Actually, Deak has been playing the blues harp since the early age of 12...inspired by a school classmate. The 1980's found Deak learning from - and eventually doing shows with the great harmonica master James Cotton, who played with the legendary Muddy Waters and became an important blues artist of today in his own right. Deak also struck an ongoing correspondence and friendship with the late, great West Coast Harmonica King, William Clarke around that time.
The concept of the Deak Harp Blues Band have their beginnings that go back from the early lineup in the 1990's to just a short while ago, to the summer of 2007, when Deak himself was given the red carpet treatment at the Pocono Blues Fest, along with David Beardsley of STLBlues.net. Deak sat in with many of the artists there, including Eddie Van Shaw...son of Howlin' Wolf sideman and sax legend Eddie Shaw. A climactic moment of the festival occurred when Deak fronted the band, singing and blowing harp at the end-of-festival party...and Deak, with the encouragement of festival promoter Michael Cloren, began to think of how it might be a great idea, and a great time to reform his old band again.
Another event that helped inspire this turn of mind happened later in October of 2007, where Deak Harp showed up at the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival (formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival) playing on Cherry Street in front of the KFFA Radio Station, and later sitting in with Mississippi one-man-band artist Bill Abel at the Houston Stackhouse Stage. A cool clip of this performance can easily be seen on Deaks video page
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