Blues Moments in Time...

Join Kelvin Huggins as he dives deep into the tangled roots and resonant echoes of November 25th in blues history.

November 25 isn’t a headline day in blues history—it’s a heartbeat. Three births, two farewells, and a living tradition carried night after night in small rooms and big hearts. We trace Chicago guitar firebrand Jimmy Johnson (1928), piano architect Eddie Boyd (1914), and harmonica sage Jerry Portnoy (1943), alongside the tender remembrance of Fenton Robinson (d. 1997) and the stage-bound final vow of Coco Robicheaux (d. 2011). The music costs something—but what they gave us is priceless.

You’ll hear why the blues doesn’t live in one big moment—it lives in all the small ones. From birthday tributes and museum nights to dive-bar transmissions, this episode places November 25 inside the long arc of authenticity, gospel-rooted feeling, and standards that keep working because they tell the truth. “Five Long Years” still rings; Portnoy’s harmonica still breathes; Johnson’s church-born soul still sings through steel.

Hosted by: Kelvin Huggins

Presented by: The Blues Hotel Collective

Listen Tomorrow for: Another Blues Moment in Time

Keep the blues alive.

© 2025 The Blues Hotel Collective.

Join Kelvin Huggins as he dives deep into the tangled roots and resonant echoes of November 22nd in blues history.

November 22nd—a single date that reveals the blues as a living tradition, constantly evolving while staying true to its emotional core. From Bunny Berigan’s 1938 recording of Jelly Roll Blues and the Miles Davis Quintet’s groundbreaking Carnegie Hall debut, to Bob Dylan’s early blues standards, Muddy Waters’ electrifying jam with The Rolling Stones, and ZZ Top’s One Foot in the Blues, this episode highlights how the genre has blurred boundaries with jazz, folk, and rock while inspiring generations across the globe. With stories stretching from Chicago to Sydney, November 22nd proves that the blues transcends geography, race, and time, speaking to universal human experiences of joy, sorrow, love, and resilience.

Hosted by: Kelvin Huggins

Presented by: The Blues Hotel Collective

Listen Tomorrow for: Another Blues Moment in Time

Keep the blues alive.

© 2025 The Blues Hotel Collective.

Join Kelvin Huggins as he dives deep into the tangled roots and resonant echoes of November 21st in blues history.

November 21 threads three pillars of the blues into one luminous line: how we preserve, how we pass on, and how we push forward. We revisit Lead Belly’s 1948 Minneapolis house concert—an intimate, hour-long recording alive with classics, on-the-spot invention, and scathing social truth, a treasured document of a master in his final season. We honor Robert Lockwood Jr., the only guitarist taught directly by Robert Johnson, whose seven-decade journey carried Delta tradition into jazz-tinted sophistication and Blues Hall of Fame acclaim. And we reflect on Wilco Johnson’s choppy, percussive fire—Dr. Feelgood grit that helped seed British punk—proof that blues evolves by electrifying what it touches. Together, these moments show the blues as a living art: preserved in tape, handed through hands, and forever reinvented onstage.

Hosted by: Kelvin Huggins

Presented by: The Blues Hotel Collective

Listen Tomorrow for: Another Blues Moment in Time

Keep the blues alive.

© 2025 The Blues Hotel Collective.

In this episode, Rufus talks November 20 in blues history. He begins with foundational births that shaped distinct traditions: the country blues touch of Chanel Charity in 1920, the gravel-and-gris-gris New Orleans hymn of Dr. John in 1940, and the slide-lit Southern sermon of Dwayne Allman in 1946. It also holds space for remembrance—Chris Whitley’s stark, skeletal truth in 2005 and Mike Pinera’s tone-first feel in 2024. And the story keeps breathing in real rooms: a one-man blues engine stomping at George Lane in St Kilda, Sydney’s grassroots flames at Kiss My Brass and Miss Celie’s, and Lisbon’s open-sky blues night where conversation becomes a chorus. This episode steps through that doorway—past, present, and future—finding the blues still waiting inside, ready to speak.

Hosted by: Rufus Tate

Presented by: The Blues Hotel Collective

Listen Tomorrow for: Another Blues Moment in Time

Keep the blues alive.

© 2025 The Blues Hotel Collective.

Blues Moments in Time takes you back to the crossroads where history happened. We're talking about those electric nights in Chicago studios, those dusty Delta afternoons, those chance encounters that changed everything.

This is where you'll hear about the day Muddy Waters plugged in and shook the world, the session where Robert Johnson laid down his legacy, the moment B.B. King named his guitar Lucille. These aren't just dates and facts—they're the living, breathing stories of how the blues became the blues.

Each moment is a snapshot: the artists, the circumstances, the magic that happened when talent met opportunity. Sometimes it's triumph, sometimes it's tragedy, but it's always real. Because the blues has always been about truth, and these moments tell that truth better than anything else.

Whether it's a legendary recording session, a groundbreaking performance, or a personal turning point that shaped an artist's sound, Blues Moments in Time brings you there. You'll feel the room, hear the backstory, and understand why that particular moment still matters today.

This is blues history you can feel—one moment at a time.

Blues Moments in Time is a production of The Blues Hotel Collective

© 2025 The Blues Hotel Collective - All rights reserved.