This week on BWAF we dive into something truly special — the winner of the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Blues Album, Get Up! by Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite. It’s a record carved out of lived experience: ten Harper originals delivered with fire and finesse, and Charlie’s Memphis‑born harmonica weaving through every track like a spell.

I’ve been a Musselwhite fan since the late 80s, and I was standing at the front of the stage at Bluesfest Byron Bay in 1996 when Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals lit up the Australian musical conscience for the first time. Charlie was on that same bill, and that’s where the seeds of this collaboration were planted. Over the next decade they crossed paths on John Lee Hooker’s Burnin’ Hell, on Charlie’s Sanctuary, and on stages around the world — before finally creating this remarkable album in 2012.

Alongside the feature, I’ve loaded the show with brand‑new releases from Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band, Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour, Keb’ Mo’, Danielle Nicole, Doyle Bramhall II, Janiva Magness, Jason Ricci & Bad Kind, Laura Chavez, Chris O’Leary, Mike Wheeler, Harrell Davenport and more.

If you love the blues — the real stuff — you’re in the right place. This is BWAF.