Harry Garner

a.k.a.

     Harry “The harp”

 He ain’t from the South.  He wasn’t born in Mississippi and he ain’t ever had to pick cotton.  But Harry knows the blues intimately.  Born in 1955, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Harry grew up on the rough and tumble southwest side of Philly.  Harry seemed to be destined for a life of blues right from the start.  He received his first harmonica when he was only seven years old as a gift from his father.  This event began his lifetime love affair with the Mississippi Saxophone.  It was also on these same mean streets that Harry developed his powerful voice by singing in the city choir.  The choir recorded several LPs and Harry was a featured performer for the opera “Carmen.”   The choir provided a temporary retreat from the dangers of the streets but in 1969 the chaos of the Viet Nam War and the Civil Rights movement took its toll on the city and Harry’s family shipped him off to live with a relative in Ohio.  Feeling out of place and with few friends that could relate to his world Harry enlisted in the U S Marine Corps.  After his discharge, he drifted from place to place looking for the home where he would fit in and feel at peace.  This wandering resulted in an advanced degree from the school of hard knocks.  Harry relocated to Chicago in 1985 and proceeded to settle down.  Nine years later when his marriage ended in divorce Harry began exploring the Chicago blues scene.  He began playing harp and singing in and around the Chicago / Joliet area at the various jams.  The sign-up sheets at the jams always asked for your name and the instrument you played, which is how Harry received the handle of Harry “The harp.”   After a lifetime of searching, Harry has finally found the place where he feels most at home.   It is a place steeped in tradition and it welcomes all those who embrace its humble origins.  It is a place where strangers and friends alike can lay their burdens down.  This place is known, simply, as “The Blues.” 

Harry’s musical inspirations are wide and vary from early Steppenwolf, Paul Butterfield and Motown to Hank Williams. Bluesmen such as Rice Miller, James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite, McKinley Morganfield, Little Walter, Otis Spann and George “Harmonica” Smith have all had a direct influence on Harry.  During his internship as a local blues side man Harry shared the stage with many of Chicago’s most established and well known bluesmen including; L. C. Walker, Sam Cockrell, John Primer, Lindsey Alexander, Eddie Clearwater, David Specter, Bob Stroger, Jimmy Burns, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, Barrelhouse Chuck, Toronzo Cannon, Pete Allen, Mike Wheeler, Chico Banks, Piano C. Red, Little Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Dollar, and many others.  Harry has learned the origins of the blues deep down in the Mississippi Delta.  While traveling through Clarksdale, Mississippi, Harry preformed at Morgan Freeman’s blues club, Ground Zero.  He was also a featured guest of Sunshine Sonny Payne’s King Biscuit Time Show, on KFFA Radio, in West Helena Arkansas.                                                          

 As a bluesman Harry Garner has one foot in the distant past and the other set on carrying the blues into the future.  He’s not just another cookie-cutter harp player.  Harry strives to find his own style and his own sound.  His unique and distinctive voice, fiery harp, and entertaining presence draws people to him.  Harry’s blues are born from the rollicking juke joints and honky tonks where he spent much of his life.  They have an attitude forged by years of hard livin‘.  His band features some of Chicago's finest and most dynamic blues musicians who testify to Harrys sincerity and authenticity.  Harry will tell you straight up “The blues picked me.  I didn’t pick the blues.”

Harry Garner