Sleeper picks: Kent DuChaine

Derrick: I'll never forget my first night at a "real bar" when I turned legal.

There used to be this place called Daddy Rawshucks Oyster Bar, which was the typical cool joint so common then and so rare now. No corporate logo needed.

I was legal anyway but my brother was not. No problem there - I bought, we both drank. Raw oysters and the blues might sound like a nasty combo but it was a night to remember. One of my best to tell you the truth.

Live blues music is always best IMHO and this night was my introduction to Kent DuChaine.

Kent was then and remains today a strange sort of fellow. Back in those days he toured the country in a powder blue '55 Caddy he named Marilyn (after Monroe of course) playing blues on his National steel guitar known as Leadbessie. Maybe that doesn't sound particularly strange to you, but the guy is from Minnesota after all. Not Mississippi - Minnesota.

Kent still comes through town from time to time and in fact he will be here at the end of the month. He travels the world now, can't say I know what happened to Marilyn, but Leadbessie is still at his side.

Over the years Kent has played music with the likes of Boogie Woogie Red, Luther Tucker, Big Walter Horton, Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Burns and Margie Evans, Lazy Bill Lucas, and Kim Wilson. He's shared the bill with B.B. King, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, Bukka White, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and of course, Johnny Shines who he worked with in partnership until Shines' death in 1992.

Shines was done by the time DuChaine met him in 1990 but the two struck up a friendship that got Johnny Shines back in the game.

IMO, Kent DuChaine is the type of man that makes America great. He could be doing something else for more money I would imagine, but he has dedicated his life to something he loves - the Delta Blues. If we had more people like that, the world would be at least be a more interesting if not better place.

You may have never heard of Kent DuChaine, but he had a big impact on me. A lot of my love for the blues comes from that first night out and seeing him play the music.

Heck, if I had my head on straight I would have maybe dedicated this whole blues thread thing to him. I owe the debt.