A teenage soldier named Jimi Hendrix used to sneak off his base, risking court martial, to watch a guitarist command the stage in the Pacific Northwest. That guitarist was David William Kearney, better known as Guitar Shorty, and within a decade he would be wiping grease off his hands as a daytime mechanic. This episode traces the staggering gap between innovation and industry survival, starting with Kearney's birth on September 8, 1934, his upbringing in Kissimmee, Florida, guitar lessons from his uncle, and the night at 16 when a Tampa club marquee spontaneously billed him as Guitar Shorty, a name he kept for life.

By his teens he had toured a year with Ray Charles, cut his first single, You Don't Treat Me Right, for the Cobra label in 1957 under Willie Dixon's direction, fronted a band at New Orleans' Dew Drop Inn alongside T-Bone Walker ...