James Conway is an Irish-American musician based in Chicago. He has played traditional Irish music all his life, first starting on flutes and whistles and then taking the tunes over to diatonic and chromatic harmonica. To the traditional music of Ireland, Conway applies his techniques of bending, trilling, and chording that he learned in the west side blues joints from blues master harpists such as Junior Wells and Sugar Blue. In the jigs, hornpipes, and reels that he so masterfully plays, one can hear the sounds of Old Ireland, and at times hear the growl of the Mississippi Delta.

credits

background photograph by Grant Kessler