CD Review – Carlos Del Junco “Steady Movin”

October 2008 – blue barry – Smoky Mtn. Blues Society

Carlos Del Junco has graced our ears with another harmonica masterpiece called “Steady Movin’. Carlos is one of the top harmonica players in the world and there is nothing anybody can do about it. He plays his ‘harp’ like you play a radio, and gets every sound out of it that you do. In two words Carlos is “simply unbelievable.” Everything he does is just a little bit better, faster, slower, more resonant, or has better tone that the other guys. This isn’t a blues, or a folk, or a new age, jazz CD, it is a music CD, and Carlos just owns it. Carlos has won two World Harmonica Championships, and has won the Harmonica Player of the Year award in Canada for 7 out of the last 10 years. Playing a 10-hole diatonic harp, not a chromatic with the slide button, he sounds like any instrument that he wants to. Sometimes you can’t tell if it is a horn, a clarinet, or a harp. For a harmonica player he has raised the bar, once again, way over our heads. For the listener, you will be amazed! We have 11 cuts on the CD. You can’t play any of them like he does. Well, maybe Howard Levy or Bonfiglio, but nobody I know. His previous CD was “Blues Mongrel” and it is worth picking up the same time you get this one. Every song is great. No stray dogs here. Listen to it 100 times, and you may hear it all. I stand in awe! Carlos Del Junco, “Steady Movin’”. If you are a harmonica player and haven’t heard him yet, it will change your life. For the better. I’m still shaking my head over “Blues Mongrel.” Guess I’ll just keep shaking it some more. Check it out here....www.carlosdeljunco.com or www.northernblues.com One love, blue barry