[Baynative]

When I was a kid I lived about 60 miles from SF and I had a little transistor radio that I would put under the covers and listen to late at night when I was supposed to be asleep. Rock and roll was king, but one of the stations I picked up after dark was KDIA from Oakland, a black owned rhythm and blues AM station. When my friends were listening to Brenda Lee, Trini Lopez and the Four Seasons, I was tuning in to Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley and Lightnin' Hopkins. Presentations were a little rougher then but it went to my blood. Evolution has brought us around to sweet stuff like this one with Buddy and BB that I've seen dozens of times and it still makes me shiver, tear up and smile all at once.

[BluesDuke]

By the time I began listening to radio growing up in and around New York, there was little enough blues to be heard but a lot of great soul music by way of WWRL (before they became a ranting talk station). One of the first blues albums in that haul I described earlier was Howlin' Wolf's entry in the then Chess Vintage Blues Series, Evil. (Not to mention Muddy Waters's Sail On and Sonny Boy Williamson's Bummer Road. Later I latched onto Buddy Guy's entry in that series, I Was Walking Through the Woods . . .)