Blues Moments in Time – October 23: Barrelhouse, Zydeco & Surveillance Blues

Join Kelvin Huggins as he dives deep into the tangled roots and resonant echoes of October 23rd in blues history.

From the floorboard-shaking barrelhouse piano of Rufus "Speckled Red" Perryman to the raw zydeco rhythms of Boozoo Chavis, we celebrate two musical pioneers born on this day—each a vital voice in the genre’s sprawling family tree.

But the blues isn’t just music—it’s resistance. We mark the 1962 launch of the FBI’s COMINFIL operation, a surveillance campaign aimed at silencing Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. The broadcast explores how blues artists marched, sang, and suffered alongside the movement, their songs becoming the soundtrack of struggle.

Finally, we turn to the 1960s folk blues revival, where forgotten legends like Son House and Mississippi John Hurt were rediscovered—but not without tension. The episode unpacks the bittersweet dynamic of appreciation and exploitation, recognition and erasure.

This isn’t just a history lesson—it’s a meditation on the ongoing flow of blues through time, through generations, through changing audiences and unchanging truths.

Hosted by: Kelvin Huggins

Presented by: The Blues Hotel Collective

Listen Tomorrow for: Another Blues Moment in Time

Keep the blues alive.

© 2025 The Blues Hotel Collective.