Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Harry Manx

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Labels
  
Dog My Cat Records

Website
  
www.harrymanx.com


Name
  
Harry Manx

Role
  
Musician

Harry Manx Acclaimed bluesman coming to town The Hub

Genres
  
bluesfolk musicHindustani classical music

Instruments
  
Guitar, harmonica, six-string banjo, Mohan veena

Movies
  
Wild About Harry: Harry Manx Live

Associated acts
  
Michael Kaeshammer, Kevin Breit

Albums
  
Bread and Buddha, Dog My Cat, Om Suite Ohm, Mantras for Madmen, West Eats Meet

Harry manx live at the national arts centre studio ottawa canada


Harry Manx is a Canadian musician who blends blues, folk music, and Hindustani classical music. His official website describes his music as being a "blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and some compelling grooves and you'll get Manx's unique "mysticssippi" flavour." 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. Bhatt is the inventor of the 20-stringed mohan veena, which has become Manx's signature instrument. He has released twelve albums in twelve years, and has his own record label "Dog My Cats Records". He has received much recognition and many awards, including: seven Maple Blues Awards, six Juno nominations, the Canadian Folk Music Award in 2005 for Best Solo Artist, and CBC Radio’s “Great Canadian Blues Award” in 2007.

Contents

Harry Manx Episode 31 The Harry Manx Conversation Compared To What

Manx was a nominee in the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards for his cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire".

Harry Manx harrymanxcomepk2010HMplusVeenajpg

Manx is a longtime collaborator with Canadian guitarist Kevin Breit and Australian keyboardist Clayton Doley.

Harry Manx Harry Manx EPK

Harry manx voodoo child live in sydney moshcam


Early years: Canada and Europe

Harry Manx PressEpk harrymanxcom

Manx was born in 1955 in Douglas on the Isle of Man. His family moved to Ontario, Canada, when he was six years old. He started working with bands as a "roadie" at age 15 and gradually worked his way up to becoming the regular sound man at the well-known El Mocambo (blues) club in Toronto. He left Toronto in the late 1970s, when he was 20, to return to Europe and started making money as a busker and also found work at festivals as a blues lapslide guitarist and songwriter. He then moved to Japan, where he lived and performed for 10 years.

Japan and India

Harry Manx 60harrymanxjpg

In 1990, while Manx was in Japan, he heard a recording of the Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. When Manx met Bhatt for the first time in Rajasthan, he had been living in another part of India for years. He became a student of Bhatt's and remained with him for five years. They travelled together in India and performed for large audiences.

Canada

Harry Manx Harry Manx Guitar Recovered From Alleged Thief In Chicago

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 lap slide guitar, the Mohan Veena, the harmonica and vocals.

Family

Manx has a wife, Najma Manx, and together they have one son, Hector Oswald Manx. In a 2002 interview, in their house on Saltspring Island, Manx talked about the stresses of leaving his wife and son when on touring. “This guy here, he doesn’t care who I’m opening for,” Harry said. “He just wants me home once in a while. It gets tough sometimes. We need to keep that connection all the time. We talk on the phone every day. You should see our phone bill."

Style

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".

Solo and duo

  • Dog My Cat (2001)
  • Wise and Otherwise (2002)
  • Jubilee (with Kevin Breit) (2003)
  • Road Ragas (2003)
  • West Eats Meet (2004)
  • Mantras for Madmen (2005)
  • In Good We Trust (with Kevin Breit) (2007)
  • Live at the Glenn Gould Studio (2008)
  • Bread and Buddha (2009)
  • Isle of Manx (2010)
  • Strictly Whatever (with Kevin Breit) (2011)
  • Om Suite Ohm (2013)
  • 20 Strings and the Truth (2015)
  • Compilation inclusions

  • Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash (Northern Blues, 2003)
  • Beautiful- (A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot) (Borealis Records, 2003)
  • Saturday Night Blues: 20 Years (CBC, 2006)
  • Isle of Manx - the Desert Island Collection (2010)
  • References

    Harry Manx Wikipedia