4/02/2011

Kyle Wooten

Kyle Wooten assumedly was an Appalachian harmonica player of the late twenties and early thirties who appeared to have recorded in Atlanta on December 1, 1930 for O'keh.
Well, and this is pretty much all I know about him...

Fortunately, there still are quite a few recordings around so in order to learn about him one at least can examine his style. The most popular of his tunes is certainly "Choking the Blues", employing the draw bending technique which back then was often referred to as "choking the reed" or "choking the harp".
Up until then, most of the 1920's harmonica players had played stricktly straight harp, predominantly blowing the harp in it's original key. Therefore, the likes of Wooten practically paved the way to second position cross harp playing, which would quickly develop into the harmonica blues as we know it today.

Kyle Wooten's very original and witty ways of changing percussive rhythms still make him one of my favorite players.
Enough said, now go check him out yourself!




Enjoy!

maz