The Roadhouse Tony Steidler-Dennison

The hour ahead is a "thank you," seventeen years in the making. It's an hour chock full of artists who have helped define the sound of the show. Sean Costello, Boo Boo Davis, Duke Robillard, Janiva Magness, Mavis Staples - it feels like there's an awful lot of primary colors in this edition, but mostly primary blue. It's not an hour of the finest blues you've never heard, but an hour of the finest blues you have heard right here in The Roadhouse.

This hour contains a record-setting number of Roadhouse debuts, with many artists closer to the beginning of the careers than the end. That fact alone makes this a pretty optimistic and hopeful edition. Rome Yamilov & Henry Kaiser, Brad Absher & The Superials, John Paul Keith, Sven Zetterberg, and Strongman Blues Remedy step out front and center to welcome the future. It's a bright one, and it definitely makes for another hour of the finest blues you've never heard.

The next edition of The Roadhouse is pretty upbeat, full of shuffles, and probably another chair-dancing edition. Dave Weld & The Imperial Flames, Ian Siegal, G. Love & Special Sauce, Deitrick Haddon, and Janiva Magness provide details in one of the most compelling pictures of the blues today. It's an hour I'm pretty proud to be a part of. And, it's made all the better by being yet another hour of the finest blues you've never heard.

In the next hour of The Roadhouse, the full range of blues is on display. I have some tracks that are clearly unadulterated blues, some with roots rock leanings, some that are blues-rock, and one or two that just mark their own path. Bonham-Bullick, Eliza Neals, Duke Robillard, The Nighthawks, and Rory Block. Aside from that broad range, it's all about sending you down the path of another hour of the finest blues you've never heard.

Like the bear claws at the donut shop, the hour ahead is from a variety of sources and includes tracks that were not included in previous shows. Dave Weld & The Imperial Flames, Ian Siegal, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Danielle Ponder, and Kenny Neal provide the waypoints through the hour. And, they help ten other great artists make up The Bear Claw Edition. It's all in the spirit of another hour of the finest blues you've never heard.

In the next hour of The Roadhouse, we do what we know best. Son of Dave, Junior Wells, Dr. John, Walter Trout, and Trudy Lynn are all just waiting for a chance to make you move, or to move you. All in all, it just feels like a cloak of familiarity - the familiarity of another hour of the finest blues you've never heard.