Featured Interview – Terry “Harmonica” Bean

image

Cover photo © 2025 Roger Stephenson

imageI had the opportunity to interview Terry “Harmonica” Bean over the phone in December 2024. I had questions prepared so we could discuss his career, but Bean had also prepared his key talking points. He could sense my interest in history and helped fill some gaps in my knowledge. Bean went on to cover diverse topics surrounding blues such as race and religion. This was not a traditional interview, but an invaluable lesson about the history and culture of blues in Mississippi.

Terry “Harmonica” Bean was born and raised in Pontotoc, a small town in Northeast Mississippi with a deep musical legacy. Notable artists who hail from Pontotoc include “Baby Face” Leroy Foster, who was the first drummer to record with Muddy Waters, along with Ruby Elzy. Elzy was a classical vocalist who studied at Julliard and appeared on Broadway in the original version of Porgy and Bess. Bean’s father, Eddie Bean, and grandfather, Rossie Bean, were both active bluesmen. Despite his family’s background in blues, Bean did not always want to be a musician.

Terry Bean was a baseball star in high school and was actively recruited by some of the top teams in the MLB.

“I was going to be drafted by the Cincinnati Reds one time, Los Angeles Angels, Kansas City Royals.”

Bean was in a bad motorcycle accident which cost him his baseball career. His grandfather, Rossi Bean, offered some advice. Bean had 18 brothers and 6 sisters, so his grandfather lovingly referred to all of the grandchildren as John Brown.

“He said, ‘John Brown, that ain’t what the good lord got in plan for you. You can get in the blues. I know you love that baseball, and you good at it. But that blues will do something for you.’”

Young Bean was not ready to take his grandfather’s advice and continued to train for baseball. He recovered and was once again being recruited by the Cincinnati Reds when he was involved in another car wreck.

“Thank the good lord I’m still here. My grandfather come to me again… ‘I told you grandson, that ain’t for you.’”

Bean complained to his grandfather he was raised up around the music and didn’t really like the blues.

“He said, ‘Let me tell you something John Brown, you don’t like the blues? Well, you just do this for me. You just play it and let somebody else like it.’”

Bean listened to the sage advice from his grandfather and it transformed his life.

“It’s been good for me. It’s carried me places I’ve never dreamed I’d be.”

imageWhile discussing his career, Bean explained some important history and terminology in Mississippi blues, such as the difference between juke joints and juke houses.

“Juke joints here in Mississippi, was everywhere…Black people could come to town, to the city limits, and do what they called, ‘let your hair down.’”

While the juke joints were in town, the juke houses were located on farms. He explained how the law was different at the juke houses.

“The white man that they were sharecropped from, he handled everything, the police didn’t come there. These people that stayed at the juke house, they couldn’t come to town because they got in some kind of trouble in the city limits… but as long as you stayed at the juke house… you was alright.”

Bean explained that there could’ve been an unfair dispute with a white person in town, and if the black sharecropper went back into town they would be arrested. The juke house had music and, “what went on in the juke house, stayed at the juke house.”

Bean went on to discuss the importance of lyrics in blues, and how messages were hidden in the words sung.

“They couldn’t say what they really wanted to say, so they formed this music…what they were singing about didn’t make sense to them(white listeners), but it made sense to black people…And it would take you somewhere, if you know what the blues is.”

Although some of the messages in blues may not be understood by all listeners, according to Bean, everyone has the blues.

“Even people…that’s got everything they ever need and never use it all. Don’t even realize they got the blues too…Blues don’t care nothing about no color. The blues is like death, everybody got to go.”

Bean explains that the blues is not just in people, but in every living thing.

“Look at the trees today today…They got the blues… The leaves is falling off of ‘em…even the grass done changed.” He laughs as he talks about the blues in something non-living, “Your car, now you can buy a brand new one, but it’ll die on you too. Everything has the blues, man!”

Bean’s hometown, Pontotoc, is part of the rich hill country blues tradition, and his grandfather told him that this style is where the blues gets its driving energy.

“The hill country guys were the powerhouse in the blues…they had that drive thing in them…people had to get up and start moving.”

