Harry Manx

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #127 (December 2006/January 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Harry Manx

Eastern Grooves and Western Blues

by Paul-Emile Comeau

Harry Manx is practically in a class of his own. During the 25 years that he spent honing his craft and earning a living as a musician in Europe and Asia, Manx never seemed especially interested in the trappings of either fame or fortune. Shortly after he arrived back in Canada at the age of 45, however, following a 12-year sojourn in India, Manx's career took on a whole new twist. His reputation, his renown, and, presumably, his bank account all grew in leaps and bounds within a few years. Not only did his soul-stirring music find a large new audience, but at times it almost seemed as if he had made a pact at the proverbial crossroads -- but with a supreme being in a remote part of India rather than with the devil in the American South.

When asked in 2002 how he felt about becoming an acclaimed, sought-after, and award-winning performer so suddenly after a life of anonymity, Manx replied wryly that it was like being put in a catapult and hurled into a whole new world. His signature style, an "East meets West" fusion of blues and Indian music, follows in the footsteps of such pioneering work as that of Joe Harriott and John Mayer and their Indo-Jazz Fusions in the 60s, John McLaughlin's work with Shakti in the 70s, and Ashwan Batish's innovative Sitar Power debut in 1987. Manx's Indo-blues hybrid, which has the benefit of vocals -- strong vocals, to boot -- seems destined to be the most universally appealing yet. It's a style that's a direct byproduct of the nomadic life he has led, a life that has resulted in Manx's highly compelling and charismatic musical persona.

Born on the Isle of Man, Manx emigrated to Ontario with his parents when he was six years old. He started doing sound for a band when he was 15 years old and gradually worked his way up to becoming a regular sound man at the well-known El Mocambo club in Toronto, where he worked with a slew of blues legends. Although Manx doesn't consider himself to be a blues artists per se, he does admit that blues is at the heart of much of his work. "I've always had one foot in the blues from those days when I mixed sound for such artists as Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Hound Dog Taylor," said Manx. "What I got from those artists is a groove that's fairly similar to theirs. That's what I'm particularly interested in...the groove, and that's the way I play blues today.

[cover #127]