Harmonica Buzz Blues & Twang Songwriter

From up north in Michigan, these two came to our studio and performed a duet that couldn’t be beat! With the sounds of harmonica, acoustic guitar and a blend of vocals, they started with the song, "The Blues Are Better" and ended with a slower tune, "Home (The Carpenter's Song)"
- WNIT Television

Harmonica Buzz is J.T. Sunden, a roots and blues songwriter and master of the Blues Harmonica.
- WNIT Television

Harmonica Buzz loves to explore the multiple boundary-crossings among folk, blues, bluegrass and country music. His performance ... promises to drop listeners right into this thicket. ~ Lawrence Constenino - Lansing City Pulse (Sep 15, 2004)

Harmonica Buzz was accompanied by local guitarist Tom Toman and a very special guest all the way from Colorado, Mo' Kauffey. . . Well, what they came up with worked like magic. They turned in a fine set of "front porch" Blues including an all-house sing-a-long of "The Cornbread Jinx", a staple in the diet of any hungry blues fan. ~ Jason Strothiede - The Blues Ambassador (Jun 1, 2005)

By WHITNEY SPOTTS

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 by aforementioned "train" master DeFord Bailey.

Lately he’s teamed up with Guitar Tom Toman for shows, and City Pulse has tapped the two to play at its first ever Happy Hour Party on Thursday, June 30 at the Green Door.

"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 - (Jun 22, 2005)

By DAN JULIAN

Catch a rising folk artist tonight at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 855 Grove St., as part of the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse concert series. Okemos-based Harmonica Buzz will perform, with special guests John Price and Jill Messing as part of a benefit for Ten Pound Fiddle.

Harmonica Buzz will be promoting its new disc, “Long Way to Memphis,” which pays tribute to DeFord Bailey, an early black country star who played the Grand Ole Opry from 1925 to 1941.

Jeff Sunden developed the idea for the album, which features contributions from a plethora of local artists. Those include DeWitt’s Stan Budzynski on acoustic slide guitar, young singer and songwriter Haily Wojcik and Ten Pound Fiddle volunteer Margie Donovan.

Some of the album was recorded in the studio of Eddie Pennington, a thumb-picker and National Heritage Award Fellow, during the summer of 2001. The remainder of was recorded in Grand Rapids with various Michigan musicians.

Last summer, Harmonica Buzz had the opportunity to perform at the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival in Memphis, Tenn.

For more information about Harmonica Buzz, e-mail Sunden at harmonicabuzz@hotmail.com.

- The State News (Michigan State University)

Artist : Harmonica Buzz
Album Title : Long Way to Memphis
Date of Release : 2002
AMG Rating : 4 1/2 Stars
Genre : Blues
Tones : Earnest, Intimate, Amiable/Good-Natured, Earthy, Organic, Reverent, Energetic, Gritty, Bright
Styles Acoustic Blues, Modern Acoustic Blues, Electric Harmonica Blues, Harmonica Blues, Folk-Blues

All Music Guide Review

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. There is a wonderful, back-porch feel on this disc, but its seemingly loose style actually belies some crisp ensemble playing, and what may appear haphazard here is actually calculatingly exact. This is a hard road to walk, between casual and precise, but it works here, and Long Way to Memphis has charm to burn. Highlights include "The Colin Shuffle," which features some fine guitar from Alonzo Pennington and the marvelous vocal interplay between Michigan Mark DePree and Sara Q on "The Cornbread Jinx." A paean to songwriter Lucy Webster's feet called, amazingly enough, "Lucy's Feet," works surprisingly well, given the odds. A sample of harmonica wizard DeFord Bailey "doing his train" opens "The Miracle Stop," which is perhaps the most impressive track here. There are harmonicas everywhere on these songs, of course, but it would be wrong to call this a harmonica album. It really feels like a personal journey through American roots music with a man who just happens to always carry his harps, just in case. — Steve Leggett
- All Music Guide

It's great to hear DeFord's train rolling again on Buzz's excellent CD. The "Harmonica Wizard" would have been quite pleased both with the music and the tribute to him.
- David C. Morton ... DeFord Bailey's friend and biographer

Harmonica Buzz : Long Way to Memphis
Blues and Twang Records
Listen to at: SongRamp.com, CDBaby.com/harmonicabuzz

Harmonica Buzz is a blues hipster hailing from our very own Okemos, Michigan and he is a favorite son we can be proud of. His philosophy of "less is more" infuses this record with a relaxed and jammy feel. Loose, unorganized jams can often be dullness that passeth all understanding but HB's are short and sweet. He makes his point and then he's outta there. But Buzz is not miserly with his music. Even though the songs are brief and to the point, he packs 20 of them. The first song is fairly typical of most of the record. "But It Helps" has Buzz on harp and vocals with acoustic guitar rhythm supplied by a cat monikered Michigan Mark and subtle bass by Sara Q. It reminds me of the kind of sassy, bluesy vocal Rickie Lee Jones might do. HB's voice is pleasant and does the job but doesn't necessarily leave as huge an imprint on your soul as Rick Estrin or a John Hammond. Nevertheless, the more you listen to it the better it sounds, maybe like the way J.J. Cale grabs a hold of you if you give him half a chance. Buzz does kind of go for the hypnotic shuffle like J.J. as well.

Another nice thing about the CD is Buzz calls in new friends for assistance after every 3 or 4 songs. "If I Find a Bell" does a Doobie Brothers kind of rhythm with better-than-Doobie results. Alonzo Pennington is on guitar and Dean Hughes does durms. Informality continues to rule. "The Colin Shuffle" is a nice jazzy shuffle instrumental with bass, brushes, harp and guitar. "Makin' Whoopee" is the standard done as a duet instrumental with Dave Boutette on guitar. "Trev Mo" is a fast and snappy guitar-harp instrumental co-authored with Andy Springsteen (yes, that Springsteen but the actual Boss connection was not made clear). "Home : The Carpenter's Song" has Michigan Mark doing Travis-style fingerwork and the result is backporch in the best sense of the word. HB strives for a live, one take feel on everything and that gives a very friendly feel to the record.

There are nice shifts in the mood throughout the CD. For example, "The Black and White" departs from the shuffle format into Chuck Berry style rock but in a spare way with only boogie rhythm guitar and the spare but rocking sound recalls some of the cuts from Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska album. "That Rhyming Phrase" has a ragtime feel. "Lucy's Feet" is a charming little ditty about singer-songwriter Lucy Webster's feet. You can let your mind run wild with that. "The Miracle Stop" features introductory footage by the legendary DeFord Bailey doing his train on harp. This then segues into a fast shuffle with a Johnny Cash-type boom-chucka-boom rhythm guitar.

I guess I got carried away here but there's lots of good blues fun in this generously packed and lovingly made CD, I hope this helps generate some buzz about the Buzz. ---- Steve Bachleda, Capital Area Blues Society


- The Blues Ambassador, August 2003