Wailin' Wood

There’s something about virtuoso harmonica playing that sparks amazement. Most of us have at least held one in our hands, blown and sucked with varying success. It doesn’t seem possible that so much music could be in that little thing. That’s the type of attention Glenn Woodland, a.k.a. Wailin’ Wood, was getting when he showed up at jam sessions at contests in the mid-South in 1994. He could hold his own with any tune the best pickers would play, but his playing was cleaner, sharper, more dynamic and incredibly fast. It has been described as “bluegrass harp” with cascading runs resembling the three-finger rolls of Earl Scruggs-style banjo. Glenn grew up in New Jersey and moved in 1982 to Nashville, a town presenting hot harp players since the 1920s. Glenn started by listening “to anything and everything that had harmonica on it.” His early influences include Charlie McCoy, blues player Sonny Terry, and pop stylist Toots Theilemanns. Another recent influence is one our audiences might remember playing with Kevin Burke’s Open House, Mark Graham.

With state contest first place wins in Kentucky, Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee, Wailin's trophy case is filling up, and his playing at a festival can draw folks away from the funnel cake line and keep them listening.