Selwyn Birchwood shatters the stereotype of the self-taught juke joint bluesman. Born in 1985 in Orlando, Florida, to a father from Tobago and a mother from the UK, he picked up the guitar at 13 playing 1990s pop and rock, reverse-engineered Jimi Hendrix's influences back to Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins, Freddie King and Albert King, and was jolted into a lifelong calling by a Buddy Guy concert at 18. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tampa.

This episode follows his four-year apprenticeship touring the United States and Canada with Texas-born veteran Sonny Rhodes, who taught him crowd psychology, tour-van diplomacy and the electric lap steel guitar. We examine why an MBA served as a shield to protect his art rather than a threat to it, how he built his band around a baritone saxophone to fill a sonic g ...