Juke in the Back

About this program

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 back to radio.

About the DJ

Matt The Cat has spent the last 33 years in radio, beginning at the tender age of 13, hosting an Oldies radio show on the little 710 watt community radio station WBMT in Boxford, MA. He attended Emerson College in Boston, where he hosted a weekly classic soul music show on WERS called “The Soul Bucket.” It was there he interviewed the legendary Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band. Others included Barrence Whitfiled, Bernie Worell, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Luther Guitar Jr. Johnson, and Otis Clay.

Matt The Cat arrived at XM Satellite just before the historic launch of the nation’s first satellite radio company in June of 2001. Matt’s “Night Prowl Show” was the only live, national call-in request show of its kind to focus on the hits, as well as, the deep tracks that so many early rock n’ roll fans longed for. In 2002, Matt The Cat began hosting a weekly R&B show called “Harlem.” He featured the “soul that came before rock n’ roll” and focused on post WWII rhythm & Blues: the music that shaped rock n’ roll. Music historian and singer/songwriter Billy Vera often appeared on the show to offer insight on such topics as West Coast doo wop and R&B. Other topics often included were vocal groups with bird names and the history of iconic record labels. Matt added Music Director of the 50s channel to his duties in 2004 and he continued to host “Harlem” and “The Night Prowl Show” until October of 2008.

Matt The Cat currently hosts a weekly syndicated rhythm and blues show called the “Juke In The Back,” which airs on both public and commercial radio stations nationally. “Juke In The Back” has been serving up 1940s and ’50s R&B since 2010.