Recent years have found folksinger Lil’ Rev as the principal torchbearer for Milwaukee’s ukulele revival. But on his new CD, Harmonica Americana, he returns to another simple, old-time instrument. Rev grew up hearing his grandfather play the mouth organ around the house, “simple folk stuff he learned by ear like ‘Oh Susannah,’” he remembers. His interest aroused, Rev traded a pack of baseball cards for a harmonica with a neighborhood kid at age 12 and taught himself to play, albeit his early harmonica influences tended more toward Magic Dick of the J. Geils Band than the folkloric music he would perform in adult life.
“Every record I put out has harmonica on it,” Rev says. One of his earliest recordings was a late-’90s cassette called Mouth Organ Minstrel, but his new effort is considerably more ambitious. A two-disc CD set with brief annotations on the history of each song, Harmonica Americana tells the story of the instrument in the U.S. where its small size was an advantage. The harmonica was favored by hobos, wandering minstrels and itinerant bluesmen who carried it in their pockets, as well as professionals at the Grand Ole Opry. The album was paid for by a successful Go Fund Me campaign. “I set my goal at $6,000 and my fans from all across the country came through,” Rev says. “I raised $6,150. It was a humbling, wonderful experience.”
Some of the music on the album has always been associated with mouth organ; other tunes received fresh arrangements for the instrument. Disc one is devoted to minstrel, old-time and string band songs performed by Rev’s frequent collaborators, the Celtic-oriented Frogwater. “We recorded 14 or 15 tracks in one day,” Rev says of his marathon session with Frogwater’s John and Susan Nicholson on guitar, banjo and fiddle along with Dave “Bones” Boyles on percussion. Joining them on some songs are Dave Fox, Brett Lipshutz, Amy Richter and Steve Rosen on guitar, banjo, whistle and Irish drum.
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Some of the repertoire is as familiar as “Turkey in the Straw” (“I learned it from the ice cream truck that came down the street when I was a kid,” Rev recalls). Other numbers, such as the Civil War-era “On the Road to Boston,” come from the archives of American music.
The country and blues numbers filling disc two involve a local superstar lineup with Jim Eanelli, Robyn Pluer, Paul Cebar, John and Mike Sieger, Guy Fiorentini, Will Branch and Rev’s longtime harmonica player, Jim Liban. The material ranges widely from “Sitting on Top of the World,” an old blues number popularized by Cream in the ’60s, to Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
Lil’ Rev will deliver a brief history of the harmonica before performing songs from Harmonica Americana at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Boswell Book Co., 2559 N. Downer Ave. Joining him will be Peter Roller, John and Mike Sieger, Will Branch, Jim Liban, Dave Fox, John and Susan Nicholson and Dave “Bones” Boyles.
Rev is also organizing the Sixth Annual Milwaukee Ukulele Festival, 8:30 a.m.-10 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the Sunset Playhouse, 800 Elm Grove Road. For more information, visit mufest.com.
