Mikey Junior & Filthy Rich
Twisted Tail
509 S. Second St.
Sept. 11, 2024
Mikey Junior searched through his harmonica case, first picking up the key of C chromatic, then the key of C diatonic, to properly pitch his personal cover of Mike Vernon’s “Traveling South.”
Putting his lips into third position, he started to blow, channeling a deep train chugging on one instrument and an operatic coyote yelp on the other. Then he broke out yet a third instrument — his voice — to belt: “I’m traveling south, baby/ If you will go my way/ Because yesterday is gone/ Tomorrow’s Another day.”
Junior — whose full name is Mikey Jr. Hudak — has been playing the blues every Wednesday evening at Philly’s Twisted Tail restaurant and bar for more than a decade (since 2011, to be exact) alongside Filthy Rich, his fellow flat-capped rhythm guitarist.
Junior played for five hours Wednesday night. What made the music sing, what made it his own, wasn’t just technique — but spirit and soul.
Junior and Rich usually play straight through from 6 p.m. to 10 each week. Junior took a minute off the mic to get a “drinky poo” — Twisted Tail’s so-called “Thyme After Thyme” cocktail — and tell me about his roots in roots.
“I just play by ear,” the Jersey-raised and based musician said. Trying to learn music theory “would ruin me,” he said, after offering a rundown on the history of the harmonica and the various versions of the mouth organ.
There are first, second and third positions, which denote the keys the harmonica player performs in relation to the key of the song or the band. Certain musicians are known for playing primarily in those particular positions — like Neil Young’s preference for first or John Popper’s tendency towards the third, said Junior. (On the video above, Junior plays a cross harp on the diatonic before switching to a chromatic for lyrical conclusion.)
Junior, now 44, started learning how to play at 16 from his father, the OG Michael Hudak. Making a unique mark on the instrument matters less to him, he suggested, then finding new musical means by which to bring back the legends of the past through to the present.
“It makes me happy when I sound like the people that I learned from,” he said. “I try to copy every single style I can to learn my own by accident.” His primary interest is American Roots and Chicago Blues. His favorite players are Sonny Boy Williamson, “Rice Miller” and the local talent Steven Guyger, who played with the likes of Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers.
His Twisted Tail co-star, Filthy Rich, plays with Guyger as well. That’s how the duo first connected.
It was surprising to see the duo performing as no-cover dinner music considering the extent of their pooled talents. But they certainly paired well with some crawfish mac and cheese and a rhubarb spritz.
With Filthy Rich as a reliable and resonant percussive partner, Junior was free to go expansive and deep, leaning into his full body in order to breathe his beliefs in and out of his instruments. But unlike so many other star soloists, he never turned self-indulgent or meandering, remembering the dual role of the harmonica not only as a vocal extension but as a rhythm keeper.
Through his respect for tradition, Junior is keeping it real rather than going rote — and giving a 21st century audience a performance that would otherwise be excluded to the past.
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Mikey Junior performs at Twisted Tail every Wednesday night while running an open blues jam at the same venue every Sunday. He also just released a new album — and has another one slated for release this spring — which you can order on his website here.
