This Week In The Blues: November 16 – November 22, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of November 16 – November 22, 2025

Some of the highlights include Chicago blues guitar legend Hubert Sumlin, guitarist, singer, producer, and songwriter Mike Zito, and Louisiana native and Cajun blues guitar player Tab Benoit.

Keep in mind that there's so much more that happened this week in the blues. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:

https://bigtrainblues.com

https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Photo credits (if known) and past episodes are posted on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@BigTrainBlues

Here are links to a few of the artists or songs we've referenced in this week's episode:

Hubert Sumlin - "Come On In My House" - https://youtu.be/S_5gVABCUH4?si=WZNvoICbI2shdtuq

Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia - In My Soul" - https://youtu.be/KpD50EaiJTo?si=5WrhbC3rTXZ3Q2bu

Join me every weekday from 12:15pm-12:45pm CT to watch a live stream on Facebook of the longest running blues radio show program. https://www.facebook.com/DeltaCulturalCenter

We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!

ARE YOU A FAN OF BLUES HISTORY? US TOO!

If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:

https://bigtrainblues.com

https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Transcript

Chicago blues guitar legend Hubert Sumlin was born November 16, 1931, in Greenwood, Mississippi. He was raised in Hughes, Arkansas, and got his first guitar at eight years old. As a longtime member of Howlin’ Wolf’s band, Sumlin created some of the most iconic blues riffs ever recorded. Sumlin was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008, was nominated for four Grammy Awards, and won multiple Blues Music Awards. He was ranked number 43 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

The “Father of the Blues”, none other than William Christopher Handy, was born November 16, 1873. W.C. Handy was one of the most influential songwriters in American music. In 1903, while waiting for a train in Tutwiler, Mississippi, Handy overheard a man playing a steel guitar with a knife as a slide. It was a moment that would forever shape his life and the sound of the blues. Handy became the first to publish music in the blues form, taking Delta blues from a regional style to a national phenomenon. You can still stand on that same meeting spot today.

The “Godfather of Austin Blues,” W.C. Clark, was born November 16, 1939. Clark was born and raised in Austin, Texas, where he sang gospel music as a young boy before picking up guitar at fourteen. He later experimented with blues and jazz on bass and, in the late 1970s, played in an Austin blues quintet called Triple Threat Revue with Lou Ann Barton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Louisiana native and Cajun blues guitar player Tab Benoit was born November 17, 1967. A guitarist since his teenage years, Benoit honed his craft at the Blues Box, a Baton Rouge club and cultural hub run by musician Tabby Thomas. Playing alongside Thomas, Henry Gray, and other local legends, Benoit learned the blues firsthand from a living faculty of masters. He's still out touring and puts on a great show!

Blues singer and guitarist Jack Owens was born November 17, 1904, in Bentonia, Mississippi. As a child, Owens learned to play the fife, fiddle, and piano, but his true calling was the guitar. He never pursued a professional career, instead farming, selling bootleg liquor, and running a juke joint on weekends. His first recording, Goin’ Up the Country, was released in 1966 and captured the haunting Bentonia blues style.

Guitarist, singer, producer, and songwriter Mike Zito was born November 19, 1970, in St. Louis. He began performing at local events as a young man, and as a teenager picked up guitar and started playing around town. In 2008 he signed with Eclecto Groove Records and released his debut album Today. The following year came Pearl River, which earned him the 2010 Blues Music Award for Song of the Year. (Photo Credit: Scott Lukes Photography)

Blues guitarist Chris Cain was born November 19, 1955. He was a late bloomer and didn’t release his first album until he was in his thirties and hit his creative stride decades later. While it took the public time to catch on, fellow musicians knew his talent early. In fact blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa has called Cain one of his favorites. Cain’s playing carries the unmistakable influence of B.B. King and Albert King, who were both friends and mentors.

Duane Allman, the blues and rock guitarist, session musician, and founder of the Allman Brothers Band, was born November 20, 1946. In just two short years, Allman rose from relative obscurity to one of blues and rock’s most revered guitarists. Known for his fluid slide guitar and soulful improvisation, he helped define the Southern rock sound before his tragic death in a 1971 motorcycle crash at just 24 years old.

The Voodoo man himself, New Orleans’ own Dr. John, was born November 20, 1941. Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. created the persona of Dr. John on stage and reshaped the sounds of New Orleans blues, jazz, and Rhythm and Blues into something mystical and new. Over time, he became one of the city’s strongest ambassadors, celebrating and preserving its deep musical heritage.

Rhythm and Blues pianist and bandleader Lloyd Glenn was born November 21, 1909. A pioneer of the West Coast blues style, Glenn was born in San Antonio, Texas, and began his career playing with jazz bands around Dallas. He moved to California in 1941, joining the Walter Johnson Trio in 1944 and quickly becoming an in-demand arranger and session musician. He played piano on T-Bone Walker’s 1947 hit “Call It Stormy Monday” and that same year released his own records as Lloyd Glenn and His Joymakers.

Happy birthday to King Biscuit Time, the legendary blues radio show that first aired on November 21, 1941. It remains the longest-running daily radio broadcast in American history. The show still airs every weekday from the Delta Cultural Center on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. Tune in from 12:15 to 12:45 Central Time or catch the live stream straight from the studio on Facebook. The link’s in the show notes.

On November 22, 1982, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble began recording their debut album Texas Flood. It was released June 13, 1983, on Epic Records. The album was named after the 1958 Larry Davis tune “Texas Flood” and was recorded in just three days at Jackson Browne’s Los Angeles studio. Vaughan wrote six of the ten tracks, blending Texas grit with blistering blues fire.

Blues pianist, singer, and whistler, Whistlin’ Alex Moore was born November 22, 1899, in Dallas, Texas. He’s best remembered for his recordings of “Across the Atlantic Ocean” and “Black Eyed Peas and Hog Jowls.” Though his family never owned a piano, Moore taught himself by watching others. By 1915, he was performing on Dallas radio and playing for tips at social gatherings and juke joints across the city, keeping the Dallas blues tradition alive well into his later years.

Here’s some info about a new release for the Altered Five Blues band. Based in Milwaukee they are getting ready to release their 8th studio album titled “Hammer and Chisel”. Their first single is “I Got It Good” dropped on November 14th. They will continue to release singles from the album, with the entire collection set for a February 27th release date.

Well blues fans, we just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to follow our social media pages or visit our website at Big Train Blues.com. We’ll have a new episode next week and well talk about Chicago blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson and The Godfather of British Blues, John Mayall. It’s going to be a great show, so…we’ll see you then!