In 1987 John Cephas was named Entertainer of the Year at the W.C. Handy Awards, then went back to his day job framing walls as a carpenter at the D.C. National Armory. This episode tells the story of Cephas, born in 1930 and raised in rural Bowling Green, Virginia, and Phil Wiggins, born in 1954 in urban Washington, D.C., two musicians 24 years apart who met by chance at a jam session during the 1976 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife. The hosts first explain what Piedmont blues actually sounds like: ragtime piano translated to the acoustic guitar, with the thumb keeping an alternating bass while the fingers pick syncopated melodies, and a harmonica weaving through it.

Before stepping out as a duo, they served as sidemen for D.C. pianist Big Chief Ellis, learning the musical empathy that made their instruments interlock. After Ellis' ...