Bean’s grandfather told him stories of contests where musicians would compete for a prize which could be a pig or a goat, and that many times the hill country musicians would win. Bean compares this style to the delta blues.

image“The delta guys played the laid-back stuff…and people just kind of listen at that.” Bean explains this comparison of the two styles when discussing the impact of “Baby Face” Leroy Foster’s drumming.

When he was approached by the Mississippi Blues Commission about a blues trail marker in Pontotoc, Bean made sure the group recognized Leroy Foster.

“He was the first drummer for Muddy Waters…he was a hill country, singing drummer.”

Bean’s perspective on Mississippi and Chicago blues is unique and fascinating. If the hill country is where the blues gets its power from, and Muddy Waters’ first drummer emulated that style, then one could say that hill country blues had a deep impact on the development of Chicago blues.

Alongside our discussions of blues styles, Bean talked about some of the history of gospel music in Mississippi. He explained how in the beginning, there was no music or instruments in the church and the preacher led the worship only with his voice. Without music, the church struggled to keep a full congregation.

“The juke joints, juke houses, they be packed out…but on Sunday, the preachers didn’t have nobody at church.” Bean states that this is why religious people began referring to blues as devil’s music, to try to scare people away from the juke joints and juke houses and towards the church.

“The black preachers start telling, ‘You’re gonna go to hell for listening to that devil music…that stuff is no good…’Some of those guys that played the blues, quit playing. They started going to church.”

Soon the juke joints and juke houses were losing money as the church became more popular. Bean’s grandfather also felt the financial blow when his moonshine business waned. As the audiences began flocking to the church, the musicians soon followed.

“Coming in there with their guitars… that piano… a blues guy sit down there and play it.” Bean states that the combination of the blues musicians with the preacher’s strong voice created the basis for music in the church today.

“Now he’s got music in the church…but that music can’t be called blues…it’s the same damn music, but it’s called sanctified music now.”

Not only was the music the same but the audience had the same involvement.

“That devil dance that you were throwing down at the juke joint. You’re doing the same dance in the church…now it’s the holy ghost dance.”

Bean drives his point home by stating, “the blues came from the fields and went to the church.”

Terry Bean has a lot of pride in his hometown, and his fellow musicians from around Pontotoc when discussing his preference for blues styles.

“I go in between my blues. I’m doing the hill country, Chicago, because I’m representing these people that people ain’t never heard of. Like my grandfather, Rossie Johnson.”

His grandfather played all of the local juke joints and juke houses and spent time with legendary bluesmen Robert Johnson and Son House. His father, Eddie Bean, was also a musician who played with B.B. King and Little Milton, but never traveled far. Bean also raved about a local bluesman, Alvin Lee Lyons.

“I wish the world could’ve seen this man…that man could do some stuff. He was a dancer, and played while he was dancing and singing, and all of that stuff too.”

Bean said that Lyons was funny about performing and had to be coaxed into playing his guitar.

“He wanted people to beg him to play. Women especially…He’ll wait till he got about 15 or 20 of them women asking him, and then he would do it.”

When talking about local bluesmen, Bean also spoke about Jimmy Willow.

“Goodness gracious. You ought’ve heard it. I used to love trying to get him to go out and let some people see him.”

Willow was a religious man and was afraid of playing blues outside of his home.

“His grandmother, grandfather, them all were telling him, you go to hell for playing that kind of music, son. That’s the devil’s music.”

Willow, Lyons, and Bean’s father and grandfather were all great musicians from Pontotoc that never made it far outside of town with their music. Bean takes the opportunity to showcase the style of these bluesmen on his own gigs, and in doing so preserves a unique style that would otherwise be forgotten.

Terry “Harmonica” Bean is an ambassador for Mississippi blues, and has taken the hill country style around the world. He has performed in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia. He reflects on his missed opportunities in sports with honesty, but no regrets.

“Baseball would’ve made me the money, but I would’ve just been an American figure…I’m worldwide now. A little old guy from Pontotoc Mississippi.”

Please follow and like us:
0