SONG OF THE DAY

“Makes You Wanna Die Laughing” by Harry Manx (Wise and Otherwise, Dog My Cat Records, 2002, re-released in 2007). Written by Harry Manx.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– Harry Manx is a musician who blends blues, folk music, and Hindustani classical music.

– He was born in the Isle of Man where he spent his childhood and now lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada.

– Manx plays the slide guitar, harmonica, six-string banjo, mohan veena and Ellis stomp box.

– He studied for five years in India with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

– He has released eight albums.

– Manx was a nominee in the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards for his Cover of “I’m on Fire”.

– He grew up in Canada and then returned to Europe in the late 1970s to work at festivals as a blues lapslide guitarist and songwriter. He then moved to Japan where he lived and performed for 10 years.

– In 1990, while Manx was in Japan, he heard a recording of the Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. It was not long before he contacted Bhatt and joined him in India. He became a student of Bhatt’s and remained with him for five years. They travelled together in India and performed for large audiences.

– In 2000, Manx moved back to Canada and set up residence in Saltspring Island, British Columbia and recorded his first Canadian album at the Barn Studios. This debut recording features 14 tracks of his one-man-band sound on the lapslide guitar, the mohan veena, the harmonica and vocals.

– Manx has been nominated for five Juno Awards throughout his career, including the Roots and Traditional Album of the Year at the 2006 ceremony.

– Manx’s musical style has been called an “essential musical link” between the East and the West. His songs are “short stories that use the essence of the blues and the depth of Indian ragas to draw you in”.

– On the album, Harry Manx performs on vocals, six string lap slide guitar, mohan veena, banjo and harmonica

– The album won Juno Award Nomination for Best Blues Album

– The album won Penguin Eggs Magazine/Edmonton Folk Festival Award for Album of the Year

– The album won 2002 South Australia Blues Society Award for Album of the Year

– Reviewers quotes:

• “Wise and Otherwise” is one man and his music and successfully merges two different music cultures into this wonderful sounding bluesy Indian hybrid music. This is acoustic music at its very best.” – Blues on Stage
• “Rarely has folk-blues sounded as hauntingly beautiful” – Chicago Sun-Times
• “He’s his own walking musical blaze. Don’t pass this one up. You’ll wake up in the middle of the night and hear it playing in y our head and slip out of bed to play it right through. Maybe more than once. It’s that good. I’m adding it to the pile of CDs I would grab, after the dog and before the cats, if my house caught on fire. Get it and prepare for the quietest, low-key ass-kicking you’ve ever had.” – Critically Hip Music Reviewer.com