Juke In The Back With Matt The Cat

Series produced by Matt "The Cat" Baldassarri

Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Image by: Public Domain 
Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat 

Matt The Cat presents the soul that came before rock n' roll: 1950s rhythm and blues. Each week, this underrated and rollicking music plays on that old Rockola Jukebox in the back.

If you wanted to hear rhythm & blues during the 1950s, you couldn't get it from the juke box in the front. No, no! In order to hear that glorious, down and dirty R&B, you had to go to the low-lit, spit-shined "Juke In The Back." These songs are the building blocks of rock n' roll. These are the records that inspired Elvis and single-handedly led to the rock n' roll explosion of the mid-1950s. Big Joe Turner, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Wynonie Harris, LaVern Baker, Roy Brown, Joe Liggins, Professor Longhair and many more take center stage on The Juke In The Back. Matt The Cat hosted a similar program on XM Satellite Radio called "Harlem" and now he brings this great music and information to PRX.


697 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
The "Juke In The Back" features the most important and influential vocal group of the post World War II era, The Orioles. Baltimore's finest singin...

Bought by 90.5 WSNC, KCMJ Community Radio, WHRV, WRNC-LP, WOUB and more


  • Added: Nov 08, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week, "Juke In The Back" features The Griffin Brothers, one of the unsung Rhythm & Blues groups from the early 1950s. The Griffin Brothers wer...

Bought by KCMJ Community Radio, WHRV, KSRQ, WRNC-LP, WOUB and more


  • Added: Nov 01, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Matt The Cat celebrates Halloween with the scariest, spookiest and most sinister vintage rhythm & blues records ever made! It's the disembodied "so...

Bought by KPIP-LP, 90.5 WSNC, KHNS, WHRV, WRNC-LP and more


  • Added: Oct 25, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week, "Juke In The Back" features another unsung hero of early Rhythm & Blues, Floyd Dixon. He's often overlooked or labeled as a Charles Brow...

Bought by 90.5 WSNC, KCMJ Community Radio, WHRV, KSRQ, WRNC-LP and more


  • Added: Oct 18, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week, we continue our salute to the great blues shouter, Big Joe Turner with part 2 of 2. The show opens in 1951, with Turner's first recordin...

Bought by KCSM, WHRV, KCMJ Community Radio, WRNC-LP, WOUB and more


  • Added: Oct 11, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week, the "Juke In The Back" is loaded with nothing but the great recordings of Big Joe Turner, the "Boss Of The Blues." The show also feature...

Bought by KMUW, KCSM, KCMJ Community Radio, 90.5 WSNC, WRNC-LP and more


  • Added: Oct 04, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Little Miss Cornshucks was an influential figure in post WWII Rhythm & Blues. Lavern Baker copied Cornshucks' country girl stage act down to the na...

Bought by WHRV, WRNC-LP, KCMJ Community Radio, WOUB, and KSRQ


  • Added: Sep 27, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week, the "Juke In The Back" focuses on Little Richard's prime, hit-making period of 1955-57. Matt The Cat will take you from his early 1956 e...

Bought by WHRV, KSRQ, WRNC-LP, KKRN, and WOUB


  • Added: Sep 20, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Before Little Richard's atomic howl burst through radios in early 1956 with a feverish "Wop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bam-bom," he was just another Rhythm...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., 90.5 WSNC, WLPR , WHRV, WRNC-LP and more


  • Added: Sep 13, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
There are many great pianists in the history of boogie woogie that helped push its evolution, but it was Little Willie Littlefield who popularized ...

Bought by WHRV, WRNC-LP, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., WOUB, WLPR and more


  • Added: Sep 06, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week, "Juke In The Back" presents one of the architects of the "honkin'" sax, Paul Williams. Williams' Sextette released some moderately succe...

Bought by 90.5 WSNC, WHRV, WLPR , WRNC-LP, KSRQ and more


  • Added: Aug 30, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week's "Juke In The Back" is completely turned over to YOU, the hep cats and crazy kittens who dig on these vintage Rhythm & Blues sounds each...

Bought by WLPR , WHRV, WRNC-LP, WOUB, and KSRQ


  • Added: Aug 23, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Matt The Cat presents the seldom-told story of Johnny Bragg, a prisoner serving six 99 year sentences at the Tenn State Penn when his group The Pri...

Bought by WLPR , WHRV, WRNC-LP, WOUB, and KSRQ


  • Added: Aug 16, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
The "Juke In The Back" is proud to focus an entire show on the separate careers of bother and sister, Nellie and Joe Lutcher. Both scored numerous...

Bought by WHRV, WLPR , WRNC-LP, WOUB, and KSRQ


  • Added: Aug 09, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Ruth Brown was Atlantic Records first big star. She was so successful, racking up 24 R&B hits for the fledging label, that Atlantic was often calle...

Bought by KCSM, 90.5 WSNC, KPIP-LP, WHRV, WRNC-LP and more


  • Added: Aug 02, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Ruth Brown was Atlantic Records first big star. She was so successful, racking up 24 R&B hits for the fledging label, that Atlantic was often calle...

Bought by KCSM, WLPR , WHRV, WRNC-LP, 90.5 WSNC and more


  • Added: Jul 26, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Ruth Brown was Atlantic Records first big star. She was so successful, racking up 24 R&B hits for the fledging label, that Atlantic was often calle...

Bought by KCSM, 90.5 WSNC, WLPR , WHRV, WRNC-LP and more


  • Added: Jul 19, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
Ruth Brown was Atlantic Records first big star. She was so successful, racking up 24 R&B hits for the fledging label, that Atlantic was often calle...

Bought by KCSM, 90.5 WSNC, WLPR , WHRV, WOUB and more


  • Added: Jul 12, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
This week, Matt The Cat loads the "Juke In The Back" with a musical history of the old African folktale about The Signifying Monkey. We'll trace th...

Bought by WLPR , 90.5 WSNC, WHRV, WRNC-LP, KSRQ and more


  • Added: Jul 05, 2015
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Juke In The Back with Matt The Cat, Credit: Public Domain
What’s more American than celebrating America’s birthday with some good ol’ red, white and Rhythm & Blues about THE Fourth of July staple: food? Di...

Bought by KPIP-LP, RadioFreePalmer, 90.5 WSNC, WLPR , WHRV and more


  • Added: Jun 28, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 9