well-prescribed harmonica greats. For they got to see and hear some of the best of today's blues harmonica players over three days in six sold-out shows. This annual winter event known as Mark Hummel's Blues Harp Blowout settled into Yoshi's, a well-known Oakland jazz club, for the fifth year.

Started by Mark in a Berkeley club fourteen years ago, the Blowout has moved from its original venue, Oshkanoz, to Kimball's East in Emeryville, to Yoshi's. And has grown to include other venues in central and southern California and Nevada. Mark has also had the opportunity to organize some of his "Harp Blowouts" when he travels outside the San Francisco Bay Area. In the past he has done blowouts at about five or six festivals including the Edmonton Blues festival up in Canada, the North Atlantic in Rockland, Maine last year, the New York Rhythm and Blues Festival in Syracuse, NY the King Biscuit in Helena, Arkansas and most recently at the Harmonica Masterclass Workshop in Chicago.

Over the years it has brought together the very best of today's blues harmonica players and this year was no exception. The lineup for the six weekend shows at Yoshi's included two Mississippi-born masters Charlie Musselwhite and James Cotton and a few surprises. The musical backup for these harp players would be Mark Hummel's band, the Blues Survivors and local Bay Area piano player Bob Welsh. Playing with Mark for five to seven years, Steve Wolfe on bass, Charles Wheel on guitar and Marty Dobson on drums have backed up a lot of harmonica players. As Mark himself says, "They play with the best of them [harmonica players]."

The show opened with local player, teacher and author, David Barrett. David who is a full time harmonica teacher at his School of The Blues and the Harmonica Masterclass workshops doesn't gig but a few times a year. But when he does he always brings something different and somewhat special to the stage. This time he started with a new original instrumental. This hopping shuffle, played in public for the first time, provided a tight little groove that the band easily fell into and upon which Dave could build his solos. Full of great tone and precision, Dave's playing demonstrated why so many can learn from his teaching. David and Mark Hummel have provided the live recording of "Matchstick" from this show for you to listen to. Click on the song title to download the MP3 of this song.

For his second number, he took a classic George "Harmonica" Smith chromatic tune, "Blues in The Dark," and played it in 3rd position on a diatonic harp demonstrating the powerful relationship between 3rd position on the diatonic and the chromatic harmonicas.

Mark Hummel followed Dave and opened with a song played on the Chromatic, "Rotten Kid" from his early Hard Lovin' 1990's album. A good up temp swing, "Rotten Kid" exemplified the swinging style of West Cost blues and let the members of the Blues Survivors, Charles Wheel and Marty Dobson, showcase some of the skills that support Mark and other harmonica players so well. Mark, equally comfortable and competent on diatonic and chromatic harps, played as though the large 16-hole 280 Chromatic was as small and maneuverable as the more familiar diatonic. Yet the techniques and attack left no doubt the swinging phrases were coming from a well-played Chromatic. Mark switched to diatonic harp and followed that first tune up with "She's Got It," "Stockholm Train" and "Feeling Good." Mark Hummel has provided the live recording of "Stockholm Train" from this show for you to listen to. Click on the song title to download the MP3 of this song. This song is also available on Mark's album Golden State Blues (Electro-Fi Label, E-FI 3375).

Kim Wilson took the stage after Mark and, as he has so often has done in past perform-ances, took over the crowd. With Ronnie James, the T-Birds bass player, joining the band, Kim began a slow version of "Early In The Morning." Singing and playing through the vocal microphone Kim put all his emotion into the verses and all his harmonica mastery in his playing. No amps, no pedals, no tube distortion. His raw playing reflected the years of a bluesman perfecting his craft. The second song with a long, multi-rhythm amplified instrumental that almost sounded like two harp players captured the audience's total attention and moved through their emotions as Kim took them on his music journey. To say that this was a "show-stopper" would understate the raw power, beautiful tone and articulate phrasing that he encapsulated into this one song.

The evening kept on getting better and better as one of the great harmonica masters took the stage. Charlie Mussel-white, a soft-spoken Johnny Cash-like man in black, with his quiet presence and powerful playing took center stage. With a distinctive tone and playing style that sounds like no one else, Charlie's command of his instrument and love of his music was immediately visible as he began with "Blues Why Do You Worry Me." Joined by Rusty Zinn on guitar, Charlie's relaxed and fluid harmonica playing and gritty vocals provided a powerful statement of the music and his instrument. Chris "Kid" Anderson, a hot young guitar player from Norway who has made the Bay Area his home, joined Charlie for "Bad Boy." Going from 2nd position to a 1st position solo, Charlie demonstrated the full range of the harmonica to all the harp players in the audience and used the combination of multiple positions to add variety and tonal contrasts to his solos. For his last song Charlie played a song with which he is forever associated "Christo Redemptor." Written by jazz pianist Duke Pearson and originally titled "Christo Redentor," and first recorded by Charlie back in the late 60's, the song still had a crowd pleasing, spell binding emotion effect on the listeners.

The final performer of the evening show was legendary James Cotton. Seated on a chair in the middle of the stage, he still has a presence and gravitas about him that links back to the days when the blues, as we know them today, emerged from the South immigrated to Chicago and established an American art form. Launching right into his trademark instrumental "Creeper," his distinctive sound and playing style reinforced the audience's welcome and their excited interest in hearing him play. No longer singing after his illness several years ago, James had Mark Hummel on stage to sing a few songs including the classic high energy "Rocket 88."

With all that energy flowing from the stage the only thing left was to bring all the harmonica players for the evening back for a grand finale. And as almost always true of one of Mark's Blowouts he had a few surprises waiting in the wings. This time it was his good friend and harp player in Little Charlie and The Nightcats, Rick Estrin as well as R.J. Mischo, another great harp player and singer who relocated several years ago to the Northern California Bay Area. With little space to spare on the stage they somehow managed to squeeze themselves between the guitar players, drums, piano and amplifiers to render a version of "Got My Mojo Workin."

Although not really a "head-cutting" contest and done in the spirit of good fun there was an increased sense of energy and expectation as the microphone moved from player to player. Especially after James Cotton got out of his chair and danced around the stage. If James was putting that much into this finale, then the other players were going to hold nothing back. Which no doubt pleased the crowd even more.

After all players had their choruses and the final bars played out, Mark Hummel brought the song to a climatic end and the audience responded with standing applause and cheers. A very successful end to a wonderful weekend of music. Now we just have to wait and see what Mark has in store for us next year. In the mean time we'll dig out those CDs to keep the music in our head until we can return to the next Blowout at Yoshi's.