(upbeat music) - You have the passion for the music, you love the music, and you just want to be able to share it with other people.

What a great vehicle to do that with, is having your own radio program.

- It's a space where he, as he likes to say, throws open the doors every week, and I think he really enjoys sharing his passion with that audience.

- It is lightning in a bottle, it is so special.

It is the perfect person with the right music, with an open mic.

It couldn't be more perfect.

- 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.

(bright music) I was not a musician.

(bright music) I loved the musicians.

(bright music) I wanted to share my passion for music.

(bright music) My show is the first 100 years of recordings in general.

I look for songs that tell a story, and then I look for stories to tell about the song and about the artist.

- You wouldn't have The Juke Joint without Robert's history and passion for the music, and the fact that he was a photographer that was able to capture scenes from blues festivals across the country, that he was able then to make the connections with the artists and have true conversations with them, to get to know them.

Those personal stories that nobody else knows, but Robert does and can share them, it is something so unique and irreplaceable.

- My name is Robert Barclay, the Duke of Juke.

Happy to have you along for the ride from now until 11 o'clock tonight.

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 Janis 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 longhaired photographers who 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 get paid to do this?

And eventually that's what happened.

1, 2, 3 and 1, 2 and 3.

- It's really what my dad's, kind of life and passion has become.

You know, he got into photography through music, and I think a lot of the passion that he's followed outside of his profession and his practice and his let's say, day job, which he, you know, had an incredible experience with the university and all those things.

But I think aside from the assignments, and the sports, and mugshots and all those things, I think it was the thing that he really looked forward to at the end of the day, at the end of the week, to kind of put his energy into this kind of passion project.

- One, two, and three.

Good, again.

I knew working for a university would be cool.

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

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

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

Well, I was you USC's photographer.

You were USC's photographer, and you want to come here?

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."

- "Homespun" is a traditional, I'll call it a traditional music program.

It covers anything from bluegrass, old timey music, blues, swing music, contemporary or not so contemporary folk singers, if you will.

Robert was in a group of volunteers, primarily from the Wheatland Music Organization when we first started "Homespun."

Through meeting some of those people, and certainly meeting John Sheffler, had the idea that maybe he could come and host some of those programs too.

- I said, are you, 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 every other Saturday night.

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

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

A guy named Peter Aschoff came out, KUNI outta Cedar Falls, Iowa.

And in between songs, he'd tell you a little bit of interesting history about who he was gonna play next, whether it was Son House, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf.

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, you know, 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.

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

Let's go back to 1956.

I love the band in the studio with him.

This is a song written by drummer, Al Duncan.

- You don't see a lot of commercial jazz stations, blues stations surviving here in Michigan.

It's music that not everybody is looking for, but those that want it, that need it, they have a special place in public media to find it here.

- Because he's such a fan of the music, he tends to do deep dives into all things of that artist.

You come away thinking, again, I think I've learned something more about this artist or this person than I ever knew.

And that's, to me, that's the cool thing about The Juke Joint.

- Hello, this is James Brown, the Godfather of soul.

You're listening to the best blues and soul music at The Juke Joint on CMU Public Radio.

Catch it, it's bad.

- I start getting postcards in the mail or letters written on notebook paper and torn out, saying hey, I love your blues show, but come on, one hour?

We need, you know, 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.

All right, 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 100 years of blues recordings, the first 100 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 of Peace."

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."

- There's been many, many times when I'll hear a couple of songs that he plays and think, oh, that was perfect, man.

That flowed from one song right into the other.

Those two songs or three songs fit together great.

- It's the music, it's the imagery, it's the stories, the narratives.

You know, obviously in a radio kind of medium, the expression comes through with the songs, but I know how much research and kind of backstory he put into everything.

Part of what was cool about growing up in the household with mom and dad in Wheatland, our front porch, you know, even ArtReach had, there's pictures in here of when Doctor Ross came and performed at ArtReach.

Those musicians used to come and stay at our house.

You know, these images of people, you know, who, like I said, stayed in our home, Cajun musicians, people coming for Wheatland, that's me and Johnny Shines.

His wife, you know, came and picked rhubarb from my mom's garden.

I remember how both gentle and energetic they both were.

They loved to talk, they loved to hang out, they loved to eat food.

They loved to, like, they were great.

You know, they went around Mom's garden and we're talking about how to cook rhubarb and all this kind of stuff.

And he has that iconic guitar case with his name, you know, it's either in chalk or white paint or whatever.

And so that was a pretty strong memory.

You know, some people had families that were into golf and they'd go to the country club or whatever it was.

This was just how my reality was.

Cephas & Wiggins came and stayed and their guitar.

And then Phil Wiggins is a harmonica player.

