BarkyBobby โBlueโ Bland (๐ง๐๐ผ ๐ฆ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐น๐๐ฒ๐, #217) is a singular talent in a singular genre: the #blues crooner. #music #BobbyBlueBland (cont)
Sure, there were crooners who sang blues from time to time, but most of the big names youโd think of as โblues crooners" (Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, Teddy Pendergrass) are really R&B crooners who covered blues tunes. Those are the guys with buttery voices and the velvet tones, capable of singing in most genres, but truly belonging in R&B or soul. (cont)
Blues, however, is a genre that requires a bit of gravel, a few grains of dust in the trachea, signifying a life spent hitchhiking from juke joint to juke joint, thick with smoke and sweepings. It requires a voice with some travail, and Bobby Bland delivers. Heโs got a great voice and a romantic timbre, but it also feels lived in, a voice full of experience and time. (cont)
Iโve had Bobby Blandโs music on my iPod for years, both this album and his Anthology box set. I love it all, but itโs also not fair to give Bobby Bland all the credit. Shoutout needs to go to the writers of all those songs (Bobby himself was illiterate and couldnโt read or write music). He recorded songs by Charlie Rich and Johnny Cash, as well as a slew of unsung, workhorse blues songwriters over many decades. (cont)
One of those writers was a man named Don Robey, also known as Deadric Malone, the founder of Peacock Records, who also signed Clarence โGatemouthโ Brown, another favorite of mine. According to the album credits, Robey wrote, or co-wrote, 8 out of the 12 songs on this fantastic album, including blues standards โI Pity the Foolโ and the title track. Looking over ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐บ, Robey/Malone wrote a LOT of songs for Bobby! Or did he? (cont)
Well, according to lore, he stole more songs than he wrote, due to skeevy business practices and a habit of taking his gun to meetings. The true writers of many of these songs remain unknown, and thatโs a shame. I suspect itโs not rare for the times, though. I hope they found there fame at other record labels. (cont)
