James Harman is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 player, singer, and songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

. Music journalist

Music journalism

Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...

, Tony Russell, described Harman as an "amusing songwriter and an excellent, unfussy harp player".

Biography

At the age of four, Harman began lessons in piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 playing, and also sang in his local church choir. Harmonicas owned by his father were stored in the piano bench, and James tried playing them after his piano lessons ended. In time, he became capable in several other musical instruments, including guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, electric organ

Electric organ

In biology, the electric organ is an organ common to all electric fish used for the purposes of creating an electric field. The electric organ is derived from modified nerve or muscle tissue...

, and drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

s.

In 1962, he relocated to Panama City, Florida

Panama City, Florida

-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...

, where he played in many rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 bands

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

, of which The Icehouse Blues Band was the last. Earl Caldwell

Earl Caldwell

Earl Welton Caldwell was a pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia Phillies , St. Louis Browns , Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox . A native of Sparks, Texas, Caldwell batted and threw right-handed...

, manager of The Swinging Medallions, signed Harman to a recording contract

Recording contract

A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...

. In 1964, in Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

, Harman recorded the first of nine early singles

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, which were variously released on five different record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

s.

Harman performed as a blues harmonica player and singer in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, and elsewhere before he moved to Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 in the 1970s. There, his Icehouse Blues Band played alongside Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...

, John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...

, Freddie King

Freddie King

Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...

, Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

, Albert King

Albert King

Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...

, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker

T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...

, Lowell Fulsom, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and Albert Collins

Albert Collins

Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...

. In 1977 he formed the James Harman Band. Over the years their line-up has included Phil Alvin

Phil Alvin

Phil Alvin is an American singer and guitarist. He is known primarily as the frontman of the roots-rock band The Blasters.Alvin grew up in Downey, California in a music-loving family where he and his younger brother...

 and Bill Bateman, who left in 1978 to form The Blasters

The Blasters

The Blasters are a rock and roll music group formed in 1979 in Downey, California, by brothers Phil Alvin and Dave Alvin , with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman. Phil Alvin explained the origin of the band's name: "I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records – I had...

; Gene Taylor

Gene Taylor (musician)

Gene Taylor is an American blues rock and boogie-woogie pianist.-Biography:Taylor began his musical training as a drummer at age eight but two years later he had picked up both the guitar and his initial piano skills from boogie-woogie pianist-neighbours...

, who departed in 1981, also to join the Blasters before moving on to The Fabulous Thunderbirds

The Fabulous Thunderbirds

The Fabulous Thunderbirds are an American, Grammy-nominated Blues rock band, formed in 1974.-Career:After performing for several years in the Austin, Texas blues scene, the band won a recording contract with Takoma/Chrysalis Records, and later on signed with Epic Records.Their first two albums,...

; and Kid Ramos

Kid Ramos

Kid Ramos is an American electric blues and blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. Thompson has released four solo albums since 1995 on Black Top and Evidence Records...

. Alumni also included the late Hollywood Fats

Hollywood Fats

Hollywood Fats was an American blues guitarist, active in Los Angeles, California.-Biography:Hollywood Fats was born Michael Leonard Mann in Los Angeles, and started playing guitar at the age of 10...

 who, after leaving his own band in 1980, played alongside Harman for five years.

Harman became known as a skilled, reliable musician, whether for a backing band or leading his own ensemble. His band recorded several albums during the 1980s, before settling in 1990 at Black Top

Black Top Records

Black Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...

.

Numerous Harman songs have been used in film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s and on television, including "Kiss of Fire" (from Those Dangerous Gentlemen), which was on the soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 of The Accused

The Accused

The Accused is a 1988 Canadian drama film starring Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis, directed by Jonathan Kaplan and written by Tom Topor. Foster was awarded the 1988 Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for her performance....

. Harman has received several W.C. Handy Blues Award nominations, for songs on his own releases and on other artists' albums. He has been inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame

Alabama Music Hall of Fame

The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, first conceived by the Muscle Shoals Music Association in the early 1980s, was created by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board, which then saw to its Phase One construction of a after a state-wide referendum in 1987...

 and received the "Best Blues Album of the Year" award from the Real Blues magazine.

In 1995, Harman recorded a song named for the Zoo Bar

Zoo Bar (Lincoln, Nebraska)

The Zoo Bar is a blues music venue and nightclub located in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska on 136 North 14th Street. Styled around the Chicago blues clubs, it is a long, narrow venue in a building built in 1921....

 club

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 in Lincoln

Lincoln, Nebraska

The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....

, Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

. "Everybody's Rockin' (At The Zoo Bar)" can be found on Harman's Black & White album.

Harman has also performed at the Long Beach Blues Festival

Long Beach Blues Festival

The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, was established in full in 1980, and is one of the largest Blues festivals and is the second oldest on the West Coast . It is held on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. For many years it was held on the athletic field on the...

, and around the world in concert.

Discography

• 1987 - Those Dangerous Gentlemen - Rhino
• 1988 - Extra Napkins - Rivera Records
• 1990 - Strictly Live... In '85!, Vol. 1
• 1991 - Do Not Disturb - Black Top
  Black Top Records
  Black Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
  
  
• 1993 - Two Sides to Every Story - Black Top
• 1994 - Cards on the Table - Black Top
• 1995 - Black & White - Hep Cat Records
• 1998 - Takin' Chances - Cannonball Records
• 1999 - Icepick's Story - Me & My Blues
• 2003 - Lonesome Moon Trance - Pacific Blues