Every time people came, I had to give up my room and so I'd sleep on the couch or sleep on the floor.

So he gave me this harmonica, I won't pretend to play it, but just a, you know, really nice Hohner, Marine Band harmonica and wrote, autographed it.

"Thanks for giving up your room.

Have fun with this.

Phil Wiggins."

We were never entertainers, if I can put it that way.

It wasn't that we would have dinner parties over at the house.

So the times when we had guests would be, musicians would come, somebody, you know, Wheatland was organized and they needed a place for somebody to stay, so they'd stay at our house, but it was never stressful.

Get the house clean, kind of, or at least if it was, I don't remember, I might have had to go mow the lawn, kind of thing.

- [Chuck] Hi, this is Chuck Leavell, piano player with The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers Band and a few others, and you're listening to the best blues and soul music at The Juke Joint with the Duke of Juke, Robert Barclay here on CMU Public Radio.

- I think in a number of cases, Robert has the experience where he's asked to talk to the artist and then the artist hears, oh, it's Robert Barclay.

Like, his name is known, not only because of what he does here at WCMU, but because of his legacy of blues photography being carried in periodicals around the world.

He's a known entity in the genre, even though he's not a performer.

- Realizing that photography might be a way to get a different kind of access to music, and then sort of falling in love with it through that medium or through that filter, I think now he's really also excited and interested in recording interviews.

So the microphone, right, as a tool as well.

- The first interview I ever did was 1986.

A man named Brownie McGee.

You got a heck of a memory.

- I was born to remember.

- That's where the interviews all started.

You've played at a few juke joints in the past, haven't you?

- [Clarence] A whole lot of them, partner.

In fact, that's how I got my start.

Wouldn't been for juke joints, there wouldn't be no artists today.

Juke joints and honky-tonks.

- I decided to mix some arrangements to interview other artists.

Luther Allison, James Brown, Chuck Leavell, Wilson Pickett, John Hammond, B.B.

King.

Occasionally they 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?

- Oh yes.

You is one black rat.

♪ Yeah, you is one black rat ♪ ♪ Someday I'm gonna find your trail ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm hiding my shoes ♪ ♪ Somewhere near your shirt tail ♪ (Robert laughs) - Well, the cool thing about being married to a professional photographer, Peggy, the Duchess of Juke, loves to go along when I have appointments to interview musicians.

This one is in Detroit.

There were two things that brought Peggy and me together in photography school.

We both love sports and sports photography, we both love music and music photography.

That's what really got us together.

And fortunately, we have a lot of photos to show for it.

It's one of those things where I have to pinch myself to say, you had the opportunity to sit down and interview James Brown?

All those people, Bobby Blue Bland, Gatemouth Brown.

And I'll say, yeah.

I take out my file folder.

I say, look at all these pictures Peggy shot.

This is Robert Lockwood Jr.

Well, Robert Lockwood's mother was Robert Johnson's girlfriend, most serious girlfriend.

He had a lot of girlfriends, but he would come home from being on the road and he would show Robert Lockwood a few licks on the guitar.

And it was a thrill to have a chance to sit and hear stories about Robert Johnson.

So it's one of Peggy's photos as well.

- [B.B.]

You know, 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.

- Generally, public broadcasting, people make a donation we make thank you gifts available to them.

They can choose a coffee mug, they can choose a T-shirt, whatever that might be.

For The Juke Joint crowd, it's the T-shirts and the Duke's grab bag.

Don't forget about that too.

But the T-shirt, yeah, I don't know when he first received a photo from a listener, he might have that detail for you, when he first got a picture sent to him, a listener was out there in the wild somewhere, took a photo.

- I asked people, I said, if you've got a Juke Joint T-shirt, you don't have to go somewhere exotic, you don't have to send it from some Cancun or, you know, Cabo San Lucas, doesn't have to be anything fancy.

It could be Joe's Bar and Grill in downtown Claire.

Just stand in the foreground and have the sign in the background.

- It is important to him.

He loves those things.

He loves it when people in his audience take a picture of themselves with a Juke Joint shirt on.

You know, they're in the Galapagos Islands or they're at Taj Mahal, or they're at the top of the Empire State Building and they're there in a Juke Joint shirt and he gets those things.

And he loves that connection as much as the, let's say the document of it.

- I was at the Sydney Opera House, I made sure I had my T-shirt with me for that iconic snap.

And so many others have done the same.

There are people that pack, it's on their, like, pack list, gotta get the juke joint T-shirt in the bag because we're going to so and so and we wanna take a photo.

- He loves, loves, loves, loves that connection.

The amount of time that he spends connecting with those people.

They're not nameless, they're not faceless.

