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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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Bessie Smith, carrying more than weight on her famous shoulders
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
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Blind Willie McTell (1898-1959)
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
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Mississippi John Hurt (1992-1966)
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
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Skip James (1902 - 1969)
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
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Reverend Gary Davis (1896-1972)
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
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Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945)
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
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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
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Marion Williams 1927-1994
Song of the Day: There are great voices, and then there's Marion Williams. Continuing our series of gospel greats, for sheer raw passion and power, few can match the soaring sensation from Miami
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The Blind Boys of Alabama in later years, including founders Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter
Song of the Day: From mountains with Mahalia Jackson and the rain from Rosetta Tharpe and Ray Charles, we turn to similar heights with the great gospel singing group that has been going since 1939 and a songwriter also from Alabama
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Ray Chalres
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
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe, singing and guitar-playing superstar, in action at Chorlton station in 1964
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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Mahalia Jackson
Song of the Day: Following a tribute to Aretha Franklin's passing, who could possibly follow that? Very few, but perhaps one of her inspirations, the great gospel singer, with three songs that show her extraordinary power and range
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Aretha Franklin 1942-2018)
Song of the Day: A tribute to the one of the greatest of all. With the passing of Memphis-born Aretha Louise Franklin (25 March 25, 1942 – 16 August 2018), we say farewell to far more than soul singing at its best
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Chilean band Newen Afrobeat
Song of the Day: After yesterday's international collaboration, another African and Latin jazz groove but this time all played in the same location, putting some heavier brass meat on the bones and a Fela Kuti classic
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Some of the many musicians collaborating on the Playing For Change project
Song of the Day: Yesterday's pick was Cuban played by Africans, today's is an even richer blend with artists from Morocco, Hungary, Mexico, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Senegal, Egypt, India, USA, France and Serbia
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