Welcome to the November, 2015, edition of BLUES JUNCTION. As always we have a wide variety of features which we sincerely hope that you enjoy.

It is however with a heavy heart that we announce that the recently departed Smokin’ Joe Kubek is in our Monthly Artist Spotlight this month. I urge you to check out a very personal, in-depth interview with one of the most affable individuals I have had the privilege to meet. With Joe, it seemed he had no casual acquaintances. If you didn’t feel like his close friend, it is only because you had never met him. He will be missed.

We go all the way to Finland to find a brand new album by chromatic harp master Helge Tallqvist. His CD In Footsteps shines in our Monthly Album Spotlight feature.  An interview I did with Helge is also republished in this month's ezine.

If one lives long enough then you know that the rule of unintended consequences is a fact of life. That principle is explored in not one, but two pieces here in the November issue of our ezine. They relate to sound and vision, sights and sounds, the here and now versus the there and then.  

First, I deal with the subject of how we enjoy music in a piece entitled, Are CDs Obsolete? We follow that with a feature entitled, Were You Even There? written by renowned professional photographer and, as it turns out, talented writer, Alex Gardner.

Charlie Lange has again rounded up a whole new batch of old noise via his Re-Issue Rodeo.

Our popular Re-Visited feature focuses on an album which really needs no explanation, but I didn’t let that stop me, The Essential Otis Rush: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956 - 1958.

At this time of year, we in America take time to give thanks right before our fellow citizen’s stuff their faces and go shopping. In the meantime, I would like to take a moment to thank all of our loyal readers who stop by the JUNCTION each and every month.  It is such a great joy for me to hear from so many of you as we share our thoughts on this music which we hold in such a high regard. Until we meet again...be well and be in touch.

- David Mac