Hacksaw harney biography
- Richard "Hacksaw" Harney (July 16, 1902 – December 25, 1973) was an.
- Richard Harney was born on 16 July 1902 to Mary Howard and Dick Harney of Money.
- Richard "Hacksaw" Harney was an American Delta blues guitarist and pianist.
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Richard Harney was born on 16 July 1902 to Mary Howard and Dick Harney of Money. Although Dick Harney had forgone secular music to become a church deacon, he did not hesitate to teach his children to play together as long as they did not practice in the house. This early musical training served Harney well, as he took to playing on the street corners of Greenville with his oldest brother, Joe, at the age of twelve.
Richard Harney later found a number of ways to earn a living. After farming and then playing guitar on the street, he worked as a bassist for a Cincinnati jazz band in the early 1920s and subsequently supported himself as a piano tuner and repairman. Although his nickname has sometimes been erroneously attributed to a short stint as a boxer, musician Pinetop Perkins insisted that the moniker resulted from Harney’s ability to fashion replacement piano parts on the spot, using virtually any materials and the tool that became his namesake. The nickname may also have reflected the frequent statement that Hacksaw’s ability on the guitar could cut other musicians in two.
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accompanying vocalist Pearl Dickson and accordionist Walter Rhodes
of release
Early American Blues Classics 1927-1934
- Little Rock Blues - Pearl Dickson
remastered by Richard Nevins
notes by Don Kent
Yazoo CD 2008 (US 1994)
Yazoo Records discography
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Hacksaw Harney (L) and Eugene Powell (R). Photo credit: Diana Davies (with permission by the Smithsonian). All rights reserved.
Hacksaw Harney, Eugene Powell, and America’s Unbeatable Musicians
Can a finger picker make his guitar sound like a piano? In the case of Eugene, the answer is yes.
“‘Is that a piano?’ peoples say. ‘No, that a guitar,’ I say,” recalled Eugene.
I have enjoyed writing the two blues biographies on Eugene Powell and Mississippi Matilda, and am now immersed in the writing of Book Three in the Riverside Blues Series. The stories about Hacksaw Harney and Eugene are wonderful.
Ol’ Hacksaw Harney and Eugene were the best of friends, according to Hacksaw’s daughter Rose Mary.
From the yet unpublished third installment in the Riverside Blues series:
“My father told me that nobody could outplay them. They were like one in the same kind of person.”
~ Rose Mary Harney, daughter of Hacksaw Harney, referring to her father’s friendship with Eugene in America’s Unbeatable Musicians: The Original Masters of the Mississippi Riverside
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