Oh the whispering pines.....the Appalachian trail carving out a pathway towards the Mississippi Delta. The old hickory BBQ and the bourbon and the blending of gospel, blues, Bayou boogie and Jayhawkin' through the cornfields.

My guest hails from the great state of Kansas. He has done and seen it all in music. Played at the Grand Ole Opry, local watering holes, Medicine Shows, Mafia laden clubs and lesbian joints. That's before during and after being a swing man on the Kansas Men's Basketball team taking a page out of Pistol Pete Maravich's play book.

But my guests career runs thick, with a fearlessness and security that still holds up today. He has played with Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Hahn, Richard Manuel, Mac Rebenack, George Marsh, Maria Muldaur and Mel Graves. He has awed people over the years with his propensity to lean on that Hammond B-3 and illicit the sounds of the church and the bay, and sittin on a dock in muscle schoals Alabama with a cowboy hat and a maverick attitude.

He has made albums as a leader and been a prolific sideman. He has always wanted to reflect in his music a genuine sense of originality and playing music- not the type that can be labeled, just music. That will be on full display today at the Early Bird Cafe.

Mike Finnegan welcome to the JFS