As summertime in the US winds down and the presidential election season gears up, we build a little shelter from the world in the 185th Roadhouse. Jay McShann, Elvin Bishop, Lil Ed, JJ Grey, and Carlos Del Junco are the mortar between those bricks in that shelter, helping to hold together a solid hour of the finest blues you’ve never heard. Come on in – the blues will protect you in the 185th Roadhouse Podcast.

This hour of The Roadhouse is chock full of great blues by artists you’ve heard of and artists you haven’t. It’s music from Chicago and Dockery Farms, from St. Louis and Dallas, from the 1920s and 2008. Sometimes the essence of a thing is so clear it needs no further explanation or exploration. That’s the deal in the 184th Roadhouse – it’s blues, unaffected, pure and simple.

A nice video introduction to an artist with amazingly strong pipes and a killer band.

The 183rd Roadhouse Podcast is an hour of brand new music. Music from the past few months and the months ahead make up a nice snapshot of the state of blues during four months in 2008. The hour includes Walter Horton, Alexis P. Suter Band, Carlos Del Junco, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue, Big Dave [...]

We hop on a train in Chicago’s Union Station this week, heading for points west. Crossing through the plains, the mountains and the desert, we arrive at the place where the Pacific meets the land, and blues meets jazz. West Coast blues fill the hour of the 182nd Roadhouse Podcast, with Jimmy McCracklin, Lowell Fulson, [...]

True pioneers of Chicago blues – Muddy Waters and James Cotton – performing “Got My Mojo Working” in 1966.

As noted in the comments on the earlier post about the site index, there was a problem with my archived copy of Roadhouse 012. Thanks to Roadhouse listener Michael, that issue has been resolved. He kindly provided me with his own archived copy of the show this morning, and it’s now available from the show [...]

There’s a full range of styles in this edition of The Roadhouse. Travis “Moonchild” Haddix, Percy Strother, Liz Mandeville, Erja Lyytinen, Holmes Brothers. It’s all the marbles – the cat’s eyes, the aggies, the jaspers, the steelies. Though you had to be a marbles player as a kid to understand from those terms, you’ll certainly [...]

His new album, “Skin Deep,” opened at No. 68, his highest position to date on the Billboard 200.