A regular in the Bay Area blues scene since moving there in the early '70s, Hummel first appeared on record in 1985. His catalog numbers eight albums, including a pair featuring late piano-and-vocal legend Charles Brown. Quite unsurprisingly for an outfit from those parts, Hummel's Blues Survivors belong to the West Coast movement that includes other harp-fronted bands such as Little Charlie & the Nightcats and Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, which fuse classic Chicago blues with swing and roots-rock. Hummel's next disc, Blowin' My Horn, due out this fall, sports blues-shaded covers of Buddy Rich and Johnny Otis alongside the leader's own tunes and, oh yeah, plenty of long harp solos.