Two time Maple Blues Award winning harmonica player Roly Platt makes an auspicious recording debut on his CD of, well, lots of harp on “Inside Out.”
He has performed on numerous albums for a lot of country players like Terri Clark, Rita MacNeil and even Sharon, Lois and Bram plus several blues icons like Jack Semple. You may have heard him playing on corporate jingles or seen him on tour with people like Ronnie Hawkins, Dutch Mason and Suzie Vinnick, but on “Inside Out,” it is all about showing what he can do on the harp.
There are only a few songs with vocals on them, which allows Platt’s harp to shine.
He plays some boogie woogie with pianist/ organist Lance Anderson on several excellent tracks and borrows Steve Strongman’s prodigeous guitar chops on “Good Mind To Wander ” and “Ocean of Tears.”
So that means Platt gets to blow and sqeeze every ounce of his emotion out of his instrument.
He plays beautiful covers of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Georgia On My Mind” and even sings on a song.
The songs with vocals make a nice departure from all of the harp playing which is perfect background music for those who like lots of harp. Not that there's anything wrong with a whole lot of harp. Because that’s what you get ” Inside and Out.”
Artist: Roly Platt
Genre: blues