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poorly recorded. “Blind Man's Blues” was recorded in a little room. My wife made the mistake of
leaving for the weekend and I had a gig, and I got in at midnight and I went in an empty 10x12
room with hardwood floors and stuck a mic up and got a beer and started playing, and by the end
of the weekend, I had a record (chuckling).

BiTS: (Laughs) Good for you. Yes, that's wonderful.

MS: Yeah, you can hear the reverb of the room. It wasn't the ideal room, and it was done with a
cheap microphone, but it was pretty much impromptu and from the heart, if you will. There's lots
of mistakes on it and all that, but anyway, that's how that one started.

BiTS: Well, the reverb of the room is taking you right back to Robert Johnson and that hotel in
San Antonio.

MS: Yeah, that's special too. It
is special being in San Antonio
and roughly half those
The Gunter Hotel recordings were recorded in
the San Antonio sessions and
the other, of course, the other
half were recorded the next
year in Dallas. And I had the
liberty of one year, we
recognise Robert Johnson's
contribution, the San Antonio
Blues Society does annually
with a festival they called the
Robert Johnson Sessions, and
one year I was asked to do the
opening for that. They wanted
me to play some Robert

Johnson music, so that was special. And I got to get up and talk about his experience in San Antonio,
which was quite horrific (laughs). You're probably familiar, but the hotel that it’s recorded at,
those sessions at the Gunter Hotel, Robert wasn't allowed to stay at. In fact he wasn't even allowed
to be in the district. He had to sleep in a different location of town, and when he recorded, he came
in. They brought him over to the hotel to be recorded, but he wasn't allowed to stay in that section
of the town.

BiTS: When you're listening to music these days, other people, I mean, who do you listen to?
What kind of artists are you listening to?

MS: Oh, geez. Well, I do a lot of Pandora, and from there, I learn of artists. One of my favourite
artists of recent years I really enjoyed and got to open for was Jarekus Singleton. I don't know if
you're familiar with him, but he did an album a few years ago called “Refuse To Lose”. I believe
he grew up in the Chicago area. I think maybe he got a basketball scholarship. He was a basketball
player, terrific musician, good songwriter, one of the most exciting live shows I've seen, but Jarekus
is a big influence of mine over the past years. I still listen to a lot of old music. I'm a big Freddie
King fan. I love Freddie King. Still listen to a lot of Sean Costello, who we lost as a youngster. I think
he's part of the 27 club. New music, obviously I listen to Joe Bonamassa and Samantha Fish, Ruthie
Foster. A lot of those, but I also venture off. I still follow Chris Duarte quite a bit and I'm sure you're
familiar with Chris, another Texan.