Carey Bell-A Biographical Note by Glenn Weiser

This is the bio note on Carey Bell from my harmonica transcription/instruction book Masters of Blues Harp, which has a transcription of Bell's I'm Ready from Carey Bell's Blues Harp ( Delmark 622)

-Glenn Weiser

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Carey Bell Harrington was born in Macon, Georgia in 1936 and began playing harmonica at age 8. He spent some time working near Meridan, Mississippi in the early 1950’s before moving to Chicago in 1956. He soon became a Maxwell street regular, playing with such greats as Little Walter Jacobs and Big Walter Horton, and later recording with Earl Hooker and John Lee Hooker in the late 1960s.

In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and Chicago erupted into riots during which Bell was badly beaten by a policeman. He decided to buy a gun and hunt down the officer, but on his way to get the pistol he wisely changed his mind in favor of buying a set of harmonicas with the money.

It proved a turning point in his career. By the next year he recorded his first album under his own name for Delmark, and has since enjoyed a successful career. He cut with Muddy Waters for The London Sessions of 1972, and later worked with Hound Dog Taylor, Willie Dixon, and others in addition to recording several albums under his own name. Harpslinger on JSP is considered a fine example of his work. He is still active as a performer.