Harry Bodine

"Good music to listen to while hanging out by the levee"
......Offbeat New Orleans Music Magazine - ......Offbeat New Orleans Music Magazine

“Bodine, is an exciting guitarist because he relies not on volume but on talent, imagination and excellent songs. Adept at playing slide on resonator and other guitars as well as picking solid body and hollow body guitars, Bodine always shows whats possible in the blues when the songs, not the volume, actually rule.”………………………….......


- San Antonio Express-News Jim Beal

“Bodine is an original, who first draws on the best of his myriad of musical influences and then stamps his own individual style on the songs, There is not a weak track on this superb album and the conversationalist narrative style and moody slide guitar grab your attttention - Blues Matters Issue 40

“Drivin' Up Thru Memphis is the ultimate highway song and can be easily put in the row of classic Memphis songs among which Memphis In The Meantime, Walking In Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee... think John Hiatt with Sonny Landreth on slide.
Why this magnificent CD is self-released and is not released with one of the better labels in the genre is a mystery to me.”
- Mazz Musikas - Belgium

Album Review: Harry Bodine, Which Way Home
Artist: Harry Bodine
Title: Which Way Home
Writer: Rick Galusha


Austin based swamp & steel player Harry Bodine released his first solo effort in late 2006. Formerly a member of the Austin band, Delta Roux, Bodine appears to have been able to set himself apart of the wide girth of talent that resides in the that Texas hill country town. Known as a songwriter’s songwriter, Bodine has written some fine tunes for this album. While the playing and vocals are quite good perhaps the strongest suit for this album is the arrangements. Songs are full with strong instrumentation and yet enough space is lent to the song to allow a dusty kind of texture to rise up.

On the opening title track Bodine snaps the album open with a ‘Wake Up Little Susie” kind of guitar lick that is quickly supported with organ and layered vocal back-up. Opening the album with, ‘Which Way to My Home’ alerts the listener that Bodine is going back to the roots and searching for his musical home. Tasty guitar fills interlaced with a brief organ solo by Nick Connolly is exceptionally tasty. Bodine uses his national steel to refrain the breaks and bring the song and chorus back, building energy as he does.

Whereas say a John Hammond may elect to play sans’ band, Bodine frequently employs a wide range of instrumentation behind his music and it seems to serve the songs well. On, ‘Time on My Hands’ Bodine begins the track with just vocal and steel guitar then gently opens it up to drums, bass, keys and vocals. The song builds slowly as the percussion accents every twist and turn of the melody line. Bodine breaks the song open for a gentle, tasty guitar duet between featuring a slide sound set behind an acoustic picking.

Sounding haunting like Neil Young’s, ‘Needle and the Damage Done,’ Bodine’s, ‘What Would I Do’ is a laid back ballad which meticulously weaves in and out of the singers query, “What would I do without you?” With a bluesy piano breaks that flow into early period Elton John fills (you remember when Elton was great don’t you?), Bodine casts a wonderful albeit hardly “blues” ballad that is at once familiar and comfortable.

What Bodine seems to understand so many others miss; that often less is more. While Bodine fills the audio spectrum with plenty of interesting bits and pieces, gone are the wailing guitars and over-bearing vocals. Tasty. Pure. Delicious. Harry Bodine’s album, ‘Which Way Home,’ available at www.CDBaby.com, could be an exciting find for those that love a really good song presented by high class players with a bent toward underplaying and subtle nuisances. This is far from a “blues” album but relies heavily on the ‘sounds’ and themes that blues fans will quickly recognize and appreciate. Radio programmers may find the song, ‘Shufflin’ Shoes’ to be a catchy way into the album with a Little Feat style refrain. This really is a very good album. - Blues Wax / Folk Wax

Formerly a member of Delta Roux, Austin singer and slide guitarist Harry Bodine gloriously displays his terrific grasp of roots styles on the self released “Which Way Home”. “Drivin’ Up Thru Memphis” rides a swaggering groove a mile wide, Nick Connolly’s swirling organ vying with Bodine’s guitar for highway mastery. “Time On My Hands has Delta mud all over it, while the swampy “Twenty-Four Hours” is dark and oppressive, with buzzing, snake charmer slide. “What Would I Do” by contrast, is delicate and touching, recalling Steve Earle’s expert melodic and compositional sense. Each arrangement is perfectly conceived, from the funky “Can’t Live Without It” to the weird, Waitsian “Troubled Mind” and the hard boogie of “Hip Street.” With uniformly excellent song craft, singing, and playing, Bodine has created a daring new album in the often-stagnant Americana genre - Blues Revue

Jim Beal: Kerrville fest not the only place to get guitar fix
Web Posted: 06/01/2005 12:00 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News

If you like guitar music, you've come to the right midweek.
The 34th annual Kerrville Folk Festival is in full swing up the road at Quiet Valley Ranch, just south of Kerrville on Texas 16.
But, if you're the sort who's much more comfortable in an urban setting, some Kerrville performers will come to you.
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Thursday night Casbeers will feature the return of slide guitar man Harry Bodine. From Austin by way of New York, Bodine made waves in the blues world while working with the band Delta Roux. A searing slide man, Bodine also is a fine songwriter. Listen for Bodine's band to do a heady mixture of cool lyrics and hot licks.
- Jim Beal

“Harry’s slide work is in the company of Duane Allman, Lowell George and Sonny Landreth”
Good Times Germany - Germany

" I have known Harry Bodine for several years and have always been inspired by his mastery of the slide guitar. It is only recently, however, that I have become aware of his formidable songwriting skills - here is a man who has lived through some hard times and made it to the other side. It is this spirit - at times haunting, desperate, tender - that informs and uplifts his songs . Darkness. Despair. Faith. Hope. Love. In other words the story of our lives, the universal truth that is common to us all , yet unique in it's telling. Who couldn't use a little redemption?"

Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne, June 2004
- Austin