A teenager from Brooklyn picks up the harmonica at 12, turns professional at 15 with Little Jimmy May, and a few years later is living in a basement on Chicago's South Side with pianist Otis Spann while playing every night in the Muddy Waters band. This deep dive tells the story of Paul Oscher, born in February 1947, who studied the lead-instrument style of John Lee Sonny Boy Williamson and got his break in the mid-1960s when Big Walter Horton failed to show for a Muddy Waters gig. Oscher stepped in, nailed it, and held the harmonica chair from 1967 to 1972 as the first permanent white member of the band, recording on Chess albums like After the Rain and Live at Mr. Kelly's.

The episode follows his decision to leave and re-emerge in New York as Brooklyn Slim, his 1976 European tour with Louisiana Red and appearance on Germany's Rockpalast,  ...