Welcome to the September, 2017, Edition of BLUES JUNCTION.

As yet another major storm has left a good portion of the state of Florida without power and flooded, the Texas Gulf Coast recovers and is digging out of the mess left behind by their own Hurricane Harvey. The part of the country most affected by this colossal storm system is, as most of our readers know, one of the true cradles of American Music.

Our thoughts are with the folks who have been so adversely affected by the flooding in this region. With this in mind I thought our readers would like to re-visit a couple of pieces that have previously appeared in BLUES JUNCTION.

The first is entitled Big Blues in The Big H where I discuss the history of blues music in Houston. This, the nation’s fourth largest city, has a legacy of blues music that is comparable to anyplace in the country.

The second feature we revisit is one of my favorite interviews of all-time. It is with the great Miss Jewel Brown. This Houston native just turned 80 years old and we caught up on the telephone on Friday afternoon, September 8th. She was kicking back in an Austin hotel room with an 11 pm performance at Antone’s just a few hours away. She was also scheduled to perform over the weekend at Eddie Stout’s Eastside Kings Festival in the Texas capital.

She was very glad to share with me that her home in Houston’s Third Ward survived intact and her immediate surroundings didn’t have the flooding that was so prevalent in many parts of that huge city. She went on to tell me that in her lifetime she had witnessed first-hand many of the big hurricanes that have hammered Houston, Texas, through the years. She said, “Harvey was the very worst I have ever experienced…bar none.”

She also was excited to tell me that the famous and historical thoroughfare, which she lives just a few blocks away from, named Dowling Street, has very recently been renamed Emancipation Boulevard.

Please enjoy my conversation with this national treasure, the one and only Miss Jewel Brown.

Joe Nosek sits in our Monthly Artist Spotlight for September.  Read a great interview with a musician dedicated to the blues.

Our Monthly Album Spotlight lands on one of the great CDs to be released in 2017, Groovin’ In Greaseland by Rick Estrin and the Nightcats.

We hope you enjoy our Recommended Listening feature this month as we take a look at several new and soon to be released CDs we think you may want to get your ears around.  We also have a Revue of some great discs for your enjoyment; check out the Rhythm Bomb Records Revue.

We also review the brand-new album by Wee Willie Walker and the Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra.

A couple of weeks ago we “published” a piece entitled, Donald Trump: The Perfect Storm. In this editorial, I stated our position as it relates to this man who has seized control of the executive branch of our government and is using that lofty platform as a base of operations for his continued nefarious activities. I also took the position in this piece that anyone in the blues community who still supports this man should be outed, identified, isolated and boycotted. If you disagree with this position, you are welcome to argue your case in the court of public opinion.

Trump has used hate to divide and separate people and use these divisions to forward his bizarre, very anti-American agenda. With this in mind, we hope you join the resistance movement and towards that end we encourage you to visit our Resistance is NOT Futile page.

Please enjoy these and the other features you will find in this September edition of BLUES JUNCTION.

Again, our thoughts go out to all the folks adversely affected by this series of catastrophic weather events which have plagued our great nation. 

Be well, be safe and be in touch.

- David Mac

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