Chad "Catfish" McMillian is a new-to-Nashville harp blowin’ young man from the home of the blues, the Mississippi Delta. He digs the all time Delta harper, Sonny Boy Williamson, and had a first on-stage experience on Beale Street in Memphis. "My Pawpaw was a harp player, doing show tunes, and he started me off at age 3. He said, ‘Take this harp and play it,’ so that’s what I did. He didn’t really show me too much, but he got me interested," says Chad.

He comes to Music City to expand his songwriting/session shots, but he didn’t come directly from the Delta. He took a year and lived in the Virgin Islands (St. Croix), playing solo as a guitar/singer/songwriter, his harp on the rack. Other than that, McMillian’s story sounds too blues cliché to be true. A Delta bluesman who’s spent his life working on the family catfish farm? The guys working there called him "Catfish Mac" when he was a tyke? Come on! Can’t be true, but is.

Belzoni, Mississippi is where he played guitar to have something to hang his short stories and poems on while still in high school. The tiny town also happens to be the home of legendary Muddy Waters piano man Pinetop Perkins (now in his 90s). Catfish learned more blues when he would hang with Perkins. He also spent time playing the Delta with folks like David Lee Durham and John Horton. He gigged at the legendary Ebony club in Indianola with the late great Paul "Wine" Jones. He also did time with coming jamband The Electric Mud. Check him out at www.catfishmac.com.

Article by: Shannon Williford, Delicious Blues Stew
Published in Nashville Music Guide, August 2008

The Harp Handbook


The Harp Handbook by Steve Baker is by far the best harp book I have read. I have read a lot and there is nothing out there quite like this one! I definitely recommend you check this out.

To buy this book go to Amazon.com
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)