In my opinion, Snooks Eaglin has always been Guitar Boss of New Orleans. But in the summer of 1959, Snooks was also Guitar Boss of New York City. And I don't think he'd even been there.

I was a kid in '59, still living in New York City. I loved traditional American music, especially the blues, and on Sunday afternoons I dug hanging around the now-legendary, semi-underground folk music jam session in Washington Square Park in New York's Greenwich Village.

It was a great scene, a...