Roots & Blues songwriter from Lansing, Michigan

Harmonica Buzz is J.T. Sunden, a Michigan roots and blues harmonica player whose reverence for the form doesn't prevent him from having a whole lot of fun on Long Way to Memphis, his debut album. All Music Guide

STORY-TELLING HARP MAN

Harmonica Buzz is likely the local expert on harmonica bluesman Phil Wiggins, excitedly telling story after story of meeting Wiggins, hearing him play, drawing from his musical knowledge. The problem is, the interview is supposed to be about Buzz himself.

Buzz considers Wiggins his mentor, having named himself in honor of the man. ("The name Harmonica Buzz is part joke and part tribute," he explains, "because when I first saw [John] Cephas and Wiggins play he was going by Harmonica Phil Wiggins.") Buzz even credits Wiggins in the liner notes of his debut album, "Long Way to Memphis," giving thanks to "'The Real Deal' Phil Wiggins, who opened up the world to me."

It's high praise, and Buzz obviously means it. "I was pretty much self-taught," he says, "but when I met Phil Wiggins I realized I didn't know shit. When I met him and got up close to him he sounded like a freakin' trumpet."

Buzz has been playing harmonica for years, but didn't really get serious about it until Wiggins took him under his wing after they met at the 1999 National Folk Festival in East Lansing (the festival that sparked the yearly East Lansing Folk Festival). Buzz had seen Wiggins play before and had been stunned by the power of his simple harmonica-guitar duo with Cephas. The pair gave a workshop at the festival that seems as fresh in Buzz's mind as what he ate for dinner yesterday.

"Wiggins ended up doing this [harmonica] train and he said, 'I'm gonna do my train. You know, DeFord Bailey was very proud of his train, but mine's not nothing like that.' Then he did the most powerful, powerful train you ever did hear. At the end of it, the guitar players went over to check out Cephas — he does a fingerstyle technique — and then people were bringing up little babies for Phil to hold and it was like — phew — it was the coolest thing."

Buzz joined Cephas and Wiggins, along with artists like Eddie Pennington and Wayne Henderson, on the 2000 "Masters of the Steel String Guitar" tour organized by the National Council for the Traditional Arts, observing, learning and taking scores of photographs, which he pulls out to illustrate the many stories about his idol.

"I'm an oddball in that basically I got into music as a writer," Buzz says. "I kind of cross styles a bit and I took kind of a stereotypical name — Harmonica Buzz. You expect me to be a blues guy, but I'm really first a songwriter. It's actually kind of an advantage in songwriting because I'm not limited to what my fingers can do, so I can write a song and find a guitar player who's really good in that style."

A number of different musicans appear on his album, including an appearance (song clip) by aforementioned "train" master DeFord Bailey.

"The past year things have really taken off," Buzz says. "I find that it's about playing to people and being really interactive. I do a lot of call and response songs."

You can also count on a story or two in the process because this is one musician who will never forget where he started and the man who got him to where he is today.
Whitney Spotts - Lansing City Pulse