With special guest act MIKE BIRD & FRIENDS.
MID WALES RHYTHM & BLUES CLUB, THE MUSE, BRECON, 22/03/2026
Mid Wales R & B Club’s latest presentation at The Muse featured the American harmonica player, vocalist and songwriter Mark Hummel, the date part of a short UK tour that Hummel is undertaking in the company of the British musicians Dave Peabody (acoustic guitar) and Bob Hall (piano).
The headliners were supported in Brecon by Mike Bird & Friends, a group of South Wales based blues musicians nominally led by guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Mike Bird.
MIKE BIRD & FRIENDS
The evening kicked off with the duo of Mike Bird on acoustic guitar and vocals and Ned Edwards on electric guitar and vocals. Something of a South Walian musical institution Edwards was the leader of the Red Hot Pokers, acted as musical director for Van Morrison and toured with such legendary figures as Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion, Georgie Fame and Sir Tom Jones. He’s done it all. On some numbers the duo were joined by harmonica player Johnny Bird, son of Mike and an established solo artist in his own right. Johnny has just made a welcome return to the scene after a period away from the musical coalface.
The set commenced with Mike handling lead vocal duties on the core duo’s version of Eric Bibb’s “I’ll Keep My Cool”. A confident and often powerful vocalist and an accomplished acoustic guitarist Mike’s skills were complemented by Ned’s similarly proficient electric guitar work. Most of the duo’s songs featured a concise but tasty lead guitar solo from Ned, sometimes played with a pick, sometimes not.
The duo have a particular fondness for the witty and perceptive songs of US pianist and vocalist Mose Allison and Mike again took the lead vocal on Allison’s “Your Mind Is On Vocation But Your Mouth is Working Overtime”. In view of current events it wasn’t the only song of the night to be dedicated to Donald Trump.
Ned took over lead vocal duties for “Kind Hearted Woman Blues”, a Robert Johnson classic, and also for Kurt Weill’s “September Song”, the duo’s version of this much covered song inspired by a recording by bluesman Lonnie Johnson. Ned’s voice was higher in pitch than Mike’s making for an effective contrast, but nevertheless he was more than capable of generating both power and emotion.
Mike resumed the vocal lead for his own “Don’t You Wish You Could Run Your Life The Way You Run Mine”, a witty original in the style of Mose Allison with the classic lyrical couplet “You sent a poison pen letter and a poisoned chalice, I’ve never known a woman with so much malice”.
Mike also sang the lead on “Catfish Blues”, which saw Johnny Bird joining the group for the first time and adding the sound of mouth harp, a tasty appetiser for what was to follow from the Hummel trio.
Ned is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays trumpet and fiddle. To be honest I wasn’t particularly enamoured by his trumpeting on the duo’s take on another Mose Allison song, “If You Live Your Time Will Come”. He’s definitely better as a guitarist – and also as a vocalist, as evidenced by his emotive singing and playing on the duo’s version of T-Bone Walker’s “I’m Still In Love With You”.
A brace of Jimmy Rogers songs followed with Johnny Bird returning on harmonica to great effect on “That’s Alright” as Mike took the lead vocal. Meanwhile “You’re The One” featured Mike on vocal, Johnny on harp and Ned on fiddle, on which he was more than adequate.
Mike Bird & Friends signed off with “She Ain’t No Good”, a mix of blues and early rock and roll. This song featured a cautionary lyric about a femme fatale, powerfully delivered by Ned as Johnny Bird continued to guest on mouth harp.
This was a very enjoyable start to the evening fronted by two highly accomplished guitarist / vocalists and with Johnny Bird making a substantial contribution to the songs on which he appeared. Mike Bird and Ned Edwards both impressed as players and singers and the song selections were consistently interesting, paving the way for what was to come from Mark Hummel. An impressively large Sunday night audience at The Muse gave the duo / trio an excellent reception.
MARK HUMMEL TRIO…
Born in 1955 Mark Hummel is a comparative blues veteran, a musician with more than twenty albums as a leader to his name plus multiple sideman appearances. He’s also something of a ‘Road Dog’, the title of one of his songs, a musician who tours constantly and who clearly relishes performing. Although seated to play he still exudes an easy charisma, tonight clad in simple black and red, with shoes and socks that made him look as if he’d just stepped out of the abattoir.
Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading harmonica players Hummel is based in California where he leads his own regular working band. The current UK tour sees him in the company of award winning guitarist Dave Peabody and the veteran blues boogie pianist Bob Hall, who started out with Alexis Korner and who seems to have played wit pretty much just about everybody.
