Joe
Hughes got infected by the blues virus when he was still a child. At
the age of fourteen he purchased his first guitar from the money he
earned as a dish washer. Two years later he formed his own band
called The Dukes, featuring the legendary Johnny
Copeland.
Despite remaining a lifelong resident of Houston, Joe
Guitar Hughes became a household name worldwide. He develops his
guitar style by listening to the radio and his stepfather’s records,
thus exposing himself to a regular diet of fellow Texans like T-Bone
Walker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. His concise, stinging guitar style and
warm vocals prove to be an inspiration for a legion of young blues
players. In the new century Joe Hughes’ passion and fire remain as
strong as they had been in his early years. However, the extensive
world tours simply take too heavy a toll. On May 15, 2003 he suffers
a massive heart attack. Joe Guitar Hughes fails to recover from this
cardiac arrest and dies five days later. It is a sad day for the
blues. Houston loses one of the most skilled and elite guitar
slingers the city has ever known.
The DVD is completed with
a biography, a background story about Swingmaster and a picture
gallery with unique historic and recent pictures of Joe Guitar
Hughes.
The concert was recorded in Groningen (The
Netherlands) in 1988.