text: The J. Geils Band Salwitz's harmonica playing became a major and distinctive element in the J. Geils Band's sound during their hard-rocking 1970s heyday. His performance of "Whammer Jammer" on the band's live album Full House has been particularly noted. In The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979), music critic Dave Marsh described Salwitz as possibly "the best white musician to ever play blues harmonica." He was often referred to as "Magic Dick and his Lickin' Stick".
  After the J. Geils Band dissolved in 1985, Salwitz spent time working on a harmonica design of his own, the "Magic Harmonica", for which he received a patent with co-inventor Pierre Beauregard. Beauregard was the director of the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra, of which Salwitz was also a member.
  Bluestime
  In 1992, Salwitz reunited with his old friend and bandmate J. Geils and formed the band Bluestime, with Steve Ramsey on drums, Jerry Miller on guitar, and Rory MacLeod on bass. MacLeod was later replaced by Michael "Mudcat" Ward, who played with the band for several years before leaving to pursue other interests. Ward was subsequently replaced by bassist John Turner. Steve Ramsey left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Gordon Grottenthaller on drums until the band's final show on New Year's Eve 2004 at the Bullrun in Shirley, MA. The band's music was a fusion of Chicago blues and classic jazz.