Alvin Youngblood Hart starts thinking about the Band when he’s making music with Steve Dawson

"When I play with Steve it reminds me of the Band quite a bit. So he kinda puts me in that mindset when I’m playing with him.”

British blues-rocker Joanne Shaw Taylor found her calling through an early love of Stevie Ray Vaughan

When I contact blueswoman Joanne Shaw Taylor in Houston, Texas she’s far from her native England but still, in a way, very much at home.

Since forming in New York City in 1979, the Holmes Brothers have specialized in blending the genres of blues and gospel.

As a kid growing up in Denver, Colorado, in the '60s, bluesman Otis Taylor met a teenage guitarist by the name of Tommy Bolin.

“This is a new chapter with this new band, and everybody’s pretty excited about it, so we’ll just see where it goes.”

Here's a tip for aspiring music journalists: think twice before you call an old bluesman at his hotel after 10 p.m.

I did my third interview with blues-rocker Tinsley Ellis when he was touring behind his seventh album on Alligator Records, Moment of Truth.

"When I play blues it's soothing, and it just puts your mind somewhere else, so that's been helping this a lot."

When you hear the Holmes Brothers, you can tell right off that the gospel-blues trio have been tight for ages.

I interviewed Mississippi Delta bluesman Big Jack Johnson back in 2003 when he was touring behind his Memphis Barbecue Sessions album.

I interviewed Mississippi hill country bluesman R.L. Burnside in 2000, four years after the release of A Ass Pocket of Whiskey.

I interviewed 23-year-old blues vocalist Shemekia Copeland, daughter of blues-guitar great Johnny Copeland, back in September of 2002.

You may recall Texas blues-rockers Omar and the Howlers from the album they released in 1987, Hard Times in the Land of Plenty.