Curtis Salgado’s achievements as a rhythm and blues vocalist, harmonica player, and songwriter have won accolades from across the music world and helped inspire a cult classic. His powerhouse live shows and championing of the blues long ago made him an essential figure in Oregon’s unsung but vibrant music scene.

In this memoir, Salgado shares stories of his career against the backdrop of encounters with music legends, the Oregon scene’s cultural heyday, and his journey to overcome addiction and life-threatening health challenges. His poignant and at times humorous stories of touring and playing with artists like Robert Cray, Muddy Waters, Cab Calloway, and Stevie Ray Vaughan fuse with an invitation to embrace the blues and soul music that shaped his life and help define America.

Walk a Mile in My Blues shares the hidden and heartfelt story of a musical legend, living and loving the blues.

Curtis Salgado is a musician based in Portland, Oregon. His thirteen Blues Music Awards include B. B. King Entertainer of the Year and Song of the Year for “Walk a Mile in My Blues.” Rebecca Pillsbury is an award-winning writer and editor specialized in memoirs and transformational books. She has co-written and/or ghostwritten over twenty-five books.

“There would be no Blues Brothers without the influence of regional urban artists whom we heard and emulated—Downchild Blues Band in Toronto, Lamont Cranston in Minneapolis, and most impactfully Curtis Salgado in Oregon. No one knows, plays, or loves the blues better than Curtis, a true master. His book is a vibrant, funny, and massively informative personal journey through his own cultural preservation mission for this world’s beloved music and its practitioners.”
—Dan Aykroyd, aka Elwood Blues

“Curtis is as entertaining and soulful a writer as he is a great musician. I loved following his accounts of his early life building his career in the Eugene music scene and getting to hang and play with some of the greatest blues and R&B legends. I’m still moved by his deep vulnerability, sharing his personal journey through sobriety, and his serious health challenges. He’s a true survivor, my dear friend, and he brings such a wise, colorful, and unique perspective to his fascinating story. Highly recommend!”
—Bonnie Raitt

“‘Hidden in plain sight’ and way long overdue, has been the golden voice and superb musicianship of Curtis Salgado! With this book, you are in for the exhilarating highs and lows of what it takes to protect, shepherd, and perform one’s creative gift of music through the landmines to reach that ever hip global audience, hungry for another new and delicious sounding soulful voice, spirit, and style! My man delivers and does not disappoint. That’s my story and you KNOW I’m stickin’ to it!”
—Taj Mahal

“Curtis Salgado’s musical, personal, and medical odyssey is remarkable and improbable. How a child of a tight-knit, working-class Pacific Northwest family became internationally beloved as a blues and soul vocalist and harmonica player would be a tale worth telling on its own. Add in his musical collaborations with the Robert Cray Band, Roomful of Blues, Steve Miller, and Santana, and his key role in the genesis of The Blues Brothers, and we’re in rarified air.”
—Dick Shurman, blues producer and historian