ROSS GARREN is a harmonica player, keyboardist, and composer based in Southern California. He has recorded and collaborated with some of the music industry’s most renowned artists and composers, and performed on numerous Grammy-, Academy-, and Emmy Award-winning and nominated projects.

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Garren’s noteworthy work includes contributing to Ludwig Göransson's score for Sinners, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack. Garren also transcribed and recorded the harmonica parts for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet.

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Garren grew up in rural Maryland and California. He fell in love with the harmonica after his mother bought him a harmonica instruction book, Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues and John Mayall’s Room to Move ahead of a family trip. Garren later studied with Chicago blues enthusiast Pete Grissim and David Barrett, perhaps the best-known instructor of traditional blues harmonica in the world. Garren’s studies with Barrett taught him many of the finer details of Chicago blues harmonica.

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Garren pursued his education as a jazz pianist and classical composer at USC in Los Angeles. After a long break, he rediscovered his passion for the harmonica while developing a career as a freelance pianist and composer. Since then, Garren has worked on film and television scores by composers such as Robbie Robertson, Hans Zimmer, Marco Beltrami, John Powell, John Debney, Buck Sanders, Bear McCreary, Heitor Pereira, Lyle Workman, Mark Mancina, and Alf Clausen. Garren has also been the harmonicist for artists including Bon Iver, Kesha, Ben Folds, Noah Cyrus, RuPaul, Rita Coolidge, Pomplamoose, and Beyoncé, whose album Cowboy Carter won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

 

Garren also writes and records music with numerous collaborators and serves as the touring harmonicist for the legendary acoustic blues-rock band Hot Tuna.  Describing his music can be a challenge, but composer Andre LaFosse summed it up best: “Ross Garren’s sound world is a meeting of vintage Americana, retro-futurism, classic songcraft, and whimsical surrealism.” Garren wears his eclectic tastes on his sleeve, blending his favorite genres, eras, and sounds—often in stark juxtaposition.