FUGITIVE POET MUSIC PRESENTS: PRESS/QUOTES

People are talking about.... MARK “MUDDYHARP” HODGSON


. . .The best harmonica I've heard.
Jeff Healy-MCA Records


. . .You got your own guitar style, man.
Buddy Guy-Silvertone Records

. . .You play likes you was born to it.
Junior Wells

. . .So blistering is Hodgson's harmonica, it would turn the heads of Nashville Folk & heavy metal kids.
Rick De Yampert-The Tennessean

. . .Hodgson is probably the best blues player in Florida. On "Xpress Train," his harmonica blaze would make John Popper jealous.
Dennis Walkling-Jam Magazine

. . . Our Sun Is Gonna Shine, one of three Hodgson originals . . . performed to perfection.
Blues Print-August
. . . Plays harp at a frenetic pace . . .
Dennis Maloney-Skylands Blues News, NJ

. . . Usually it's the guitar slingers who go over the top . . . it's refreshing to see a harpist do the same.
Bill Harriman-Sound Waves

. . . World-class musician.
Tinsley Ellis, TELARC RECORDING ARTIST


. . . with the hundreds of harmonica players out there it's easy to become somewhat cynical and closed-minded. Too many harp-blowers doin' and sayin' the same thing. It's rare that you find someone with talent and strong enough individuality to make them stand out from the pack . . . Mark Hodgson shows enough brilliance to warrant close and careful scrutiny from here on in.
Andy Grigg-Real Blues, Canada Aug/Sept

One of the strongest indie releases of the year . . . Hodgson is a first rate harp player and a convincing vocalist . . . tight classic sounding and loads of fun.
Detroit Blues-Aug./Sept.

Since we opened in August, Hodgson has become the favorite at the House of Blues here in Orlando.
Adam Shipley, Talent Buyer-


. . . When this album is good, it is painfully great.
Doug Elfman-Daytona Beach News Journal

.....With just acoustic guitar, harmonica and his rich, Rottweiler-bark of a voice, Hodgson kicks Satan’s butt and conjures the spirits of Muddy, Stevie Ray and Robert Johnson
Rick de Yampert--Daytona Beach News Journal

....You perform with a lot of taste and good attention to the tradition without trying to copycat anyone. My compliments on some very good music
Bruce Iglauer...Founder Alligator records


email.....muddyharp49@aol.com

NOBLE WATTS
The 1950s R&B scene was rife with fire-breathing tenor sax honkers. Noble "Thin Man" Watts was one of the most incendiary. Watts enrolled at Florida A&M University in 1942 (his mates in the school marching band included future jazz luminaries Nat and Cannonball Adderly). The Griffin Brothers, one of Dot Records' top R&B acts (obviously, this was before the days when Randy Wood's label provided safe haven for the hopelessly pale likes of Pat Boone and Gale Storm) hired young Noble Watts after he got out of college. Watts joined baritone saxist Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams in 1952, recording with him for Jax and taking sax solos behind Dinah Washington, Amos Milburn, and Ruth Brown on the groundbreaking mid-'50s TV program Showtime at the Apollo (Williams led the house band for the Willie Bryant-hosted extravaganza). Later, there was a stint with Lionel Hampton.

Watts's own discography commenced in 1954 with a tasty coupling for DeLuxe ("Mashing Potatoes"/"Pig Ears and Rice"). A 1956 single for Vee-Jay with Williams's band ("South Shore Drive") came just prior to Watts's salad days on the New York-based Baton label. With his band, the Rhythm Sparks, in support, Watts wailed "Easy Going," "Blast Off," "Shakin'," "Flap Jack," and quite a few more searing instrumentals for Baton from 1957 to 1959, the biggest of all being "Hard Times (The Slop)," which propelled the saxist onto the pop charts in December of 1957. Guitar twanger Duane Eddy must have dug what he heard — he covered the grinding shuffle for Jamie a few years later. That wasn't Noble Watts's only connection to rock & roll — he played behind Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, and many more on various late-'50s package tours.

Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson managed Watts during the late '50s and early '60s, recruiting the saxist to lead the house band at the pugilist's Harlem lounge. Things got thin for the Thin Man during the '60s (45s for Sir, Cub, Enjoy, Peanut, Jell, Clamike, and Brunswick came and went without much notice) and '70s, but he mounted a comeback bid in 1987 with a fresh album, Return of the Thin Man, for Bob Greenlee's King Snake logo (later picked up by Alligator). King of the Boogie Sax followed in 1993 for Ichiban's Wild Dog imprint. Watts continues to work as a session saxist for Greenlee when he's not pursuing his own interests.

Kind of Blue
If Hank Williams and Muddy Waters were in a band together you’d get Muddyharp.
by Andy Garrigue
July 2, 2003

When local percussionist Stuart Grimes told me Mark “Muddyharp” Hodgson was the best harmonica player he’d ever heard, I snapped to attention. Soft-spoken Grimes is a consummate musician who has traveled the international blues circuit with heralded guitarist Tinsley Ellis, so his opinion had credence. After listening to “Express Train,” where Hodgson combines the quicksilver speed of Blues Traveler’s John Popper and slashing runs of Sugar Blue (formerly with the Rolling Stones and Willie Dixon), I was primed to investigate further.


A showcase at Ashland Coffee & Tea last fall revealed much more, especially why Hodgson feels he shouldn’t be billed as just a blues player. Simply said, one genre cannot capture the muse that drives this musician.

At Ashland, his “Catch Me When I Fall,” with its “Thrill Is Gone” feel, was laced with testosterone and urgency. The unabashedly bold strokes later gave way to the essence of restraint with a soulful reading of The Band’s “It Makes No Difference.” Another original, a chugging boogie, fueled by a little extra ZZ Top octane, outlined some of his musical influences. First there was Little Walter Jacobs: Hodgson threw in an eye-popping Chicago-style harp solo. Then there was Sonny Terry: He emulated the acoustic whoops and asymmetrical phrasings of Terry. Then there was Toots Thielemans, and he provided some tasteful chromatic jazz phrasings, which somehow still fit into the boogie framework. And finally, there was the epiphany of Motown, and he offered up some Detroit vamping to show one more component of his musical soul.

As the night wore on, the set offered a veritable road map of great American music. On many cuts, Hodgson, also a fine guitarist, lays down the harps and simply picks and sings. There are Bo Diddley beats and moments of over-the-top abandon, such as when as a roaring train blues instrumental meets bluegrass’ “Orange Blossom Special.” There are chestnuts like “Me and Bobby McGee,” and surprises like an acoustic version of Cream’s “White Room.” Hodgson is a veritable chameleon through all of this, channeling the paint-peeling vocal stylings of Son House on one cut, and offering delicate Piedmont fingerpicking on another.

Hodgson admits he’s “pretty eclectic” and offers an analogy for what he does. “If Hank Williams and Muddy Waters were in the same band together as co-leaders,” he explains, “that’s what I’ve honed in on, because there’s blues and country in both, and both were breaking ground and tearing down barriers.”

While Hodgson’s is a new name around here, having his Richmond coming-out party at Poe’s, home of the Biker Breakfast, is appropriate, for Muddyharp is well known among the biker community. Hodgson led the house band at the Boothill Saloon in Daytona Beach, Fla., for four years, which he characterizes as “the most famous biker club in the world.” He is also a regular attraction at Daytona’s annual Biketoberfest. A singular talent, Hodgson deserves to be known around here as well.

The Stetson University Chamber Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1, in Elizabeth Hall Chapel, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., with Dr. Anthony Hose, director of Stetson’s orchestral programs, conducting. Noble Watts, the internationally known jazz and blues tenor saxophonist who received an honorary Stetson doctorate in the spring of 2000, will give a guest performance during the concert.
The program will include Concerto Grosso in E minor, Op. 3 No. 3, by Francesco Geminiani; Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber; Georgia on My Mind, arranged by Harold Blanchard; On the Trail by Ferde Grofé, arranged by George West; and Serenade: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Donations for the School of Music will be accepted at the door: $5 general public; $4 senior citizens; and $3 area students. The concert is free to members of the Stetson community and Friends of Music.

