A Blues & Soul Playlist That’s Cooking

Yesterday, my streaming music service suggested the enclosed great playlist of blues-oriented tunes. To be clear, this isn’t some hidden advertising. While I’ve acknowledged Apple Music on previous occasions as an inspiration for some of my posts, not all of their listening suggestions, which are supposed to reflect your previous music choices, are great; in fact, sometimes I find it outright bizarre what they serve up because I like genre X or have listened to artist Y. While overall their music selection algorithm works pretty well, there’s clearly some room left for improvement. I guess this proves algorithms, which also have started to be utilized in other creative fields like journalism, can never fully replace actual human beings, which is a good thing!

Here’s how Apple Music describes the playlist that features 26 songs: Blues is tradition, but it’s also evolution—the sound of hard times and healing, then and now. Filled with gritty, Howlin’ Wolf-style throwbacks, progressive hybrids, and sophisticated soul, this mix represents the best of the blues right now—with a few old favorites thrown in for balance. We regularly update these tunes, so if you hear something that rips you up or breaks you down (in that good way, of course), add it to your library.

Following I’d like to highlight a few of these tunes. I’m deliberately leaving out tracks I already featured in previous posts, such as Leave The Light On (Beth Hart), Too Cold To Cry (Lindsay Beaver) or Cognac (Buddy Guy with Jeff Beck and Keith Richards). But in case you haven’t listened to these songs and like blues and soul, you definitely should. On to some music clips!

Got To Go Where The Love Is, Van Morrison

Van Morrison may no longer release another Astral Weeks or Moondance, but at age 73, the Belfast Cowboy surely isn’t done yet with music. In fact, if anything, for the past two years, he seems to be on some sort of recording spree! Here’s Got To Go Where The Love Is, a great soulful Morrison tune from his most recent album The Prophet Speaks, his 40th studio release, which appeared last December.

We Made It, Cedric Burnside

Frankly, I had never heard of Cedric Burnside before. Wikipedia describes him as an American electric blues drummer, guitarist, singer and songwriter. He definitely has blues in his genes. Burnside is the son of blues drummer Calvin Jackson and grandson of blues singer, songwriter and guitarist R. L. Burnside. Since his 2006, he has released eight albums. We Made It is from his most recent record Benton County Relic that came out in September 2018. I really dig the rough sound and the energy of this tune.

Whipping Post, Nakia

Nakia, another name I hadn’t heard before, is a musician, singer-songwriter and actor from Austin, Texas. From his website: Before he was on “The Voice” [semi-finalist on the first season of the NBC singing competition], Nakia was a Blues Grifter. Named for the age-old concept of stealing from the greats, the Blues Grifters formed in 2010. In August 2018, Nakia released his latest album appropriately called Blues Grifter, a smoking hot compilation of blues covers. Instead of Double Trouble, which the Apple Music playlist features, I decided to highlight Nakia’s soulful take of Whipping Post. While taking an Allman Brothers Band classic and changing it up is a gutsy move, I like the outcome!

Home, Janiva Magness (featuring Cedric Burnside)

Janiva Magness is a blues, soul and Americana singer-songwriter from Detroit. Apparently, she has been an active artist since the 1980s. Between 1991 and February 2018, she has released 14 albums. In 2009, Magness became only the second woman after Koko Taylor named B.B. King Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Foundation. She has also received seven Blues Music Awards from the foundation and other accolades. Here’s Home, a powerful duo with the above noted Cedric Burnside. It appears on Magness’ most recent album Love Is An Army from February 2018.

Cry No More, Danielle Nicole

Another great soul-oriented tune is Cry No More by Danielle Nicole, a blues and soul musician from Kansas City, Mo. I previously included her in a post about ladies who excel at singing the blues. Written by Nicole, Cry No More is the title track from her last album, which was released in February 2018.

Here’s the entire playlist:

Leave the Light On (Live), Beth Hart

Got To Go Where The Love Is, Van Morrison

Too Cold To Cry, Lindsay Beaver

We Made It., Cedric Burnside

Double Trouble, Nakia

Another Mule, Elvin Bishop

Cognac (feat. Jeff Beck & Keith Richards), Buddy Guy

Revolution, Eric Lindell

Rock and Stick, Boz Scaggs

Ain’t Got Time For Hate, Shemekia Copeland

Shine Bright, Marcia Ball

Plastic Hamburgers, Fantastic Negrito

Soul Shake, Tommy Castro

Things Have Changed, Bettye LaVette

Home (feat. Cedric Burnside), Janiva Magness

Damn Your Eyes, Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa

Blue No More (feat. James Bay), Buddy Guy

Upper Hermosa Mountain Blues, Casey Wickstrom

Sound of a Broken Man, Tinsley Ellis

When I Go, Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite

Come Together, Gary Clark Jr. & Junkie XL

I Want My Dog To Live Longer (The Greatest Wish), Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager

