Juke Boy

Seems fitting since I'm staying in Houston for a while to mention a bluesman who played his music on a Fender Mustang -- a favorite guitar of mine in those long ago years thanks to the one owned by Alan House -- and a harp on the neck rack. He along with Lightnin Hopkins sort of solidified my early sense of the blues. In fact, when I was 13 I owned two albums -- one was Lightnin and the other was Ravi Shankar on the sitar. Ecclectic at best, eh?

Have a friend who saw Juke Boy back in those times but Juke Boy was not in the best of health. This clip from Swedish television happened in 1975 and, three years later, Juke Boy died in his apartment from cirrhosis of the liver at age 46. Unknown in most of Houston, he was a blue hero in Europe.