Song of the Day: After Miss Otis Regrets, another songs about a women who decided to stop taking abuse from a man, this time by the band from Brixton whose song eventually became synonymous with the Sopranos
Read moreTom Waits – New Year's Eve
Song of the Day: An annual theme from a perennial Song Bar favourite - Tom Waits’ and Kathleen Brennan’s gentle song captures some of the chaos, fireworks, fights, arguments and emotional turmoil as the year unstoppably turns
Read moreTom Waits – On The Other Side Of The World (from Night On Earth)
Song of the Day: From Bernard Herrmann’s music from Taxi Driver, let’s catch a ride with another cab film, Jim Jarmusch’s 1991 five-vignettes plot, connected by a soundtrack by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
Read moreOtis Redding – I've Got Dreams To Remember
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s classic blues number best known for Lead Belly, another simmering jealousy classic from one of the great soul stars whose life was tragically cut short in a 1967 plane crash aged only 26
Read moreLead Belly to Nirvana and more – Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
Song of the Day: Also known as In The Pines, and Black Girl, today we move onto another traditional song variously interpreted, dark and brooding, haunting in its melody, and simmering with suspicion and jealousy
Read moreSon House … to House of the Rising Sun – various
To some it’s a masterpiece, to others a dirge, but from 17th century England to 20th century New Orleans, with artists that include Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone, The Animals and alt-J it’s a song that keeps evolving
Read moreSon House – Death Letter Blues
Song of the Day: On the same day as we publish playlists of songs about authenticity, continuing in our blues thread, none can match that musical description more fully than the original or all origins who influenced all after him
Read moreBo Carter – Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me / Banana In Your Fruitbasket
Song of the Day: The dirty blues historical exploration continues, with an emphasis on food innuendo, with the Mississippi singer also born Armenter Chatmon (1893-1964)
Read moreBlind Boy Fuller – Rag, Mama, Rag / What's That Smells Like Fish?
Song of the Day: After Lucille Bogan screaming with laughter at the dirtiest of lyrics, let's move on to only slightly more subtle material from the voice of the Piedmont blues singer from Wadsboro, North Carolina, who who also had a clever line in ragtime
Read moreLucille Bogan aka Bessie Jackson – Shave 'Em Dry / B.D. Woman's Blues
Song of the Day: After Clara Smith, more so-called dirty blues from the 1920s, with a fabulously filthy number and also a then-taboo lesbian song from the singer born as Lucille Anderson, but had two performing names
Read moreClara Smith – It's Tight Like That
Song of the Day: After yesterday's sprinkling of tragic and dirty songs by Bessie Smith, let's get a little filthier courtesy of the so-called Queen of the Moaners from South Carolina who actually had a chirpy, perky, high voice
Read moreBessie Smith – Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out / Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl / Blue Spirit Blues
Song of the Day: After a series of early bluesmen, it's time to sprinkle some attention on the first true star of of the blues crossing into jazz, who not only mixed a little dirt into her powerful voice, but also into her lyrics
Read moreBlind Willie McTell - Travelin' Blues / Statesboro Blues
Song of the Day: Today's deep-south exploration goes to the Piedmont blues style of the man born in Thomson, Georgia, whose ragtime-like picking style and voice is so clearly a huge influence on Bob Dylan, Jack White and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Read moreMississippi John Hurt – You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley
Song of the Day: Pictured with Skip James on yesterday's Skip James post, his friend and contemporary Hurt was a blues country singer-songwriter known for his distinctively intricate fingerpicking style
Read moreSkip James – Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues
Song of the Day: Following Rev. Gary Davis, let's turn to the Delta bluesman from Bentonia, Mississippi, who was not only influential in his playing, but had a distinctive, almost ghostly voice that captures the fearful fragility of this Depression-era song
Read moreReverend Gary Davis – Hesitation Blues
Song of the Day: Moving from Blind Willie Johnson and his bottleneck guitar style, the finger-picking pioneer from Laurens, South Carolina who does a classic and clever talking version of this traditional number
Read moreBlind Willie Johnson – The Soul Of A Man / Motherless Children Have A Hard Time
Song of the Day: Following Solomon Burke and The Blind Boys of Alabama, let's take it way back to the great blues and gospel singer and bottleneck guitarist who was raised in Marlin, Texas
Read moreSolomon Burke – None Of Us Are Free
Song of the Day: Following a series of gospel sings, let's move into a mixture of blues, soul and an even wider theme with song that brought this star back into the public eye in 2002, backed by The Blind Boys of Alabama
Read moreRay Charles – Rainy Night In Georgia
Song of the Day: After Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing in rainy Manchester in 1964, another great's rendition of a another wet weather number written by Tony Joe White in 1967 from his 1972 album Through The Eyes Of Love
Read moreSister Rosetta Tharpe – Didn't It Rain / This Train
Song of the Day: After the great Mahalia Jackson, another superstar who could not only sing, but whose guitar playing was a major influence on Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, and therefore everybody since them
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