CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

blues singer-guitarist-harmonica player

“Well, I used to go around to all these junk stores in Memphis and buy blues records -- old 78s. And then I knew a guy that was distributor for jukeboxes, and he had a garage that was stacked up with literally thousands of 45s. Maybe about half of ‘em were blues -- blues and hillbilly.

“So I had access to recorded blues from a pretty early age, at least from the time that I was in my teens.

“I can remember buying albums by Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters and Little Walter, but I don’t actually remember the first one.”