Episode 5 - The Lean Years and the Revival

The wilderness and the morning after. How disco, punk, new wave, and hair metal pushed blues rock to the margins (Muddy Waters died in '83; the industry called the blues a museum piece) — and how it survived underground in clubs, festivals (the Chicago Blues Festival launched in '84), and the hands of the faithful. Robert Cray and George Thorogood cracking the door; then the full revival: Bonnie Raitt's "Nick of Time," Gary Moore's "Still Got the Blues," Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker finally getting paid while alive, Clapton's "Unplugged" and "From the Cradle" walking a mass audience back to the Delta — and SRV's 1990 death turning him into a north star. The host's own chapter: never stopping listening, the Allman/Gov't Mule/Tedeschi-Trucks lineage, and running sound & lights for the NJ blues/Southern-rock cover band Crossfire — keeping the flame lit in the small rooms.