harmonica wizard

Image from DeFord Bailey website

“He listened to sounds, it was sounds that were always on his mind; hens, foxes, hounds, turkeys were the subjects of his imitation as well as trains. Most of all, he wanted to get the train sound right and eventually came close enough so that a railroad engineer once came up to the WSM studios to compliment DeFord on his accuracy as well as to correct his whistle pattern for crossings.”
- from “DeFord Bailey” chapter in Guralnick’s Lost Highway

DeFord Bailey - Fox Chase [emusic]

"In fact it was DeFord's harmonica playing that inspired the Opry's change of name. DeFord's 'Pan-American Blues' led off the broadcast on the night of December 10, 1927, contrasting sharply with a 'serious' modern piece just aired on the NBC Music Appreciation Hour that was meant to convey the sense of an onrushing locomotive. There was, sniffed NBC conductor Walter Damrosch...'no place in the classics for realism.' The Solemn Ol' Judge [Opry MC George D. Hay], not to be outdone, introduced DeFord's train blues, and the Barn Dance itself, as 'nothing but realism, down to earth for the earthy,' and then came up with the inspired tag: 'For the past hour we have been listening to the music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry."
- from “DeFord Bailey” chapter in Guralnick’s Lost Highway

DeFord Bailey - Pan American Blues [emusic]