Search - Bobby Blue Bland :: Blues & Ballads

This compendium of tracks cut over nearly a quarter-century begins with "I've Been Wrong So Long," one of the most dramatic performances of the '60s. This is a hard act to follow, but Bland's output during most of the period covered here--his years with Duke, Dunhill, and MCA Records, ending in the early '80s--is one of the most consistent catalogs in R&B. So Blues and Ballads can focus as much on covers of other singers' hits as on Bland's signature pieces and succeed mightily. The man they call "the Sinatra of the blues" is indeed one of the only artists who could approach the sensitivity of Ray Charles's reading of "Georgia on My Mind"--and he does. --Rickey Wright