Rick Epping is a California-born musician who has immersed himself in American old-time and Irish traditional music since the 1960s. He is a player of the

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

, concertina,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

and

jaw harp The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or Reed (mouthpiece), reed attached to a frame. Despite the colloquial name, the Jew's harp most like ...

. During the 1970s he lived in Ireland where he studied traditional Irish music. He was the 1975 All-Ireland Harmonica champion and a member of the folk group Pumpkinhead. He has recorded with other Irish and American musicians and groups over the years, including Andy Irvine,

Christy Moore Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was one of the founding members of the bands Planxty and Moving Hearts and has had significant success as a solo artist. His first albu ...

, Mick Hanly, Bob Zentz, George Winston, Mary Staunton, Priscilla Herdman and Robbin Thompson. Epping worked for the Hohner company for many years and during that time patented the "Extreme Bending" harmonica, which includes additional reeds that allow players to "bend" notes that cannot be so altered on traditional diatonic instruments. He conducts workshops internationally for Hohner harmonicas. Epping has involved himself with a number of musicians and projects, including the trio "The Unwanted", which features himself,

Dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from ) in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage is found particularly in Persi ...

singer Cathy Jordan and fiddler Seamus O'Dowd.Irish Echo: Festival of World Cultures 2010
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Discography

*Pumpkinhead – ''Pumpkinhead'' (Mulligan LUN 001; 1978) *''Jiggin’ the Blues'' (G2CD7011) with Frankie Gavin and Tim Edey *''Music Of The Atlantic Fringe'' with the Unwanted (2009)

References

American harmonica players Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-musician-stub