Northern Blues
2008
Steady Movin'
About This Album
Look no further than the woodcut styled painting of a flaming harmonica on the cover of Carlos Del Junco's album to get the gist of his approach. Unlike such "more notes per second" harp players as John Popper, Del Junco uses his dexterity as a means to an end. He developed his distinctive style on the ten-hole diatonic harp to play it chromatically, basically sounding like a far more bluesy Stevie Wonder. That gives him a unique sound on an instrument that seldom gets taken as seriously as it should. Here he uses it to terrific effect on Tiny Bradshaw's big-band standard "Jersey Bounce," a song Del Junco has already tackled on his 1999 live album. The disc jumps out of the blocks with three terrific instrumentals that mix blues and jazz. The surfy "Dull Blade" even finds Del Junco's harp tackling the James Bond theme for a few notes. But the momentum hits a snag when Del Junco's somewhat strained vocals appear on his own "Mashed Potatoes Canada," a tribute to James Brown, according to the liner notes. Fellow Canadian Kevin Breit is also along for the ride here and his contributions on guitar and occasionally banjo push this already adventurous music almost into experimental territory.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,7,9 and 10)

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