Blues Society of Western PA - Newsletter

I am always a bit leery of tribute albums. How do you improve upon the original? You run the risk of merely parroting the artist, a great technical achievement, perhaps, but-well, its already been done. If you try to “improve” on the original, you run the risk of straying too far from the source.

It is especially true when the tribute is for an icon of the harmonica world. Little Walter was one of the most influential instrumentals of the second half of the twentieth century. There is not a blues harp player alive today that does not owe a huge debt to Little Walter. Every one of them has copped at least a lick or ten from him.

Dennis Gruenling is a relatively new and exciting harmonica player from New Jersey. He has some innovational approaches to the harp that made me especially anxious to hear this album. How was he going to handle this conundrum? He brings along some big guns to help him. Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin and Steve Guyger share harp duties. Rusty Zinn hops in on guitar. With that triumvirate of harp greats onboard, you have a harp extravaganza! Gruenling avoids the more popular of the Little Walter material. There is no “Juke” and no “Roller Coaster” but that is fine with me. He digs up some songs that I had never associated with Little Walter. Standouts for me were: the do-woppish, “Corella” with a killer first position solo by Dennis; “I Got to Go” (one of my favorite Little Walter tunes that drove me absolutely crazy until I discovered third position); “Teenage Beat” a chromatic piece that is basically one chord which makes it challenging and interesting (Dennis, Rick and Kim take turns on that one). “That’s It,” a third position song, will keep me busy for months trying to learn it. Dennis’s wife, Gina Fox, sings on three cuts. Although she possesses a great voice, I think she is more suited to jazz than blues. She is a little too smooth and polished for this stuff, (in my humble opinion).

Overall, I think that Dennis did a great job of paying homage to Little Walter without being a carbon copy of his playing. He manages to put his own spin on it without straying far from the source. With the help of three of our greatest living harp players, it is an album every harp geek should own. Blues lovers that are not so harp-centric, as I, will like this one.