Learn to play the Fox Chase groove on your HARMONICA now!

Learn to play rhythm harmonica like the old guys did and use it like the young guys do.

This fox chase rhythm is tricky to learn as it uses the 3 blow in a way that you probably don’t think about but it allows you to breathe and sustain the groove for ever. The tongue is used to move – just a couple of millimetres – to give you great economy of movement.

We will also use the split 4 embouchure so I’ll show you how it works.

I’ll show you a track I recorded a while back that uses this fox chase as a basis for improvising.

I think every harmonica player should know about this style of playing.

Deford Bailey is my favourite Fox Chase guy – or maybe Sonny Terry.

Here’s Bailey’s wiki – his first radio appearance was apparently in September 1925[2][13] on Fred Exum’s WDAD, a Nashville station that only lasted from 1925 until sometime in 1927.[14] His first documented appearances, however, were in 1926 according to The Nashville Tennessean including WDAD on January 14[15] and WSM on June 19.[16] On December 10, 1927, he debuted his trademark song, “Pan American Blues” (named for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad’s Pan-American), on a program then known as the WSM Barn Dance. At that time Barn Dance aired after NBC’s classical music show, the Music Appreciation Hour. While introducing Bailey, WSM station manager and announcer George D. Hay exclaimed on-air, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on, we will present ‘The Grand Ole Opry.’”[2] “Pan American Blues” was the first recording of a harmonica blues solo.[17]

Several records by Bailey were issued in 1927 and 1928, all of them harmonica solos. In 1927 he recorded for Brunswick Records in New York City,[18][19] In 1928 he made the first recordings in Nashville,[6] eight sides[1] for RCA Victor,[18][19] three of which were issued on the Victor, Bluebird, and RCA labels. Emblematic of the ambiguity of Bailey’s position as a recording artist is the fact that his arguably greatest recording, “John Henry”, was released by RCA separately in both its “race” series and its “hillbilly” series.[20] In addition to his well-known harmonica, Bailey also played the guitar, bones, and banjo.[2][3]

Bailey was a pioneer member of the WSM Grand Ole Opry and one of its most popular performers, appearing on the program from 1927 to 1941.[21] During this period he toured with major country stars, including Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, and Roy Acuff.[22] Like other black stars of his day traveling in the Southern United States and Western United States, he faced difficulties in finding food and accommodations because of discriminatory Jim Crow laws.[23]

Bailey was fired by WSM in 1941 because of a licensing conflict between BMI and ASCAP, which prevented him from playing his best-known tunes on the radio.[24] When he was let go from the Opry, that effectively ended his performance and recording career. Bailey then spent the rest of his life running his own shoeshine stand and renting out rooms in his home to make a living.[6][25] Though he continued to play the harmonica, he almost never performed publicly.[6] One of his rare performances occurred in 1974, when he agreed to appear on the Opry. This was a special event to mark the Opry leaving the Ryman Auditorium for the Grand Ole Opry House.[26][6] This performance became the impetus for the Opry’s annual Old Timers’ Shows.[2]

Afterwards Bailey continued to occasionally perform at the Opry. He played there on his 75th birthday in December 1974, at the Old Timers Shows,[27] and also in April 1982. A few months later that year, in June, he was taken to Nashville’s Baptist Hospital in failing health. Bailey died on July 2, 1982, at his daughter’s home in Nashville,[6][1][28] and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery there.[4]

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