Picture a smoky late-1960s London club where the wall of rhythm and blues coming off the stage is produced by a single person: a bass drum pedal under his foot, a harmonica in a rack around his neck, and a vintage gold-top guitar in his hands. This episode traces the life of Anthony ‘Duster’ Bennett, born September 23, 1946, in Welshpool, Powys, who came up through the art school scenes of Kingston upon Thames and Guildford, worked as a session harmonica player in the early 1960s, and then, inspired by Jimmy Reed and Joe Hill Louis, adopted the punishing one-man-band format that made him a mesmerizing live act.

The episode examines the 1968 debut album Smiling Like I’m Happy on the Blue Horizon label, with backing from the original Fleetwood Mac lineup on three tracks, the 1952 Gibson Les Paul gold top given to him by Peter Green, and recurring airplay on John Peel’s Top Gear between 1968 and 1970. It follows the albums Bright Lights, recorded at the Gin Mill Club, and Justa Duster in 1969, the enduring standard Jumping at Shadows covered by Fleetwood Mac and later by Gary Moore on 1992’s After Hours, his 1970 U.S. tour as both opening act and band member with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, unsuccessful pop sessions with producer Mickie Most, and the 1975 albums Fingertips and Levi’s Blues that pushed toward soul and funk. It closes with his death on March 26, 1976, at 29, after falling asleep at the wheel driving home from a gig with Memphis Slim in Stoke-on-Trent.

• The mental separation required to run drums, guitar, and harmonica as three simultaneous systems with no safety net
• Why a Blue Horizon contract and a guitar from Peter Green served as the ultimate stamps of blues authenticity
• How a fiercely independent soloist learned to surrender control inside John Mayall’s strictly run Bluesbreakers
• The unglamorous reality of a working musician hauling his own gear in a Ford Transit van
• Retrospectives from Indigo Records in the 1990s and The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions in 2006