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Oumou Sangaré
Song of the Day: From her forthcoming album Timbuktu, a fabulously stirring and upbeat number by the Malian superstar singer and rights campaigner celebrating independent women in her hometown area of Wassulu, released last week to coincide with International Women's Day
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Fantastic Negrito
Song of the Day: Fabulous mix of funk, blues and African influences in this ironic song by the flamboyant musician from Oakland, California about greed, excess, commodities and racial prejudice inspired in style by Taj Mahal’s idea of the “gods of Africa meeting the ghosts of Mississippi”
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Gabriels’ new single Bloodline, with a painting of singer Jacob Lusk
Songs of the Day: Two sublime, powerful, moving, and beautiful numbers by the Los Angeles gospel, soul and jazz trio fronted by singer Jacob Lusk who has the emotive, melancholy qualities of Nina Simone and Bessie Smith, and here, with string and wind arrangements, captures a rich black history in every tone
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Sam Evian’s forthcoming album Time To Melt
Song of the Day: The crisp, laid back, stylish, gentle funk of this single by the Brooklyn artist comes in a clever contrast to the seriousness of subject – a divided America facing a Capitol skirmish scandal and difficult schisms to deal with and heal
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Moor Mother and Billy Woods: The Blues Remembers Everything The Country Forgot
Song of the Day: Dark, soulful vocals, field recordings, great hip-hop and trip-hop, jazz and a brilliant title, this powerful and profound racial history number by the American poet, musician, and activist from Philadelphia, comes from the 2020 album BRASS, with additional instrumentation by Sons of Kemet
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Valerie June’s forthcoming album
Songs of the Day: An uplifting triple Sunday special from the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Memphis, Tennessee who mixes soul, gospel, country and blues in this three-track standalone digital release
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Khruangbin – unforgettable
Song of the Day: A delicious sounding, smoothly delivered new track fusing funk, soul dub, African, and psychedelia by the American musical trio from Houston, Texas, comprising Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Ray "DJ" Johnson Jr on drums
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Dick Dale in the full 60s surf mode with the Del-Tones
Song of the Day: A tribute to the king of the surf guitar after his recent passing aged 81, hugely influential on Jimi Hendrix and other rock guitarists, the left-hander’s rock guitar style was shaped by his Lebanese background
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Davey Graham, originally spelled Davy
Song of the Day: After the ‘fuss and fight’ of the Paragons and later Massive Attack on Man Next Door, and reverse of perspective from the neighbour making the noise, in a powerful version by the great and underrated English folk guitarist and singer
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Alabama 3
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
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New Year’s Eve fireworks with Tom Waits
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
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A scene from the New York section of Night On Earth (1991)
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
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Otis Redding, 1941-1967
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
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Lead Belly
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
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The Animals may have done the best-known cover version, but there are arguably others than better it
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
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Son House - in many ways the true daddy of the 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
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Bo Carter (1893-1964)
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)
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Blind Boy Fuller
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
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Taking 'dirty' blues to a whole new level: Lucille Bogan 1897-1948
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
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Clara Smith
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
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