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Me and My Chauffeur Blues played by Big Road Blues podfour 1,051 views Big Road Blues: Myriam Valle--vocal, spoons; Ricky Eisenberg--vocal, finger-picked guitar; Alan Podber--flat-picked guitar. Our rendition of Memphis Minnie's signature ...
Blues in the Bottle played by The Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers podfour 5,806 views Jug band rendition of a song originally recorded by Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers and re-popularized by the Holy Modal Rounders. Ralph Litwin--vocal, banjo, lead ha...
Big River Blues played by Big Road Blues podfour 661 views Rick Eisenberg--lead vocal, finger-picked guitar; Al Podber--harmony vocal, flat-picked guitar; Myriam Valle--mandolin. This was an early rendition of our version, and we ...
Nothing in Rambling played by Big Road Blues podfour 510 views Big Road Blues: Myriam Valle--lead vocal; Ricky Eisenberg and Alan Podber-- harmony vocals, guitars. Powerful personal and social commentary from Memphis Minnie. Check ...
Mississippi Sandman played by the Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers with Hen3ry (no typo).mp4 podfour 199 views Great but little known song by Babe Fritsch, written for Smokey Joe Wood, the Houston Hipster. Play it. Teach it to your friends. This song deserves to become an old-tim...
Bad Luck Blues played by Big Road Blues podfour 1,249 views Big Road Blues: Ricky Eisenberg--lead vocal, guitar; Alan Podber--harmony vocal, 12-string guitar; Myriam Valle--harmony vocal, spoons. Ricky plays Blind Lemon with a P...
The Trouble with Man played by The Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers with Hen3ry (no typo) podfour 99 views A virtually unknown American pop "classic" with a calypsoid feel and tongue in cheek (maybe) cynicism...The video itself inexplicably pays homage to the analog disk era by ...
Six Guys in a Telephone Booth by The Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers podfour 439 views A Lenny Pat (Podber) original. Followed by an abbreviated medley of Look Down that Lonesome Road and This Train. Lenny Pat (Podber)-vocal, guitar; Alan Podber-vocal, mand...
Lazy Bones played by the Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers podfour 86 views Watch in amazement at Ralph's ability to maintain his stoic composure and finger-style banjo focus as Alan babbles in the background while picking up his resonator guitar! ...
Up on Cripple Creek played by The Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers and Hen3ry (no typo).mp4 podfour 140 views The Band's classic given a very furry treatment. Ralph Litwin--guitar, harmonica, vocal Alan Podber--mandolin, vocal Hen3ry Nerenberg--piano, vocal

About Big Road Blues and the Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers

Next gigs:

Sunday, May 1. The annual May Day Festival at the American Labor Museum/Botto House, 83 Norwood Ave., in Haledon, NJ, from 12 Noon to 5 PM. George Mann will be leading off the festival accompanied by Alan Podber and Marty Confurius at 1 PM, singing songs of the unions and also honoring Julius Margolin, for whom the festival has been renamed.

Friday, May 6. Louisiana Music Festival at Jalopy in Brooklyn. Alan will be leading a workshop on the "Music and Guitar Styles of Lead Belly" at 5 PM, and Big Road Blues will play a set from 8 - 9 PM. Open the links below for details.

"Music and Guitar Styles of Lead Belly" Workshop:

www.jalopy.biz/performance_show.php?eventid=1942

Big Road Blues Band Performance:

www.jalopy.biz/performance_show.php?eventid=1951

Saturday, May 7. The Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers at the NJ Audobon Society May Day event, Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary, 11 Hardscrabble Road, Bernardsville, NJ;11:45 am -- 12:45 pm; 908-766-5787

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alanpodber.com

Created by

podfour

Latest Activity

Dec 28, 2011

Date Joined

Nov 21, 2006

About this user

Big Road Blues

An acoustic blues band that combines musical ideas from the recordings of various blues greats--using guitars (slide, 6 and 12-string), mandolin, harmonica and fiddle to accompany vibrant solo and call & response vocals.

Ricky Eisenberg—lead vocals, guitar, slide metal-bodied resonator guitar.
Rickys rich bass voice and intricate finger-picking have been featured with the NYC Labor Chorus, where he was a member of the bass section and also performed as a soloist. He has played pre-war acoustic blues for over five decades, and has worked and studied with Woody Mann. In addition to his musical passion, he is a creative cabinetmaker.

Alan Podber—harmony vocals, guitar, slide wood-bodied resonator guitar, harmonica, bouzouki, fiddle, 12-string guitar.
Alan is a blues/old-time-country guitar player and mandolinist, a founding member of both the Delaware Water Gap and Wretched Refuse string bands, and a former host of several music programs, including A Taste of the Blues, on WBAI-FM (Pacifica radio in NY). Most recently, he has partnered with Ralph Litwin in The Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers, and accompanies labor singers George Mann and Julius Margolin (Young and Younger). He holds an M.A. in Music (concentration in ethnomusicology) from Hunter College in NYC, and presently teaches Music Appreciation at Hagerstown Community College in Maryland. He is also a former member of the New York City Labor Chorus, where he met Ricky. He belongs to Local 351 of the AFM, and DC 37 of AFSCME. He is a licensed social worker.

Myriam Valle—lead and harmony vocals, mandolin, guitar, spoons, tambourine.
Myriam is a guitar and mandolin-playing vocalist who has appeared on Broadway and in film, and has worked as a recording artist in popular music and commercials. Myriam
was also a founding member of the Delaware Water Gap String Band, along with Alan (and Henry Sapoznik).

Their CD, "Crossroots," also features harmonica players Delta Dave Johnson and Ken Ficara

The Fabulous Furry Harmonica Brothers

Ralph Litwin--vocals, banjo, guitar, harmonica.

Al Podber--vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, slide guitar, bouzouki.

Ralph (Mendham, NJ) and Al (Brooklyn, NY, and Peru, VT)) have performed as a duo and in larger groups since 1985, playing "a wild mix of ragtime, jugband, swing, blues, old-timey country, rock n roll oldies, and originals" (Don Kissil, former editor-in-chief of "Pickin'" magazine). They have played at The New Jersey Folk Festival, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Lincoln Center Crafts Fair, Brooklyn's Dumbo Arts Festival, The Minstrel Coffeehouse, as well as numerous other coffeehouses, concerts, private parties, fairs, and events. They lightheartedly refer to themselves as The Furry Harmonica Brothers because they sport beards and sometimes play harmonica duets while accompanying themselves on stringed instruments. The Furry Harmonica Brothers have released a CD, which includes 7 tracks from their live appearance on WFMU with radio host Irene Trudell. Ralph Litwin took first place in the NJ Old Style Banjo Championship in 83 & 86 (last year of the contest). At the 1996 Uncle Dave Macon Days in Murfreesboro, TN, he was a National Old Time Banjo finalist, took 2nd place in Harmonica and 1st place in Uncle Dave Macon Freewheelin' Style. Litwin is also producer and host of "...Horses Sing None of It!", a non-commercial half-hour cable television series, which has won three 1st Place Awards from The Hometown Video Festival. Al Podber's profile is listed above under the Big Road Blues band. His webpage is linked below. Also check out Ralph's site for great music AND expert cabinet-making/carpentry: www.ralphlitwin.com