Word: harps
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...point, the harp seals of maritime Canada live fortuitous lives. The gray-tan harp-so called because of a harp-shaped black blotch on its back-cannot swim at birth and dies if whelped into the frigid ocean off Labrador. By a generous natural coincidence, however, whelping occurs just as spring thaws begin to break up the winter ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Taking advantage of the breakup, pregnant cows among the 800,000 harps make their way south. Swimming down the Labrador coast and through the Strait of Belle Isle, they enter the broad Gulf...
Stout Oak Clubs. Not all of them make it. Of the 250,000 harp-seal pups born in the gulf each year, nearly one-quarter may die at the hands of their natural enemy-man. Their white coats have long been prized for boot and glove trimmings and for fur jackets. In the gulf, a horde of hunters invade the floes on foot, by boat, on ski-equipped planes and in recent years by helicopter. Hundreds of sealers-"swilers" in the Newfoundland dialect-conduct a brief but grimly efficient slaughter. With stout oak clubs they move systematically through the herd...
...Shaky Walter along with Sunnyland Slim, and Willie Dixon (who wrote such classic songs as "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "I Just Want To Make Love To You") and Clifton James (who backs Bo Diddley on his recordings with Chess Records) complements Johnny Shines with an understated and beautiful mellow harp that places him in the same category as the late, great blues harpists, Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter...
...that worked out or put together," he says. "It's emotional. It's what you feel at the time." What Johnny feels at the time is likely to be a kind of sliding, "bottleneck" guitar playing in the classic twelve-bar blues pattern or keening "harp" (harmonica) stylings imitative of Little Walter. "When I'm playing without a band, I don't change chords when I'm supposed to-I change chords when I feel like it. That's a primitive concept, but if it feels good and sounds good to me, then...
...lyrics are complemented by an insistently rhythmic organ and Sonny Boy's incredible crying harmonica. The combination of the lyrics and the music creates sadness, loneliness, and despair--the Blues--and yet the sound of his slashing harp and insistent flowing rhythm section indicate that despite his blues Sonny boy can still swing and by singing and playing the Blues he is able to transcend his blues...