Lucky Peterson was born Judge Kenneth Peterson in Buffalo, New York in December 1964, the son of bluesman James Peterson, whose nightclub, the Governor's Inn, was a regular stop for the greatest touring blues musicians of the era. When Willie Dixon came through and saw the five-year-old perform, he took him under his wing and in 1971 released his first single, 1-2-3-4, a cover of James Brown's Please Please Please, on his Yambo Records label. The record launched a national television blitz that put a kindergartener on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show and Sesame Street, and produced a debut album titled Our Future: 5 Year Old Lucky Peterson. This episode asks whether a child that young can feel the music or is only mimicking, and why Dixon's mentorship amounted to a literal passing of the torch.

The conversation examines how Peterson e ...