Sean “Bad” Apple recalled how the crowd reacted to Jimmy “Duck” Holmes performance at Bad Apple Blues Club seven years ago. “My place was packed. Not only was every seat taken, but every inch of floor space. People were sitting on the floor,” Apple said. “And he was going into this groove, and it felt like the whole building was just moving from side to side. He had them wrapped around his fingers, man. They were all locked in. It was beautiful. It’s the closest thing to heaven you can find on this earth.” As music changes and generations inherit…
Author: Jack Austin
Jack Austin
Jack Austin is a Chicago-based music journalist covering blues and American roots music. He is a radio DJ (Electric Chicken) and co-founder of Crossroads Chicago Radio. A poet and bad guitar player, he writes with an ear for regional scenes, musical lineage, and the people who keep the blues alive.
Moses Crouch talks Hill Country Blues, trance-inducing grooves, musical lineage, and the traditions connecting North Mississippi, Memphis, and the blues of today.
Cam Kimbrough carries the weight of his family’s Hill Country blues legacy while working to keep the music of Northern Mississippi alive, relevant and moving forward.
The Spit Cup and the Jukes frontman discusses discovering Junior Kimbrough’s music at 45, studying with Robert Kimbrough, and preserving one of blues’ rarest living traditions.
A childhood encounter with Alan Lomax films and Junior Kimbrough records sparked a lifelong obsession. The Black Keys frontman discusses his enduring devotion to North Mississippi Hill Country blues, why the genre remains his musical home, and the records that became the foundation of the band’s sound.
On ‘Making Moves,’ Danni Nicholls turns a stretch of self-doubt, relocation, and upheaval into songs about rebuilding trust in her voice, her writing, and herself.
“We Got Our Own Book. We Got Our Own Tree.” The Hill Country guitarist discusses musical inheritance, the stories that forged him, and why no tradition survives by standing still.
The Tennessee guitarist spent years bouncing between bar gigs, legal setbacks and second chances. Now he’s telling the story on ’15 Seconds of Fame.’
R.L. Burnside’s grandson reflects on heritage, migration, and carrying Hill Country blues forward.
A son’s campaign to restore the name—and the meaning—of his father’s music