Blues Moments in Time - January 7: Hoochie Coochie Declarations and the Road to Chicago

In this episode of Blues Moments in Time, we zoom in on January 7—a date that captures the blues in motion: migrating, electrifying, protesting, and reinventing itself. We follow the Great Migration as it carries the solitary acoustic blues of the Mississippi Delta into the crowded streets of Chicago, where the music plugs in, turns up, and becomes the raw, urban sound of Chicago blues and the backbone of “race records” that sold not just songs, but stories of escape and aspiration.

At the heart of the episode is Muddy Waters’ January 7, 1954 recording of “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”—a stop-time, chest-thumping declaration that helped define electric Chicago blues and laid a blueprint for the rock and roll revolution. Along the way, we meet Alabama-born DIY trailblazer Bob Jenkins and bassist Rod Hicks of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, whose work bridged musical innovation and the Civil Rights era’s push for integration.

We also mark the losses of British blues sparkplug Cyril Davies and soul great James Carr, tracing how their sounds—whether through the British blues boom or the aching honesty of “The Dark End of the Street”—carry the same stories of struggle, resilience, and hope. January 7 becomes a living snapshot of the blues as coded protest, cultural migration, and a history still humming beneath modern music.

Hosted by: Kelvin Huggins

Presented by: The Blues Hotel Collective

Keep the blues alive.

© 2026 The Blues Hotel Collective.