Carey Bell was born on November 14, 1936 in Macon, Mississippi, a boy obsessed with Louis Jordan who wanted a saxophone his family could not afford. Handed a harmonica instead, the so-called Mississippi saxophone, he taught himself to make it wail like a horn by studying DeFord Bailey, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter and both Sonny Boy Williamsons. He was proficient by age eight and working professionally at 13 in the band of his godfather, pianist Lovie Lee, who brought him to Chicago in September 1956. There he sought out Little Walter at the Club Zanzibar and studied under Big Walter Horton, just as the louder, cheaper electric guitar was squeezing harmonica players out of club work.

This episode follows how Bell survived that shift by learning electric bass from Hound Dog Taylor, and how years of laying down bass lines rewired his harm ...