In 1953, a young Lee Baker Jr. was strumming an acoustic guitar on his front porch in Port Arthur, Texas, when zydeco and blues star Clifton Chenier happened to walk down the street, heard him play, and offered him a job in his touring band on the spot. Born December 18, 1933, in Dubuisson, Louisiana, Baker first absorbed music watching his grandfather play banjo, then discovered the electrified showmanship of B.B. King, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, and T-Bone Walker in Port Arthur's clubs. Touring with Chenier became his apprenticeship in show business, and it led to a solo run as Guitar Junior on Goldband Records in Lake Charles, where Family Rules, The Crawl, and Made in the Shade helped define the sound of swamp pop.

When he moved to Chicago in 1960, he discovered another bluesman, Luther Johnson, already performing as Guitar Junior, and h ...