Cry No More, Danielle Nicole

The High Cost of Low Living, Nick Moss

Cannonball (feat. Fantastic Negrito) [Acoustic], ZZ Ward

We’re All In This Together (feat. Joe Bonamassa), Walter Trout

If you have access to Apple Music, you can find the playlist at https://itunes.apple.com/us/playlist/the-a-list-blues/pl.a9faca07cf8f47e19f1819b0f5a2e765

Sources: Apple Music, Wikipedia, Nakia website, YouTube

Ladies Singing The Blues And Killing It

If somebody asked you who comes to mind when thinking of the blues, you might mention artists like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton – all terrific choices! What else do they have in common? They are all men! Sure, if you dig the genre, you’ve probably also listened to Etta James, Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt, and perhaps even to early trailblazers like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Mama Thornton. But I bet you likely wouldn’t have included them in your answer to the above question. At least I can safely say that for myself!

Just like in so many other professions, music is yet another field where women oftentimes don’t get the credit they deserve. And it seems to me this is even more so the case for the blues compared to some other genres like jazz where you’d probably name Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, or soul where you’d likely include Aretha Franklin or Tina Turner when asked the above question.

The idea behind this playlist is fairly simple: Celebrate five female artists who shine at singing the blues. And to make this more interesting, I’m excluding some of the obvious choices like Etta James or Janis Joplin. All of the songs appear on the artists’ most recent albums from this year.

I’d like to give credit where credit is due. All of the artists highlighted in this post were included in an Apple Music blues playlist that was served up to me as a listening suggestion. When some of their names rang a bill, I decided to check the site of blues aficionado and fellow music blogger Music Enthusiast – BTW, a blog I can recommend to any music fan and guitarist! And, yep, he previously included four of the five artists on his blog. So kudos to Apple Music and Music Enthusiast!

I still think this doesn’t change the premise of this post, which is that female blues artists oftentimes don’t get the recognition they deserve. And while I’m under no illusion that this post isn’t coming anywhere close to making up for this unfortunate state of affairs, I guess it’s one post at a time. So with that, let’s finally get to it, shall we?

Kicking off the list is Lindsay Beaver with Too Cold To Cry. She doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry. Maybe somebody should change that. Luckily, she has a website, and according to the bio there, Beaver is a drummer, songwriter and bandleader from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. To date, she has self-released five albums with her band The 24th Street Wailers, of which she produced three. BTW, how many female record producers can you name? Just saying. This could be a good topic for another post. Written by Beaver, Too Cold To Cry appears on her new album Tough As Love, which was only released two weeks ago. As this clip suggests, Beaver seems to be one hell of a firecracker!

Next up: Shemekia Copeland and Ain’t Got Time For Hate. This blues vocalist, who was born in Harlem, New York is the daughter of Texas blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland. The tune is from an album called America’s Child, which came out in August. In addition to Copeland’s powerful voice, I dig the timely lyrics: Black and white/Gran or ten/Every woman/Child and man/Rich or poor/Gay or straight/We ain’t got time for hate… Well said!

Another gem is Shine Bright by Marcia Ball. This blues singer and kickass pianist from Vinton, La. has been around for a very long time. How long? How about 1970! Since 1972 she’s released 18 records. Shine Bright is the title track of her most recent album, which appeared in April. Check out this clip, which is actually a stripped back live take of the studio version. I can highly recommend the latter as well. I know this may sound a bit silly, but if you’d meet this lady in the street, unless you knew her, would you ever guess what a smoking hot artist she is – damn!

Danielle Nicole is a blues and soul musician from Kansas City, Mo. Prior to releasing her solo debut Wolf Den in 2015, Nicole co-founded Kansas City soul and blues rock band Trampled Under Foot in 2000 (a nod to Led Zeppelin?) and was their lead vocalist. The band recorded five albums before it dissolved in 2015. Here’s Crawl, a nice blues rocker from Nicole’s third solo record Cry No More from February.

The last outstanding artist I’d like to highlight in this post is Bettye LaVette. This singer-songwriter from Muskegon, Mich. also has been around for a long time. In fact, she recorded her first single My Man – He’s A Lovin’ Man as a 16-year-old in 1962. Things Have Changed is the title track of LaVette’s last studio album from January – a collection of tunes written and originally sung by Bob Dylan. In this case, Dylan first released the song as a single in May 2000. It was part of a soundtrack from a motion picture called Wonder Boys.

Admittedly, I still don’t know much about the above artists. But based on the songs in this post and a few other tunes I’ve sampled from the corresponding albums, it’s obvious to me how top-notch each of them is. You can bet I’m going to further explore them.

Sources: Wikipedia, Lindsay Beaver website, YouTube