iSound

Kind of Blue If Hank Williams and Muddy Waters were in a band together you’d get Muddyharp. by Andy Garrigue July 2, 2009 When local percussionist Stuart Grimes told me Mark “Muddyharp” Hodgson was the best harmonica player he’d ever heard, I snapped to attention. Soft-spoken Grimes is a consummate musician who has traveled the international blues circuit with heralded guitarist Tinsley Ellis, so his opinion had credence. After listening to “Express Train,” where Hodgson combines the quicksilver speed of Blues Traveler’s John Popper and slashing runs of Sugar Blue (formerly with the Rolling Stones and Willie Dixon), I was primed to investigate further. A showcase at Ashland Coffee & Tea last fall revealed much more, especially why Hodgson feels he shouldn’t be billed as just a blues player. Simply said, one genre cannot capture the muse that drives this musician. At Ashland, his “Catch Me When I Fall,” with its “Thrill Is Gone” feel, was laced with testosterone and urgency. T...