The Clarion-Ledger has a nice article on former Coral Reefer Greg “Fingers” Taylor: “Fingers comes home: Storied musician returns to Miss.”
Greg “Fingers” Taylor has spent a large portion of his adult life with a harmonica between his lips, making it weep, howl, plead and bleed.
Still, the instrument mystifies him.
“It’s a mighty, mighty machine with a tiny, tiny body,” he says. “I guess that’s always intrigued me about it. How can such a big sound come from something so small?”
Taylor had taken piano lessons in Kansas, but the blues turned him on to the harmonica. He played both in different bands while at USM, but it soon became clear he had a special relationship with the harmonica. He always kept one stashed in a blue jean pocket.
It came in handy one night in 1973 when Buffett, then a struggling musician who had also attended USM for a while, came to Hattiesburg to play The Hub, a popular bar.
“I’d never seen him before,” Taylor recalls. “I remember he was wearing a 10-gallon hat and had long, long blonde hair. It was just him and his acoustic guitar.”
Buffett had heard about the local dude who could make a harmonica talk. Midway through the show, he invited Taylor to join him for a few tunes.
