Mick Hucknall, the voice of Simply Red, is best known as a soul man, but TRIBUTE TO BOBBY, an homage to the great blues singer Bobby “Blue” Bland, shows that his soul is steeped in the blues as well. Hucknall pays tribute by tackling the cream of Bland's repertoire, but instead of trying to recreate Bland's sound or arrangements, he uses them as a jumping-off point, funking up some tracks and adding percolating dance beats to others. “Farther Up The Road” is reborn with a jumping groove that wouldn't sound out of place on a Spinners record, for example, while “Stormy Monday Blues” gets a James Brown-goes-acid-jazz treatment. Even when the settings don't venture too far afield, though, Hucknall still brings something individual to the table.
This five-disc, 116-track box set presents a sweeping history of the blues from its emergence in the early 1900s clear through to its various contemporary guises, and includes samples of country blues in all of its regional variations, as well as cuts from string bands, jug bands, jazz combos, gritty Chicago blues outfits, and a look at how rock artists like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix incorporated the blues into their distinctive styles. Intelligently gathered and arranged, it treats the blues both from a historical perspective and from a working assumption that the form is still alive and well, continually morphing and transforming itself. There simply isn't a better or deeper survey of the blues on the market.
Soul/blues singer whose style is characterized by a gritty, impassioned vocal style and precise, textured guitar playing.He may not be a household name, but die-hard blues fans know Little Milton as a superb all-around electric bluesman – a soulful singer, an evocative guitarist, an accomplished songwriter, and a skillful bandleader. He's often compared to the legendary B.B. King – as well as Bobby "Blue" Bland – for the way his signature style combines soul, blues, and R&B, a mixture that helped make him one of the biggest-selling bluesmen of the '60s (even if he's not as well-remembered as King). As time progressed, his music grew more and more orchestrated, with strings and horns galore. He maintained a steadily active recording career all the way from his 1953 debut on Sam Phillips' legendary Sun label, with his stunning longevity including notable stints at Chess (where he found his greatest commercial success), Stax, and Malaco.