Beth Kohnen Blues
Beth Kohnen is a harmonica player and vocalist based in the San Francisco Bay area. She grew up in South Portland, Maine and has been playing blues in the San Francisco Baby Area since 1998.
Beth plays with W.C. Handy award winning guitarist Rusty Zinn, Grammy Award winning guitarist Steve Freund who played with Big Walter Horton, Randy Bermudez on bass who also plays with Kim Wilson, and Willy Jordan on drums who toured with John Lee Hooker.
She has released three CD's and has taken her music to Paris, the South of France, and New Orleans.
Her harmonica playing brings back the tone, power, and feeling of Chicago blues legends Big Walter Horton, Jimmy Reed, and Slim Harpo.
Here's a little story from Beth:
When my third CD came out I decided to take it to Robert Watson, family friend and the last guitarist to tour with James Brown. Robert was opening a blues venue up in Kelseyville, CA, called Ty's Blue Cafe and I wanted to play duo gigs with him on the nights he wasn't booking his full band. So I said "Robert, if you listen to my CD I will take you to lunch". Robert said "Sure". Then he listened to my CD and over lunch hired me to come play with his full band at his new venue's private opening-night party.
I was honored --- Robert's band includes other musical heavies like Santana's drummer Billy Johnson. On the night of the party I drove up to the gig. The weather was so bad everybody straggled in late and there was no time for rehearsal. When it was my turn to play I jumped up on the stage, turned to the guys, stated my groove and key, counted off, and started one of Big Walter's harmonica jump tunes. The band jumped in, the music took off, and in a minute I turned around again. All the guys were grinning. It was a wonderful night!