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While I was there my debut album was released back in Sacramento and I had a couple of boxes of
CDs sent to me. They put one into the hotel juke box and someone gave it to somebody at Radio
Caroline, which was a pirate radio station. I was selling the CD at my hotel gigs.

What are the chances of something like that happening?

LL: You helped launch Sirius Satellite Radio. Would you tell us all about it and how it came to
be? Are you still involved?

ET: Similar to landing a gig on my first day in a foreign country, helping start Sirius Satellite was
equally serendipitous. I had moved to NYC and only knew one person there. I had nothing going for
myself except for a job in the basement of a record store in Manhattan in the jazz and blues

department. During my time there, a couple of CDs I had played on with E.C. Scott had been on the
shelves. A guy named Michael Anderson that I worked with in the department had told me that he
worked in radio but was between jobs.

At some point I left that job, and I went out to play some touring dates with E.C. When I returned
there was a message from Michael who asked me to call him. As it turned out he was hired to run
the blues channel at a fledgling satellite radio station called Sirius and he thought I would be great

on the air. I started a week before 9/11 in 2001 and originally broadcast my shows to zero
subscribers. That was over 20 years ago, and I am still working in radio. We’re now well over 30
million subscribers.

I have been blessed, to say the least!

LL: I understand you’re living in New York (USA) now. How did that
come about, and how is it for a blues musician?

ET: I moved to New York in 1998 and I have been here ever since. When
you come to a city like this where you don’t know anybody, you feel like
you ain’t got a friend in the world. This city will chew you up and spit you
out. It was only when I was hired to work on the radio that I claimed my
place here. It could have gone a very different direction.

LL: Let’s talk about your new release Early Times and The High Rollers: The Corner. What was

your inspiration, your process, and your vision for this album?

ET: I started writing songs and I could see a storyline taking shape from one tune to the other and
I decided to go with it and essentially tell a story through the album. I had never written an album
in this way before, but I am happy with how it came out.

My intent was to make an album that didn’t sound like anybody else. I am very committed to being
original. I also tried to put a lot of guitar on the record without the guitar being the centrepiece. I
believe the songs should hold up on their own with or without a lot of solos and guitar

showmanship. When I do play a solo, I try to play in a manner that shows seasoning and taste and
not approach it from a self-centred perspective.

In the end, I wanted to create an album that would stand out from the crowd and yet be accessible
and entertaining to the audience. I licensed the album through my label Dealers Choice Records to
Vizztone Records who then released it. They are really great to work with. Brat Girl Media has
done my publicity. I’m grateful for the work all these people have done to help me see my vision

come to light.