Sweet Talk PRIf you’ve had the chance to take in a Chris Janson show, you’ve no doubt seen him perform his breakthrough hit, “Buy Me a Boat.” You’ve also witnessed something lots of fans may not be aware of — Chris is an incredible harmonica player. The “Power of Positive Drinkin’” singer says he took up the instrument during his starving-artist days when he was playing the honky tonks on Nashville’s famed stretch known as Lower Broadway.
“I bought a little harmonica just to learn and I started playing it that night at Tootsie’s after I got back to the bar and back to my gig. And I started making extra money playing the thing, and I just learned by ear and started jamming. It essentially became my electric guitar, ’cause I’m not that great of a lead player. So it just became what I could do to suffice, and it made me a whole bunch more money, so I stuck with it.”
Last week, Chris performed a rousing rendition of Waylon Jenning’s “I Ain’t Living Long Like This,” complete with a long harmonica break, at the sixth All for the Hall benefit at the Bridgestone Arena.
This past Saturday, his debut album, Buy Me a Boat, was released for the first time on vinyl to commemorate Record Store Day 2016. Chris’s next single will be the track “Holdin’ Her.”
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