Mark Hummel

Mark Hummel is one hard-working cat. Just last month, for example, he worked all but eight days, beginning at B.B. King’s club in New York then playing the East Coast before a few Mid-west dates and winding up in California for two gigs. In addition to fronting his band the Blues Survivors since 1980, the 50-year-old harmonica player has been staging his annual Blues Harmonica Blowout shows for the past 15 years, many of which have played Chico. The genial Bay Area resident has managed to line up such top harp blowers as James Cotton, Kim Wilson, Billy Boy Arnold, Snooky Pryor, Paul deLay and Rick Estrin for these now international tours. His band has been together for seven years—guitarist Charles Wheal’s been onboard for nine—and they’re tight as ticks on a hound. There’s a lot of good blues on the disc, including a couple of harp showcases. But my favorite, “Big Easy (Ain’t Easy No More),” isn’t blues; it’s a jab at the political machinery that failed to react in time when Katrina hit New Orleans. “Big Easy ain’t easy no more,” Hummel sings, “20,000 folks on the Superdome floor.”