The Beatles Hohner Harmonica

Much of The Beatles merchandise didn't make a whole lot of sense, but one item that DID make sense was The Beatles Hohner Harmonica released in 1964.  The harmonica itself was just a standard, German-made Hohner, so there wasn't technically a Beatles harmonica available for sale.  However, the package for this piece is wonderful with a great picture of the Fab 4 on the front and instructions to teach you how to play it on the back along with a picture of John wailing away on his Honer harmonica.  The backing cardboard even opens up and tells you how to play The Beatles songs Little Child and Please, Please Me.  It also came with a box to store your harmonica complete with pictures of The Beatles.  Unfortunately, by the time The Beatles became popular in the USA, they weren't really playing harmonica much anymore.  Still, for just $2.98, you can't go wrong...especially since a Beatles harmonica that's still sealed in the original package sells for around $500 these days!

The Silvers: From Beatles Tribute to Recent Album Release!

A Beatles tribute from 1969 called Silver Laughter toured the United States for about a decade and released a couple of albums of Beatles influenced original music in 1976 and 1978 that did pretty well regionally.  Fast forward to 2014, the band was inducted into the Iowa Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  Seeing the crowd’s reaction to Silver Laughter’s performance at the induction ceremony sparked a renewed interest in the band for bass guitarist and singer Mick Orton.  Since the other members of the band didn’t share his enthusiasm about putting the band back together, Mick recruited a new team and started work on a new record.

They called the band The Silvers and this new band just released an album of brand new songs called After The Laughter.  Don’t let the downer of a title fool you though.  The songs on this album aren’t as depressing as the name would suggest.  They are mostly infectious Beatles influenced songs with memorable melodies, but I can also hear some influence by The Rolling Stones (It’s Alright), Michael Jackson (Down And Out), and America (When The Time Comes).  Stand out tracks include No More (This Time I Mean It), the Monkees influenced Sunday Girl, the ballad Nothing Really Matters and probably the best song on the album, Hey, Marie.

The Silvers on Facebook! 

CLICK HERE to buy the album!