Big Harmonica Special

AMG Review of Big Harmonica Special

Greg Adams
All Music Guide

In the mid-'60s, former Sun ockabilly artist Billy Lee Riley made an odd detour into instrumental harmonica music, of which Big Harmonica Special is his second album. Riley's repertoire is admirably "authentic" given his ockabilly pedigree, encompassing ock and R&B tunes of the sort any hepcat would approve. Riley takes songs from sources like Chuck Berry, Dale Hawkins, Jimmy Reed, Willie Dixon, Leiber & Stoller, and others, then interprets them through his harmonica as swampy, stomping rockers that sustain the intensity from start to finish. Everything -- drums, electric guitars, Riley's harp -- is loud and feverish. Riley isn't a virtuoso harmonica blower, but he plays with intensity and confidence. Instrumental rock & roll was a fertile field in the early '60s, but even at that, it's hard to imagine to whom Big Harmonica Special was aimed -- were there listeners enamored with the sound of the harmonica who wanted only that, riding atop a bed of raunchy ock & roll? The music is hot and many of the tunes are classic, but the arrangements are all cut from the same cloth. Big Harmonica Special is a decent party platter but not an album that invites close listening.