Loy clingman biography of donald

“Walter was a virtuoso harmonica player and he was the first guy to amplify a harmonica. My uncle Frank played with Walter on his tour in 1963, Walter had quite a reputation for being a bad boy, but he was nothing short of a gentleman according to Frank, apparently he was a really sweet guy.

“He had a really heavy, distorted tone on a lot of the tracks and a lot of harmonica players do a lot of research into how he got his sound and tone. Frank told me an amazing story about this concert that he played with him. My uncle had borrowed loads of different microphones and amplifiers off of friends to try and please Walter, in case he needed a specific thing. So he said, “What kind of mic or amp do you want?” and Walter said “It doesn’t matter”, he was blown away by that. Walter went up to the microphone and tested it out and it was just him. He was the one that got the tone. It was a life changing event for my uncle to play with Little Walter.

“Walter was quite a tragic figure, he died in a knife fight after shooting dice in an alley somewhere. He was like the Charlie Parker of blues, he was a complete game-changer when he started releasing records, nobody sounds like him; he was a complete one off. Loads of musicians have tried to imitate him, but they’re not getting close, h

•

•