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Blues Harmonica

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Hank Mowery raced onto the local and regional blues scene in the early 90's with his band, The Hawktones. As General Manager of The Rhythm Kitchen Café, Mowery honed his skills weekly, playing with The Hawktones and jamming nightly with local and national blues acts that happened through The Kitchen. "It was an incredible time," Mowery explains, "I had the opportunity to play with my idols. These are people I had been trying to emulate for years; now they were booked in my club, inviting me to play with them, then taking me under their wing and showing me the tricks they used...I learned more in those 2 a.m. sessions than I ever could have from their albums." Mowery had the opportunity to share the stage with true legends of the Blues such as Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Pinetop Perkins, Gary Primich, Anson Funderburg, Fingers Taylor, Peter "Madcat" Ruth and William Clarke...to name a few.

As Mowery's abilities on harmonica grew, so did the popularity of The Hawktones. "I knew we were doing something right," Mowery recalls," when one Wednesday night Blues legend William Clarke and his band strolled in after playing an early show in town. He sat and listened to a couple of songs -- 2 tables away from the stage, very stoic, his immense presence, those dark glasses still on -- I don't have to tell you how intimidating it was. I counted off a driving shuffle and as we played the intro, Clarke stood up without saying a word, grabbed a mic and started singing. He ended up playing with us the rest of the night; I knew that he liked what we were doing; I also knew he was a very tough critic." Soon Hank was being asked to open shows for quite a few acts; some of his show credits include Buddy Guy, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Little Charlie & the Nightcats, Maurice John Vaughn, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, The Iguanas, Roomful of Blues, Heart, Cheap Trick, Lynard Skynard, Little Richard, and President Bill Clinton.

One of the highlights in Mowery's career came when Blacktop recording artist Mike Morgan & The Crawl came through town in 1996. As fate would have it, their singer became sick a few hours before they were supposed to play The Kitchen. Mike gave Hank a call to fill in for the night. Mike's plan was to fly in a harp player from Texas or Boston the next day to cover for the ailing singer, but after the gig at The Rhythm Kitchen, Mike asked Hank to come on the road. Fifteen months later, similar circumstances would force Mike to call in a replacement during another tour and his first call was again to Mowery. "It was quite a learning experience, standing in front of 1,000 people, about to sing 2 hours worth of songs you just got the words to 4 hours ago. The crowd knew the songs better than I did; at some point you just have to count it off and go...we did, and it turned out great." Mowery filled in for the next two weeks, touring throughout Michigan, Ohio, New York, Indiana, and finishing up at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago, playing for the Founder of Alligator Records, Bruce Iglauer. "Hank can really play", comments Mike Morgan; "Hank is a cool harmonica player and singer with an old school feel, like Little Walter and Big Walter Horton...the cool stuff. I was amazed that he could step in on a national level like he did. Two minutes into our first show we knew he wasn't a replacement, he was part of the group."