Air Week: November 28-December 4, 2022 B. B. King The “Juke In The Back” pays its respects to a true musical icon, B.B. King. Riley B. King was raised on plantations as his mother was a sharecropper. He wanted to play guitar and sing on the radio like his mother’s cousin, Bukka White. He moved […]

Air Week: November 21-27, 2022 Pookie Hudson (The Spaniels) Pookie Hudson spent his entire life close to the music he loved. Growing up in Gary, Indiana, he spent his younger days trying to emulate the sound of BIlly Williams, the leader of the Charioteers. In high school, he began to develop his own style using […]

Air Week: November 14-20, 2022 Cab Calloway If you’re “hep to the jive” and can “dig the scene,” then you’re in for a treat on this week’s “Juke In The Back.” Matt The Cat presents Cab Calloway: the “Father of R&B,” the “Grandfather of Rock n’ Roll” and the “Hi De Ho Man.” There is […]

Air Week: November 7-13, 2022 Cobra Records Cobra Records left quite a bite, even thought this little West Side Chicago label was only in existence for three short years. Cobra was started by television repair shop owner Eli Toscano in the summer of 1956. Toscano was lucky enough to snag Willie Dixon from Chess Records […]

Air Week: October 31-November 6, 2022 Big Maybelle Big MaybelleThe “Juke In The Back” highlights the often ignored early career of Big Maybelle, one of the great female blues shouters. She was born Mabel Louise Smith in 1929 and cut her first record with Christine Chatman’s Orchestra for Decca in 1944. Mabel Smith made her […]

Air Week: October 24-30, 2022 Halloween Rhythm & Blues This week, the ol’ Rockola Jukebox is haunted by a strange spirit of rhythm & ghouls. Where is Matt The Cat? We don’t know, but the spirit tells us he will return next week. In his absence, the “Juke In The Back” still fulfills the weekly […]

Air Week: October 17-23, 2022 Pee Wee Crayton The “Juke In The Back” honors one of the greatest, yet more underrated originators of electric blues guitar: Pee Wee Crayton.  Matt The Cat digs deep into Crayton’s musical catalog and dusts off more than just his three charting R&B hits.  You’ll also get to hear the fantastic and […]

Air Week: October 10-16, 2022 Little Miss Cornshucks Little Miss Cornshucks was an influential figure in post WWII Rhythm & Blues. For one thing, she inspired Ahmet Ertegun to start Atlantic Records and when he couldn’t locate her to record her, he launched the career of Ruth Brown instead. Her version of the classic, “Try […]

Air Week: October 3-9, 2022 The Ravens The “Juke In The Back” features The Ravens, an R&B vocal group that set the stage for all the groups that would follow.  With Jimmy Ricks’ bass lead and some tremendous harmony behind him, The Ravens were the predecessors to the doo wop music that would follow in […]

Air Week: September 26-October 2, 2022 Excello Records Drop a nickel in the ol’ Rockola Juke as Matt The Cat dedicates the entire hour to the great little Nashville R&B label, Excello Records. Ernie Young started Excello as a sister label to his Nashboro Label and both labels were housed in his Ernie’s Record Mart […]