February 22 charts the blues slipping through the front door of mainstream culture and roaring back as a modern protest voice. In this episode of Blues Moments in Time, we follow Elvis Presley’s 1956 hit “Heartbreak Hotel” as a slow-blues “Trojan horse” that smuggled Beale Street feeling onto the pop charts and accidentally sparked a 1960s blues revival, sending young listeners digging for Muddy Waters, Son House, and Howlin’ Wolf.
We then jump to 2019 and Gary Clark Jr.’s This Land, where fuzz-drenched riffs turn Woody Guthrie’s optimism into a battlecry of Black ownership and survival. Along the way, we drop into Jabo Smith’s 1929 “Sleepy Time Blues” as the Delta puts on a sharp Chicago “city suit,” and honor Texas Johnny Brown, Ernie K‑Doe, Papa John Creach, and Linsey Alexander—artists who prove the blues is still a living, breathing documentary of the Black experience.
Hosted by: Kelvin Huggins
Presented by: The Blues Hotel Collective – your home for EVERYTHING BLUES.
Website: https://www.theblueshotel.com.au/
Keep the blues alive.
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