The Essential Harmonica & Accordion Songs
I’ve always had this weird feeling about the harmonica. In a prophetic way, I feel like I was destined for the instrument. I’m sitting in a county jail cell playing a lonely tune on my pocket harmonica in another life.
During the pandemic, I took the chance to master the harmonica. I spent one entire day learning a fifteen second song. My mom overheard me playing in my room—and I also must’ve been in trouble for something—because she ordered me to play for my family at the dinner table. I told her the song wasn’t ready, but she demanded (with uncharacteristic insistence) that I play. I performed the fifteen second song on my harmonica. It was humiliating for me and hilarious for my family. And since that moment I have a newfound appreciation for the instrument. My ears tune into it whenever or wherever it is playing. I wonder if the performer is holding it in his hands or using one of those harmonica-neck-stand things.
The accordion is lumped into this list because I feel like it’s the ugly stepsister of the harmonica (non-derogatorily). Knowing nothing technical about either instrument, they are interchangeable to me. I often mistake the sound of one for the other—that mystical nasal-y scale. And both give me the same inexplicable thrill. I feel similarly about the marimba, but that’s a discussion for another day.
It’s something about the novelty of the sound, or the surprise of it, because listening to the French accordion music you hear in Woody Allen films doesn’t have the same effect. The accordion is expected. The same goes for the harmonica in traditional Blues music. Classic rock or modern folk music is different. What business does R.E.M. have with the accordion? That’s where the thrill comes in. Whenever there’s a harmonica solo or an accordion harmony in a song carried by an electric guitar or a strong drum beat, I get goosebumps.
What I have made for you this week is a playlist comprised of my essential harmonica and accordion songs. You may notice there are no Billy Joel or Bob Dylan songs included, which is because that would be completely unfair to other songs. Nobody needs me to recommend “Piano Man” to them.
My blog, my rules, so here are my essentials:
1. “Dairy Queen” by Indigo Girls
Everybody remembers where they were when the accordion solo kicks in halfway through. And I know for a fact it can be played with a harmonica instead.
2. “The Promised Land” by Bruce Springsteen
Springsteen is another Founding Father of the Harmonica, but he’s allowed on the list. The magic of this song is that you can’t listen to it without getting up and dancing.
3. “betty” by Taylor Swift
Her finest work on “Folklore” if you want to get me started.
4. “Run-Around” by Blues Traveler
This one goes out to my dad who had me listening to Blues Traveler before I could form words.
5. “Clay Pigeons” by John Prine
A terribly heartbreaking use of the harmonica.
6. “This Is the Day” by The The
It is not only the greatest song ever made, but also the greatest use of accordion in history. Best listened to while dancing on the roof with your friends after saving the record store you work at à la Empire Records.
7. “The Great American Bar Scene” by Zach Bryan
Zach Bryan is bringing the harmonica back in a big way and for that I love him.
8. “Scenic World” by Beirut
The accordion carries this song. It makes me feel like I’m entering a foreign country on a parade float.
9. “Fruits of My Labor” by Lucinda Williams
I’ve been telling lots of people recently about my desire to build a rocking chair with my own two hands, but I will only be ready to fulfill that desire when I live in a small house with a wrap-around porch fit for a rocking chair and this song wafting through my open window.
10. “You Don’t Know How It Feels” by Tom Petty
This is what I’m playing in the jail cell in another life.
Forget cowbell, more harmonica.
Honorable Mentions: “Oh My Heart” by REM, “Nine Ball” by Zach Bryan, “Hand in My Pocket “by Alanis Morissette, “Wrecking Ball” by Bruce Springsteen, “Follow You Down” by Gin Blossoms