Harmonica Frank
Harmonica Frank Floyd (* October 11, 1908 in Toccopola, Mississippi; † 7 August 1984 in Blanchester, Ohio) was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player.
He was the child of migrant workers, but grew up with his grandparents. At the age of ten years he taught himself harmonica at and also learned to play the guitar. After his grandparents died, he joined a medicine show in which he learned many different things folk styles. Harmonica Frank has recorded several records for Sam Phillips ( which were issued on record labels Chess and Sun ), including Rockin 'Chair Daddy, the three weeks before Elvis' That's All Right Mama appeared. He was the first white musician who recorded in the Sun Studios and Sam Phillips was the idea that a white man singing black music, it would be a great success. Among insiders, he is considered ' legend '. As the title of one of his albums says ( The Missing Link ), he combines in his person the tradition of medicine shows with the early rock 'n roll.
Before he was taken in the early 1950s by Sam Phillips for Sun Records, he already had a long career in medicine shows behind. He perfected a technique of simultaneous harmonica game with a side and singing with the other side of his mouth. He could also play the harmonica and nasal operate in this way two harmonicas simultaneously, a skill that he had in common with the blues Harpisten Walter Horton and Gus Cannon's partner Noah Lewis.
He was ' rediscovered ' by Steve LaVere ( Stephen C. LaVere ) in 1972 and adopted in the following years, two long-playing records on the labels Adelphi and Barrelhouse on.
In his book Mystery Train from the year 1975, Greil Marcus has concentrated his thoughts about the United States and the Rock ' n ' Roll to the six musicians Robert Johnson, Harmonica Frank, Randy Newman, The Band, Sly Stone, and Elvis Presley.