Customer Reviews

Wise and Otherwise

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every once in a while an artist appears with their recordings full blown and mature and their sound familiar like they've been part of the collective scene for years. Perhaps because Manx is an experienced musician so steeped in the traditional music of India his playing sounds old and familiar and enveloping. I didn't consider this blues right away, in fact I didn't consider it anything but good.

While this all might sound rarified and elite, his music is actually raw and soulful, just in a subtle and graceful way. His slide guitar and Mohan Veena work is always tasteful, nicely accompanied by his capable harmonica playing and singing. His main instrument (veena) is so rich and resonant I hardly even notice he is mostly playing alone. His song selection is enjoyable (mostly originals that sound tradtional as well as traditionals that sound original). The production is simple and clean. The mood he creates is soothing and spacious and, as the title says, wise, (and as such sheds light on those moments that are otherwise). Of the 5 CD's I now have of his, this is my favorite.

I saw this gentleman in Banff, Alberta about a year ago. Let me tell you, it wasn't what I expected in a blues singer. He whips out this indian slide guitar and starts playing mississippi blues style with it. This sort of hybridized blues feel is new to me and I love it. I only wish more people would do cool stuff with indian music.
I was so impressed by his show that I had to email him to tell him. Amazingly, he wrote me back thanking me. To me, that's a musician that appreciates his audience.
Thank you Harry Manx for the beautiful music. Everyone I talk to about music now knows of you. :)

I first heard Harry Manx live at Australia's brilliant East Coast Blues & Roots Festival. Foxy Lady played on a banjo ! Who would have thought?

A truly great sound, well crafted originals and interesting treatments of blues and rock classics. I have hunted down and purchased all the discs and love them all. The sound of the Mohan Veena, all twenty plus strings, adds a haunting eastern gloss to a fine collection. Highly reccomended.

I love this album. All acustic and very few instruments. The Indian music, surprisingly, blends well with Harry Manx's playing style and vocals. It's nice because I haven't really heard anything much like this in the past. If you like laid back, folky blues, check this one out. I've shared it with a few of my good friends, and they love it, too. Favorite songs are "Crazy Love," "Only Then Will Your House Be Blessed," and "Roses Given."

Wise and Otherwise

Harry Manx

Northern Blues NBM0008

An instrument prominently featured on this record is the mohan veena, used in the whole Western world by only Harry Manx and the late George Harrison. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt developed and named this hybrid slide guitar, which is a highly modified archtop guitar, played lap-style. It has 19 strings: three melody strings and four three drone strings coming out of the peg heads, and 12 sympathetic strong to tuners mounted to a piece of wood added to the side of the neck. The melody strings are on what we would consider the treble side of the neck, and the drone strings are on the bass side. The drone strings are lower in height than the melody strings to allow for unrestricted playing of the melody strings. The sympathetic strings run underneath the melody and drone strings to yet another level in the bridge. The instrument has a carved spruced top, mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck, and a flat, fretless, rosewood fingerboard. It is under tremendous tension; the total strings pull to be in excess of 500 pounds, which creates strong tones more intensely abetted by the sympathetic strings with each note played. It is also a very loud instrument made to cut through with low amplification, like a banjo or resonator guitar.

Now you're ready for next Thursday's pop quiz on mohan veena, but that doesn't mean you're ready for Harry Manx. I think that preparation takes decades, and the right decades at that. In brief, I think that Harry Manx was born at approximately the same time rock was born and has matured with it, and that his music is for listeners who have done likewise.

The familiar covers from Wise and Otherwise, "Foxy Lady(Jimi Hendrix)," "The Thrill Is Gone(B.B. King)" and "Crazy Love(Van Morrison)" are all from the cusp of our popular music, right between the British Invasion and FM radio rock. His originals come from that same time and place, an environment in which musicians suddenly found themselves with more than three minutes per song in which to communicate with large audiences and responded with a commitment to more sophisticated messages. Without Neil Young's periodic reliance on electric amplification, Manx shares his fascination for strong visual images and ability to spin dramatic stories from them. Among the seven and a half Manx originals on this album are "Tethered Dogs," "Roses Given" and "Coat of Mail," all three rooted as strongly in sight as in sound.

Harmonica, slide guitar and banjo complete Wise and Otherwise instrumentation, all played by Manx. Vocal duties hereon are all his, too. Production values aren't the highest. It sounds as if the microphones were better than their placement in the studio, and another layer of mixing might have gotten rid of that feedback. This album is good in random rotation on a CD changer with vintage Taj Mahal, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt and George Harrison. It is in a class with those recordings. I am very, very glad to have it.

If you spliced Jackson Browne and James Taylor together and did a blood transfusion with Ganges River water, you'd create Harry Manx. Playing a unique 20-string Indian guitar called a Mohan Veena (in honor of its creator), lap slide guitar, and harmonica, Harry plays flawless, exotic ballads that stretch across the Asian continent from Japan to Bombay. Unless you're stone-cold comatose, here's a version of "Foxy Lady" that ought to be dedicated to Halle Berry. Jimi would be thrilled and chilled at the idea-and opportunity.

Manx opens a new listeners mind to what is possible with a unique style that combines bluegrass with indian roots. His years living overseas before returning to Canada have shown to add to the broad range of influence from where he draws such a unique sound. His lyrics are thought filled and one of a kind and i would reccomend this CD to anyone who is trying to expand his bluegrass/new age folk horizons.

I just saw an interview with Harry Manx on a Canadian Blues programme called "Talkin' Blues". I have to say i was totally knocked out by his very sincere approach, his gentle manner and calm and happy countenance.

He's got to be one of the nicest musicians on the planet. He's also tremendously talented having studied the Mohan Vina under the guidance of V.M. Bhatt for 5 years in India. This is NO easy task.

His sound reminds me of Kelly Joe Phelps but perhaps his style is a tad more varied.

If you buy any CD of Harrys i don't think you'll be disappointed at all.

I bought this album after hearing Harry Manx on the radio, and it is excellent. The music is so unique, and has a great sound. Manx is a great instrumentalist and songwriter. I am a big fan of indian music and blues, and this is a great mixture of the two. I highly recommend this album!

Brilliant! Manx fuses Indian slide guitar and traditional blues into a unique musical voice. Outstanding live performer as well.