The Man Behind Harmonica Buzz

Nathan Harris

Jeff Sunden is known for being a storyteller and informal historian of the blues who also happens to play heartfelt harmonica. To fans and friends in the world of Lansing music, though, the name “Jeff Sunden” has less meaning than another one: Harmonica Buzz.

Sunden’s stage name succinctly describes his music, but not his dedication to the blues, twang and other styles that form the roots of American musical tradition.

“Harmonica Buzz is kind of a stereotypical name,” he said. “Everybody thinks you play blues; I play a lot of different styles.”

Buzz spoke almost reverently of the musicians that had influenced him. He made it clear that the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Cephas and Wiggins were the true heroes of his younger days.

“I was fortunate enough to learn from and become friends with one of the guys that made me want to play,” he said. “His name is Phil Wiggins; I learned a lot from him.”

He smiled as he told a story of hearing after a show that he sounded like Wiggins. He said he was very flattered by the comparison.

Buzz has memories of hearing the J. Geils Band blaring out dorm windows during his time at Michigan State, where he attended for a degree urban affairs, until the program was cancelled. He finished school at George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Considering his course of study, he said with a laugh, “It’s kind of wild that I do country blues.”

The National Folk Festival that East Lansing hosted in 1999 and his opportunity the next year to travel with the Masters of Steel String Guitar Tour gave Buzz a serious focus on his music, and his first chance to interact closely with his harmonica idol Phil Wiggins.

The result of this musical enthusiasm was the 2002 album Long Way to Memphis, Buzz’s first.

Buzz said he appreciates the accessibility of modern recording equipment, but he thinks saturation of albums makes it difficult for artists to publicize themselves.

“You can have more technology than the Beatles had in your basement or your bedroom,” he said. “Everybody can kind of produce the stuff, but how do you reach people?”

In order to help provide an answer, Buzz has recently begun working with Larry Carr, owner of Michigan Homegrown Music.

Carr met Buzz only a few months ago, at an open-mike night Carr hosted at his store. They soon discovered a shared passion for stimulating Lansing’s local music scene, which they plan to help bring about through Carr’s homegrown music business concept.

Formerly just a printer, Carr is in the process of retooling his store into “kind of one-stop shopping for the music scene,” which will ultimately include a recording studio, performance venue, promotional tools and more.

Buzz said he is hopeful of having the impact he and Carr are looking for.

“We’d like to think we could figure it out here in this little building,” he said, describing Michigan Homegrown Music’s modest Michigan Avenue storefront. “The great studios were never much.”

Carr said Buzz’s willingness to help, his positive outlook and his knowledge of Lansing-area music have been a great asset so far in their mission.

Jack Wood has been interning at Michigan Homegrown Music since August. A telecommunications senior at MSU, he met Buzz around the same time as Carr. His impression of Harmonica Buzz is as a fun-loving, “kind of goofy” guy.

“He’s a big kid with an adult brain,” Wood said.

This does not mean, Wood said, that Buzz is not intelligent or knowledgeable.

“He’s pretty street smart,” Wood said. “He knows the music business.”

Buzz often made his point through music, sometimes using a line from one of his own songs to explain himself.

“Don’t want to tell you, just want to save you a little time. Blues is a fact of life; I wanna get you through those cryin’ times,” he sang, while discussing the generational “skip” that has left blues artists like himself with few young fans.

“If I find a way to make my heart and mind complete, I leave behind what I don’t need to follow Lucy’s feet,” Buzz sang, a lyric about his dead cat, meant to illustrate the importance of interpretation in listening to music. Not everyone, he said, hears a song about a cat.

Buzz said he considers himself more a writer and a performer than a musician, but Wood contrasted Buzz with many other harmonica players, especially in that he seems more concerned with quality than speed.

“Buzz is slower, but more thought out,” Wood said. “He’s more smooth and thinking about what melodies he’s playing.”

This thoughtfulness is tied into Buzz’s philosophy on music. To him, the journey of creation and the many stops along the way, the history of his art and its relationship to the future, and the musical heroes he has been able to learn from and play with are crucial, as important as the songs themselves.

“It’s so much about the people,” Buzz said. “The people you meet and how open you are to experience.”