Here’s some harmonica news that made my week: Nine Below Zero will celebrate 50 years on the road in 2027, and part of the party will be just the two founders, Dennis Greaves on acoustic guitar and vocals and Mark Feltham on harp, playing small acoustic shows around the UK. I read about it on Eric Alper’s blog, which ran the announcement on October 27, and checked the dates on the tour page of the band’s official website.
The duo dates
It’s called the 50th Anniversary Acoustic Tour 2027, and the idea is simple: two players on stage, songs from five decades and the stories behind them. The band’s calendar already lists duo shows on March 19 at Mycenae House in Blackheath, London, and two sets on April 18 at the Temperance in Leamington Spa, with the evening show already sold out. There are also nights at London’s Union Chapel alongside The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Meanwhile, the full band will spend the year on the road with guests such as former Jam bassist Bruce Foxton, pianist Ben Waters and guitarist Robbie McIntosh, including a show at London’s Cadogan Hall on October 2, 2027.
Fifty years of British blues
Greaves and Feltham started playing together in 1977 in South London, right in the middle of the punk years. The band took its name from a Sonny Boy Williamson song, which tells you where their sound comes from. Their recording debut was a live one, “Live at the Marquee,” in 1980, followed by “Don’t Point Your Finger” in 1981, produced by Glyn Johns, and “Third Degree” in 1982. Early on they opened tours for The Who and The Kinks, and even turned up on the BBC comedy The Young Ones.
Mark Feltham’s path is one of the most interesting in British harmonica. Born in Bermondsey in 1955, he studied Little Walter, Junior Wells and Charlie McCoy, as Greaves explained on a 1981 TV program. When the first lineup broke up, he joined Rory Gallagher’s band and, with one break, stayed until the Irish guitarist’s death in 1995. In the studio he recorded with Talk Talk, Oasis, Annie Lennox and many others, plus film soundtracks. In 2001 he came back to Nine Below Zero for good.
Why it’s worth paying attention
The duo format, voice and guitar with harp, is the root of all this. It’s the world of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and it’s where a harp player has nowhere to hide: no cranked amp, no band holding things up, just tone, breath and the conversation with the guitar. Back in 2019, announcing a run of duo shows, Blues Matters reported that the set drew on Sonny Boy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo. If you study harmonica, it’s a great lesson in how a player used to electric bands and pop sessions handles himself with nothing but the acoustic instrument.
If Nine Below Zero is new to you, start with “Live at the Marquee” and listen to how the harp shares the spotlight with the guitar and the voice. Then dig into Feltham’s recordings with Rory Gallagher.
I play a lot in duos, and I know how that format exposes you and, at the same time, brings the audience closer. Seeing two friends who started out together in 1977 choose exactly that kind of stage to celebrate half a century says a lot to me about what matters in the blues.
— Ale Ravanello