Over the course of two entertaining sets the trio played a mix of Hummel’s originals and classic blues tunes, with much of the material sourced from Hummel’s two most recent albums, “True Believer” (2024) and “Wayback Machine” (2020). The latter pays tribute to the blues musicians of the 1930s and 40s who recorded for the Bluebird and RCA Victor record labels.
Opener “Judgement Day” established Hummel as an assured vocalist and a remarkably fluent harmonica soloist, while Hall also weighed in at his Yamaha electric keyboard on an acoustic piano setting. It’s a shame we didn’t get to hear him on The Muse’s upright acoustic. Peabody was content to provide rhythmic guitar accompaniment, but we were to hear more from him as a soloist later in the set, starting with the following “Honey Bee”, which also featured Hall.
Along the way we heard something of Hummel’s life story and of how he discovered psychedelic rock and blues as a teenager in the 1960s before backtracking and investigating such guitar and harmonica duos as Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and later Buddy Guy & Junior Wells. Hummel even worked with McGhee (1915-96) in Oakland in the 1980s so it was appropriate that Hummel paid homage to his former colleague with an impassioned reading of McGhee’s “Living With The Blues”.
Further tributes were played to both of the musicians that recorded under the soubriquet Sonny Boy Williamson, both of whom were harmonicist / vocalists.. First we heard “Lord of Lords” by John Lee Williamson, Sonny Boy 1, followed by the more salacious “Have You Ever Been In Love” by Sonny Boy 2, aka Rice Miller. The latter featured a stunning harmonica solo from Hummel, delivered in something approximating Miller’s distinctive style.
Hummel’s version of Tampa Red’s “So Much Trouble”, described by Hummel as “a low down blues”, was notable for Hummel’s impassioned vocals and harp playing and also included a string bending guitar solo from Peabody.
The second song of the night to be dedicated to Donald Trump was “What The Hell Is Going On?”, the topical lyrics clearly striking a chord with the audience, who bellowed the song’s chorus / title with great conviction. Elsewhere Hall delivered a rollicking piano solo that was particularly notable for its strong left hand rhythmic figures. Meanwhile the urgency of Hummel’s harmonica solo matched the righteous anger of the lyrics. Great stuff, and a rousing way to round off an excellent first set.
As a songwriter Hummel writes songs in the blues idiom about contemporary topics, as evidenced by “Ghosted”, a song about being snubbed or isolated on social media, with instrumental solos coming from Hummel and Peabody.
The lyrics of another Hummel original, “Shufflin’ Days” name checked the writer’s blues harp heroes, including James Cotton and Billy Boy Arnold, whilst simultaneously worrying about being superseded by young up and coming musicians. The life cycle of the blues, or any other musical genre, I guess. A suitably infectious shuffle rhythm encouraged the audience to clap along as Hummel, Peabody and Hall provided the instrumental solos.
Hummel is an artist with an extensive knowledge of blues history and some of his song selections paid homage to some of the music’s more marginal figures. A case in point was “Things Have Changed”, written by pianist / vocalist Major ‘Big Maceo’ Merriweather (1905-53).
Another figure to be homaged was vocalist/ harmonicist and songwriter Jazz Gillum (1904-66), one of the first artists to record with an electric guitarist (George Barnes). The trio’s version Gillum’s “Crazy About You” featured instrumental solos from Hummel and Peabody.
The instrumental “Breathtaking Blues” bore something of a resemblance to the more familiar “St. James Infirmary Blues” and included features for all three musicians.
The blues has always had a reputation for producing songs with risqué lyrics full of double entendres, with musicians enjoying the challenge of smuggling things past the censors. A case in point is Tampa Red’s much covered hokum blues “I Want To Play With Your Poodle”, a song dating from the 1940s. Hummel enjoyed delivering the lyrics as Hall and Peabody provided the instrumental solos. Now sounding rather more tame than it would have done in its hey day it’s now just a vaguely amusing novelty. Of the two Tampa Red songs we heard tonight “So Much Trouble” has aged rather better, almost too well one might say, with the lyrics still sounding disturbingly relevant.
Ned Edwards joined the trio to guest on electric guitar on Hummel’s “Road Dogs”, a celebration of the life of a touring blues musician. Edwards shared the solos with Hall and Hummel as the second set drew to a close.
The inevitable encore saw the newly constituted quartet remain on stage for “Mean Old World”, a song by another of Hummel’s harp heroes, the late, great Little Walter (Jacobs). This was a sturdy slice of vintage Chicago blues featuring instrumental solos for harmonica and electric guitar. A great way to round off a fabulous evening of harmonica led blues featuring musicians from both sides of the Atlantic.
Special thanks to all those who attended the event no matter what role you played Angus Kings.
Images by Barry Hill
with words written by
Ian Mann The JazzMann
