- Well, good evening.

It is just about four minutes past eight o'clock on your Sunday night, and that means it's time for three hours of blues and soul music from "The Juke Joint."

My name is Robert Barclay.

(blues music) I went to high school in Los Angeles.

LA brings the top people.

So I got to see Jimi Hendrix several times, I got to see Janice Joplin, I got to see The Doors, I got to see the Rolling Stones.

But I go see the Stones in 1969, I was 19 years old, and I'm looking at all these long-haired photographers.

Was just seeing all these guys behind the amps, in front of the stage, backstage.

I didn't get a camera until I was 22, and I was fumbling for what I was gonna major in.

And once I started photographing, one thing led to another, and I started getting photo passes, and getting backstage sometimes, and having the chance to meet the artists.

And I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I could get paid to do this?

And eventually that's what happened.

(blues music) And I knew working for a university would be cool.

So I'm reading this magazine called "Editor and Publisher" and the one ads said, "Photographer wanted at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan to do alumni, sports."

So I called the office, I said, I'm a photographer and I saw the ad in a magazine."

"Oh, okay, what kind of background do you have?"

"Well, I was USC's photographer."

"You were USC's photographer and you wanna come here?"

(blues music) When we moved to Mount Pleasant, I decided to buy an acoustic guitar and take guitar lessons.

Well, my guitar teacher, he goes, "Well, I do a folk music show at CMU Public Radio called "Homespun."

Would you like to come on the air and play some of your favorite records?"

I said, "Really, on the radio, on a real radio?

Wow, that would be really cool."

So he invited me in to do that, and I did that with every other Saturday night.

Then I started listening to a show called "Only Blues."

It was Saturday or Sunday night at 6:00 p.m.

Guy named Peter Aschoff came out for KUNI, out of Cedar Falls, Iowa.

And in between songs, he'd tell you a little bit of interesting history about who he was gonna play next.

And I thought, God, this is really cool.

And then he stopped doing the show.

And I said to John Sheffler, this is about 1984, I said, "We really need a blues show to replace Peter Aschoff's show."

And he goes, "Yeah, yeah, I'll think about it."

Then I'd nag him a little.

After a few months, I'd say, "Hey John, we really need to do a blues show."

Okay, okay, okay, okay, record me a one hour demo."

Music from Ray Charles.

And he talked about it with Ray Ford, who was the program director, and they decided they both loved the blues.

They said, "Well, let's give Robert a shot at that."

So on Sunday night, eight o'clock for one hour in April, 1985, I came on and did my one hour show.

- [James Brown] You're listening to the best blues and soul music at "The Juke Joint" with the Duke of Juke, Robert Barkley on CMU Public Radio.

Catch it, it's Bad.

- I started getting postcards in the mail, or letters written on notebook paper and torn out.

He said, "Hey, I love your blues show, but come on, one hour, we need longer."

That was April '85.

By October, we made two hours of it.

And then by 1988, we turned it into a three hour show.

Alright, that was Buddy Woods on a track titled "Don't Sell It Don't Give It Away."

Playing a little bit of slide guitar on that track.

My show is the first hundred years of blues recordings.

The first hundred years of recordings in general.

I didn't play the same old stuff.

Acoustic blues of the 1920s and '30s, electric blues from the 1940s onward.

But here is Freddie Slack in 1940, "Down the Road a Piece."

The blues began to evolve into soul music in the 1950s, with people like Ray Charles in the 1960s, with Aretha Franklin.

So I decided I'm gonna do blues and soul music.

Let's get back to some more music.

He produced a series called "Roots and Blues."

And I didn't get promo copies of any of these records, I went out and bought 'em just like you do.

I look for songs that tell a story.

The songs tell a story.

And then I look for stories to tell about the song and about the artist.

For us folk and blues fans, the cool thing about Mississippi John Hurt, after he recorded these 1928 recordings, he disappeared.

But the cool part is somebody came across him in Mississippi, in Avalon, Mississippi, because he did a song called the "Avalon Blues."

The first interview I ever did was 1986, a man named Brownie McGhee.

You've got a heck of a memory.

- [Brownie] I was born to remember.

- That's where the interviews all started.

I decided to make some arrangements to interview other artists; Luther Allison, James Brown, Chuck Leavell, Gate Mouth, brown, Wilson Pickett, John Hammond, BB King.

Occasionally they'd say, "Oh, I've told that story so many times."

But this is radio, "I want you to tell the story in your voice.

When you talk about one of your influences, I'll put a record on of that artist who inspired you."

- [Koko] First record that I remember listening to on the radio that really stuck to my ribs like red beans and rice was a song by a older blues singer by the name of Memphis Minnie.

- [Robert] Oh, I know what song that is.

- [Koko] She did this song called "Me and My Chauffeur Blues."

And the flip side was "Black Rat Blues," you remember that?

- [Robert] Oh yes, "You is one black rat."

♪ Yeah you is one black rat ♪ Da-Da ♪ Someday I'm gonna find your trail ♪ ♪ Yes I'm hiding my shoes ♪ Somewhere near your shirt tail ♪ (Robert and Koko laugh) (blues music) - [Robert] Well, ever since I was a teenager in the 1960s, I was usually the kid that had the latest records, and people, "Hey, let's go over to Barclay's house, he's got the coolest records."

And this is "The Juke Joint" on Sunday nights for the last 38 years, that's kind of an extension of me being a teenager.

Any of my friends from high school, if they lived in Michigan, they would say, "Barclay, he's still spinning those records, that's so cool."

(blues music) Well, that's Little Walter behind me letting me know it's time to close the doors of "The Juke Joint."

I'll be back in this spot with another three hours of the blues next Sunday night.

And until then, this is Robert Barclay, and I'll see ya on the flip side.

- [BB King] At "The Juke Joint," you hear everything with Robert Barclay on CMU.

That's public radio, stay tuned.

They're playing good music, they're gonna play some more.