It'll be, you know, John in Benton Harbor and Susan in Harbor Springs, and you know, somebody else in Traverse City, Leelanau.

It's always a great, been a great source of pride of his as it should be that, you know, his show has always done really well at fundraiser.

People have, you know, contributed and I mean, he's been doing this 40 years, he hasn't gotten paid a dime, right, for everything that he's put in, and the feedback or the visceral dopamine hit is first of all, learning new stuff, sharing that, but then getting feedback from those people like, oh, I never knew that, or, oh man, that set you did on, you know, Luther Allison last week was just, it was on fire and it's great.

He feeds off that.

He's never been afraid to connect to people that way.

- I've lined up a whole ton of great artists.

Back in 1985 when I launched The Juke Joint, this is all before email and all that sort of thing, I would give out my address.

I said, hey, drop me a line, let me know you're listening.

I I just wanna know your first name and what towns, you know, where you're listening from.

Eventually email is invented and then cell phones are invented.

So people would send me emails and I would be reading emails while the songs were playing.

George in Rochester, haven't heard from him in a while.

Got some more emails from listeners.

I heard from what they call the Greenbelt Crew, that means Greenbelt, Maryland.

Just want you to know we're listening like we always do.

You might not always hear from us, but we are always hearing you.

Cheers.

Thank you Steven, Sarah and Patrice.

I also heard from Tom from Ovid and Sally from Mount Pleasant who just got back from a road trip to Denver, Colorado, Sally's home state.

They sent me a 40th anniversary Juke Joint T-shirt photo from Rocky Mountain National Park.

- It's stunning, one.

How many of us out there can say we've done anything for 40 years?

And again, yeah, volunteering your time while you're working full time, while you're raising your family.

So many people have, if given the opportunity would've petered out over time.

But the passion is there for him.

This is his outlet, this is his way to enjoy the music that he loves anyway, and share it with people, and make connections.

It's a social outlet for him.

I mean, clearly he's connecting with people all the time, every week.

- Let's turn to a couple of tunes from Motor City Josh and we're gonna open up with "I Was Born To Play The Blues."

- Four decades, right?

That's, I mean, that's 90% of my life.

- He's given the music a voice that maybe it wouldn't have otherwise.

And he is giving the music voice to 44 counties in the state of Michigan, which is over half the state on a Sunday night.

- And they say, thank you for the repose you offer.

The chance to have three hours every week to unwind and be part of a blues community that appreciates values and celebrates the good.

Tonight's show is outstanding.

Thank you, Nate, Courtney and Jack in Traverse City - Have that dedication, that passion, and the quality hasn't gone down.

Yeah, the format's changed and things, but to find new ways to, you know, again, the idea of adding in the interviews and having, you know, everyone from James Brown, to Jesse Jackson to whoever he can meet or interview, have them do, you know, radio promos and things like that.

Those little things are little sparks that kind of add and keep it fresh.

And so that stamina is impressive.

- And very rarely does he ever miss an episode.

And if he does, it's typically 'cause he is off to the Chicago Blues Fest or something like that, investing more time into the music, into the art form, into the artists, interviewing, photographing, talking so that he can bring those stories back and share with the audience here every Sunday night.

- [Little Walter] Baby, don't go yet.

It's only a quarter to 12.

(bright music) - Well, that's Little Walter letting me know it's time to close the doors of The Juke Joint, but leave your radio tuned right where it is.

- [Eden] Hey y'all, this is Eden Brent and you're listening to The Juke Joint with the Duke of Juke, Robert Barclay.

- [Ira] I'm Ira Tucker of The Dixie Hummingbirds and you're listening to blues and gospel at The Juke Joint.

- [Smokey] And you are listening to nothing but the blues, baby, from The Juke Joint of Mississippi.

Nothing, but the blues, baby.

You can believe that.

- [Honey] Hi everybody, this is Miss Honey.

I sure would like to hear some Otis Spann.

Come on, Robert.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Terrance] From Mallet, Louisiana, you're listening to the best music of Southwest Louisiana on The Juke Joint.

- [Jesse] Hello, this is Reverend Jesse Jackson.

You're listening to the best rhythm and blues and soul music on The Juke Joint with the Duke of Juke.

- [Dick] You're listening to the best blues and soul music on The Juke Joint.

Robert, spin some music for me.

How about Aretha?

- [Little Milton] Hi, this is Little Milton.

Now, if you really want to hear nothing but the best in rhythm and blues, then don't you change that dial 'cause you got it set to the right one, right here with my man Robert Barclay on CMU Public Radio.

Hey Robert, go get 'em.

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

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

(groovy music) (groovy music continues) (groovy music continues) (groovy music continues) (groovy music continues)