What harmonica do I use?

Factual Questions
1

I love the song “Girl from the North Country” by Bob Dylan.
It’s is played on capo 3 and I start with a G chord relative to the capo. I have tried a G, C and D harmonica and none of them seem right.
Are there any musicians out there who can help me?

2

By capoing on 3 and playing in G, you are playing in Bb. Try a Bb harp. If you don’t have one available, move you capo to another fret. Dropping the capo to 2 would put you in A. If your intent is to play along with Dylan, you’ll need a Bb harp.

3

Or you could use your G harmonica and just lose the capo, play G in open position.

4

Yep, that’ll work, too.

5

Assuming a standard I-IV-V progression, you probably want a harmonica in the IV key. If that Bflat is the I, then Eflat would be the appropriate choice of harmonica.

6

Hey, I never knew there were capos for harmonicas. Cool. How do they work? They can’t do the same thing that capos do for guitars. I gotta find out about this.

7

I’m not sure what that song sounds like, but most of Bob Dylan’s harmonica work is straight harp, i.e. same key as the song. If the harmonica sounds “folky,” it’s straight harp; if it sounds bluesy, then, you’re right, it’s cross harp (or even double cross or some other position).

8

The way I always heard it was, “When it blows, it’s country. When it sucks, it’s the blues…”

9

Dylan does indeed play the song straight harp, in B-flat.