Bman's Blues Report

Harvey was born in October of 1953 in the small hamlet of Mount Olive, North Carolina, but soon after the family moved to nearby Rose Hill. While talking about his childhood, I was surprised to learn that Harvey didn’t grow up in a musical family. That might have been a handicap if not for the fact that the Arnold’s had a piano in their living room and a family friend named Henry. There is little doubt that Henry made an impression on a five year old Harvey. I listened with pleasure as Harvey recounted his early memories of sitting on the piano bench beside the black field hand as he pounded out Barrelhouse Blues while Daddy Arnold kept Henry’s shot glass filled with whiskey. As a teen, Harvey remembers attending area festivals that featured local favorites like the Charlie Albertson Band, but his early exposure to the raw sounds of the blues still held sway. As with many of us of that era, music was a powerful force in our young lives. There was plenty about this time to be excited...