Little Walter has been considered THE best modern blues harmonica player to this day by just about any-and-everyone who is connected with the Chicago blues scene. I don't think he has been treated or referred to without respect since the day he died, except by a few jealous contemporaries.For many years, this 1969 compilation, "Hate To See You Go," was the only album in print collecting a body of Little Walter Jacobs' own recordings. So although "The Best of Little Walter" was out of print when I started playing harmonica at 13 y.o. I certainly was thrilled, ecstatic and altogether blown away by this collection which includes Mellow Down Easy, Roller Coaster, Blue And Lonesome, Everybody Needs Somebody and Blue Midnight. No complaints did I make!("The Best of Little Walter" was a 1958 album of Walter's chart-toppers during the 1950s. His 1952 "Juke" was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for 8 weeks that year. "The Best of Little Walter" was also issued in a "stereo" edition, but also went out of print for decades.)While Walter was probably not the first to record harp "amplified" ** he was arguably the first to fully exploit the explosive effect of close, hand-cupped harmonica amplification with over-driven, distorted microphone-guitar amplifier combinations and specially effects like the tape-delay machine called the Echo-Plex.Check out the excellent page on Walter: wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_WalterThere is also an extensive written biography on Little Walter called "Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story"Also, look up modern harpman Mark Hummel's recordings and his new memoir "Big Road Blues - 12 Bars On I-80". Mark, I believe is the Ultimate Little Walter Geek. Aside from organizing tribute albums and numerous multi-artist concerts dedicated to Little Walter - Mark is one of the most intelligent and inventive musicians you will ever hear playing harp. He is also a helluva band leader, an art unto itself (read the book)!** Snooky Prior appears to be the first harpman to record using a cupped mic and guitar amplifier (on Baby Face Leroy Foster's "Take A Little Walk With Me" in 1949) but not with Little Walter's conscious efforts to distort and "electrifiy" the sound.