John “Juke” Logan’s blues harp was the first thing millions of TV fans heard when tuning in the long-running “Rosanne” sitcom in the 90’s. For more
than 20 years, Juke Logan was blues royalty in the Los Angeles area where fans were used to hearing him on movie and TV soundtracks as well as in
their local blues clubs. In the late 90s, the popular blues harpist, singer, songwriter and radio DJ became an entrepreneur when he started his own
record label on which he released five exuberant albums of original blues. Those are now available on CD Baby.
I met Juke in 1978 at the Fox Venice Theatre where my assignment was to cover Albert Collins for the Santa Monica Outlook and I found the Angel City Rhythm Band opening the show with
Juke on keyboards, harmonica and...publicity. He was impressive in all three roles! He continued to send me promotion and press releases even after
that band broke up, and even after the Santa Monica Outlook died. I wrote a song about Juke called “Ace of Harps,” and the hero of that song drove
all the way in from the desert to Santa Monica to play on that track – an act of musical kindness that brought more star power to my small project
than it deserved. Juke Logan died from cancer in 2013 in Joshua Tree, California, and we’ve been missing him ever since. Our photo of Juke bendin’
a reed is from the 1995 Big Time Blues Festival in Long Beach.
© 2017 Ellen Griffith - RECALL MUSIC