Air Week: October 9-15, 2023 Lavern Baker, Pt. 1 – 1949-54 This week, the “Juke In The Back” looks at how one of R&B’s greatest voices, Lavern Baker, got her start. It’s part one of a two part feature on the early career of Lavern Baker. In part one, we’ll dig on Baker’s first recordings […]

Episode #701 – Lavern Baker, Pt. 1 – 1949-54

At the end of the Second World War, economics forced the big bands to trim their once great size and thus, the Jump Blues combo was born. Between 1946-1954, rhythm and blues laid the tracks for what was to become Rock n’ Roll. So how come, 75 years later, this vibrant and influential music is still so unknown to so many?  Matt The Cat is going to change that with the radio program, “Juke In The Back.” These were the records that you couldn’t hear on the jukebox in the front of the establishment. To hear all this great 1950s rhythm & blues, you had to go to “Juke In The Back.”

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Music Commentary

Music History

Air Week: May 13-19, 2024 Lowell Fulson This week, the “Juke In The Back” spotlights Lowell Fulson, one of the blues’ most versatile and vastly underrated talents. In the late 1940s, Fulson stormed the charts with his first hit “Three O’Clock Blues,” a song that B.B. King would take to the top of the charts […]

Episode #732 – Lowell Fulson

Air Week: May 6-12, 2024 Jesse Belvin “Juke In The Back” is proud to dedicate an entire show to Jesse Belvin, one of greatest talents to come out of LA in the 1950s. Belvin was born in Texas, but raised near Central Avenue in Los Angeles, where he soaked up the local R&B scene. After […]

Episode #731 – Jesse Belvin

Air Week: April 29-May 5, 2024 Elmore James: 1951-55 Elmore James never tried to have crossover success. He was a bluesman through and through; an ambassador of the Mississippi Delta Blues with a modern, 1950s electric twist. Elmore’s blues was as pure as his ambitions when starting out as a sideman for now legendary blues […]

Episode #730 – Elmore James: 1951-55

Air Week: April 22-28, 2024 The R&B of RCA It is a popular belief that the seeds of Rhythm & Blues, Rock n’ Roll and even Jazz were planted by the small independent labels and that the major labels exhaustively played catch-up as the music grew in popularity. That is simply not true. The major […]

Episode #729 – The R&B of RCA

Air Week: April 15-21, 2024 Groove Records In late 1953, RCA Victor launched a new subsidiary to focus on the Rhythm & Blues market, called Groove Records.  They intended for Groove to compete with the independent labels like Chess, Atlantic and Vee-Jay that were dominating the genre.  RCA treated Groove as an indie by setting […]

Episode #701 – Lavern Baker, Pt. 1 – 1949-54

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