Noble Watts--An Appreciation
by Taj Mahal

Hey, Hey, Folks, Listen to who is blowin' up a storm. If you don't know Noble "Thin Man" Watts, well, after hearing this fine set of tunes and great syles, you will.

As a dancing teenager, I was treated to the Early Jazz, Bebop, and Rhythm & Blues records at house parties, rent parties, church dances, socials, even sock hops. Honky Tonk, Slow Walk, Hard Times, Later Gator, Rambunkshus, Harlem Nocturne, Red Top and Hand Clappin' were the hits of the day.

I (we) love and loved instrumentals of the '40s, '50s and '60s. With the present day preoccupation with '50s and '60s nostalgia, many musicians are jumping on the Band Wagon with little or no experience of the actual sounds of the times they are trying to RECREATE!

Jazz, Great Black American Classic Music is a tough, dangerous lifestyle, and only the gifted and blessed survive. Noble "Thin Man" Watts is a survivor DEE-Lux!

Noble is perfect link to these original sounds and ideas. So when you pick up that tenor, alto or soprano make sure you have taken time to study and enjoy this album. Listen to the "Thin Man." He will set your soul and ears on fire.

It's his big sax sound and control over the horn. His ability to make the melody or lines "talk to you." That is the way I like it. "Talk to me," move my spirit, move my body, move my mind. Noble will do all these. He can bend notes like a guitar player and was doing it back when Rock was a baby in diapers just beginning to crawl.

We, the dancers, musicians, poets, painters and plain old music lovers are happy to have Noble "Thin Man" Watts back on the turntables and air waves and in cocerts and clubs.

We need to hear this sound and share with him in this fine style created here in the USA!

It's great to see him in fine shape and with excellent musical chops. Love it, Love it, Love it.

Listen for yourself and you'll agree. This is it!


Noble "Thin Man" Watts is a member of the pantheon of honking, blasting tenor sax men who bridged the gap beween swing jazz, jump blues and early rock 'n' roll in the 1940s and 1950s. Great players like Big Jay McNeely, Joe Houston, Sil Austin, Preston Love, Plas Johnson and Red Prysock sprang out of the big bands of the Southwest (especially Lionel Hampton's Orchestra) to create tenor-led small combos perfect for the wild dancers of the post-World War II era. When this rambunctious, flashy and (for the times) very loud new music was sold to black fans, it was called rhythm and blues. When white people bought it, it was called rock and roll.

Noble Watts was born in DeLand, Florida in 1926. Like so many young black musicians, he got his start in a high school band. He switched from piano to violin to trumpet before falling in love with the tenor sax. He began playing professionally while still a high school student and entered Florida A&M as a music major, playing in the college marching band with Cannonball and Nat Adderly.

After college, Noble was recruited by the Griffin Brothers, a hot touring R&B group, and from there he graduated to the immensely popular band of Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams. With Williams, he toured as a member of the early rock 'n' roll reviews, backing Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Jackie Wilson.

At a time when tenor sax instrumentals were at the heart of rock 'n' roll, Noble scored with a couple of major hits: Hard Times, in 1956 and Jookin' in 1957. His fat tone and jazz-trained chops equalled those of the other tenor stars of the period, though he never recorded as many sides as some of his more famous contemporaries.

In the 1970s, after a stint in the Apollo Theatre house band, Noble returned to his native Florida. In 1983, while playing a private party, he met Bob Greenlee, leader of popular Florida R&B party band, The Midnight Creepers, and founder of King Snake Records. Noble joined the Creepers, and they backed him for his first full album. It was originally released on King Snake in 1987 and is proudly reissued on Alligator.

--Bruce Iglauer,
April, 1990