Picture a European blues festival in the 1990s where a man in his late 60s marches out in a glowing neon wig and pounds the piano like a teenager with something to prove. That was Robert Purcell Ferguson, better known as H-Bomb Ferguson, born May 9, 1929 in Charleston County, South Carolina, the 11th of 12 children of a strict Baptist preacher. His father paid for piano lessons on the condition he play only sacred music, so young Robert waited until the congregation filed outside after Sunday services and snuck back to the church piano to practice forbidden blues rhythms.

This deep dive follows him from a teenage tour with Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers to Harlem gigs as The Cobra Kid, his 1950 recordings for Derby Records, and the atomic-age nickname bestowed by manager and drummer Jack the Bear Parker. It covers his Savoy Records era a ...