James Harman is a blues singer-songwriter, harmonica player, musician and producer from Anniston, Alabama. Born in 1946 and active until his death in 2021, he is associated with the west coast blues scene and is known for his work as one of the leading white harmonica players on the American west coast.

Early life and influences

Harman learns the harmonica from his father, whose Hohner instruments are kept in the piano bench and played after piano lessons. He also experiments with guitar, organ, bass and drums, and performs both solo and with family members at dances and country suppers. He discovers blues through black radio and local street music, and the blind street singer and slide guitarist Radio Johnson becomes an early influence and collaborator. As a youngster in Alabama, he plays with Johnson and buys rhythm and blues records.

His professional career begins in 1962 after he moves to Panama City, Florida. There he finds other musicians who take him to black nightclubs to hear artists including Little Junior Parker, Jimmy Reed, Little Milton Campbell, Slim Harpo, Bobby Bland, O.V. Wright, B.B. King, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Joe Tex and James Carr. He begins sitting in with local house bands and becomes known as “that boy who sings like a man.”

Early bands and regional recording career

By the age of 16, Harman has formed his own band and starts recording singles and albums with a range of ensembles, including Soul Senders, Snakedoctor, King James and the Royals, the Icehouse Blues Band and Icepick James and the Rattlesnakes. His early rhythm and blues groups also include Disciples of Soul, Disciples of Blues, The Disciples, Voo Doo Daddy, Pieces of Eight and Kingsnakes. In 1964 he records the first of nine regional 45 RPM singles, released on five different labels.

He tours the eastern half of the United States through the rest of the 1960s, playing radio station dances, fraternity parties, nightclubs, college concerts, after-hours venues, striptease parlours, bottle clubs and honky tonks. When not headlining, he also opens for and backs major rhythm and blues artists. During the mid-1960s he lives in Chicago, New York, Miami and New Orleans while looking for a base for his music. In Chicago and New York the club scenes are already dominated by other blues figures; New Orleans proves difficult; Miami gives him some success, including free outdoor “love-in” shows and club dates. At the Jet-Away Lounge he becomes the first white act to perform there and one of the first to appear with a racially integrated band.

James Harman Band

In 1970 Harman moves to southern California, and after a period away from music because of health problems, he forms the James Harman Band in the late 1970s. The band becomes a key outlet for his work and includes musicians such as Phil Alvin, Bill Bateman, Gene Taylor, David “Kid” Ramos, Michael “Hollywood Fats” Mann, Jeff Turmes, Richard Innes, Stephen T. Hodges, Steve Mugalian and Paul Fasulo. Several alumni later play with the Blasters or the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

The band plays long nightclub runs with blues figures including Big Joe Turner, John Lee Hooker, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Albert King, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Lloyd Glenn, Lowell Fulsom, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Albert Collins. Harman records acclaimed albums for Rivera and Rhino before moving to Black Top Records in the early 1990s. His Black Top releases include Do Not Disturb and Black & White, and later recordings appear on Cannonball and Pacific Blue. Through his own production company, Icepick Productions, he issues more than a dozen further releases.

Style, production and recognition

Harman works closely with producer and engineer Jerry Hall, a partnership that begins in 1971. Hall engineers every track on Harman’s releases from that point, and the pair also produce other artists. Harman is a singer, harmonica player and songwriter whose work uses humour, detail and irony, and his music draws on the Southern blues tradition while maintaining a personal approach.

Seventeen songs from his releases appear in film and television. “Kiss of Fire”, from Those Dangerous Gentlemens, is used in The Accused, and “Jump My Baby”, from Thank You Baby, appears in three films, including Burning Love. Harman receives 14 W.C. Handy Blues Award nominations for his own recordings and for work associated with other artists, including Kid Ramos, and he is nominated in categories such as Blues Song of the Year, Blues Single of the Year and Re-release of the Year for the CD reissue of Extra Napkins. He is inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and wins Best Blues Album of the Year from Canada’s Real Blues Magazine.

Touring

Harman performs live in 18 countries and plays as many as 250 dates a year. His festival appearances include the Long Beach Blues Festival, the New York State Blues Festival, the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Heritage Festival, the King Biscuit Festival in Helena, Arkansas, Bumbershoot in Seattle, the Bayfront Blues Festival in Duluth, the Waterfront Festival in Portland, Oregon, the Edmonton Blues Festival, the Peer and Spring Blues Festivals in Belgium, the Notodden and Hell festivals in Norway, the Great Britain R&B Festival in Colne, the Milano and Pistoia festivals in Italy and the Bayron Bay Festival in Australia.