Internationally known harmonica ace Kim Field returns to the Waterfront Festival as the host of the annual Harmonica Blowoff. Field always assembles an all-star bill of harmonica wizards — including Hank Shreve, Steve Bailey and Nic Clark— backed by Field’s world-class band, the Perfect Gentlemen.

During his long career, Kim Field has appeared on bills with such rhythm and blues legends as Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Gregg Allman, James Cotton, Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, the Righteous Brothers, Walter Horton, and Big Mama Thornton. He has appeared at the San Francisco Blues Festival, in New York City’s Central Park, at Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival, at the Winthrop Rhythm and Blues Festival, and at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival, where he was a featured performer seven years running. He performs regularly in the Pacific Northwest with his band the Perfect Gentlemen.

Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Hank Shreve began playing the harmonica at the age of eight. Shreve won the Northwest Harmonica Championship in 2008 and the Cascade Blues Association’s Muddy Award for Best Harmonica in 2009 and 2013. Shreve has performed at the Toronto Jazz Festival and the Cognac Blues Passions in France with Karen Lovely, and Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival with Magic Dick and Lee Oskar. Hank has shared stages with delta-blues legend Honeyboy Edwards, Merle Haggard, Norton Buffalo, Terry Robb, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Roger Fisher (from Heart), Curtis Salgado, DK Stewart, Lloyd Jones, and Paul deLay, among others. He performs regularly with the Hank Shreve Band, which has won five Muddy Awards.

Steve Bailey is a veteran of the Northwest music scene. Steve worked with the great guitarist and singer Isaac Scott in Seattle for seven years. Since then, Bailey has fronted his own group, Stevie and the Blue Flames and toured internationally, including shows in London, Madrid, and Colombia. Bailey, who also plays guitar, has just released a new CD, “Destination Blues.” Steve has won numerous awards from the Washington State Blues Society, including for “Best Harmonica” and “Best Band,” and was elected to the Society’s Hall of Fame in 2015.

Nic Clark grew up in Denver, Colorado, and picked up the harmonica as a child. By the time he was twelve, he was using a certificate signed by his mother to play the blues in local bars. Two years later, Clark began an association with harmonica master Rick Estrin and guitar legend Kid Andersen and met key influences Lazy Lester, Billy Branch, and Big Bill Morganfield. In 2019 Clark released his first record project, “Love Your Life,” produced by Andersen. Nic Clark is on his way to establishing himself as a force in the music world. As Blues Blast Magazine noted: “One of the feel-good stories in the blues in recent years has been the ascendancy of Nic Clark, a former teen prodigy on guitar and harmonica who’s a rising star as a songwriter, too.”