More than 40 years ago I was a teenager in Lewiston, Maine, playing my Gibson ES 330T next to the record player and trying to figure out how guitarists such as Robert Jr. Lockwood, Jimmy Rogers and Louis Myers were making the songs of Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson sound so great. (Those chords, fills and bass runs delight me still today.) I would soon hear my blues heroes in person and perform alongside them on stage. Otis Rush once turned to me (in my 20s) and remarked that I played chords like "an old man.” A highlight was touring with the Legendary Blues Band, Muddy’s former band which starred Pinetop Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Jerry Portnoy. Their unhurried improvisational brand of blues was everything I believed in. I’d always relished the role of sideman. But in recent years I discovered I had more to say. I started capturing snippets of melodies and phrases in my mind and convert...