Gerry Mulligan - Jeru

Despite or because of its formal starkness, the blues is infinitely variable. It provides a universal framework within which instrumentalists and singers with little else in common can carry on an extended musical conversation. Without artful improvisation and microtonal note bending, the latter cannot be executed on the piano, one of the least blues friendly instruments, blues sometimes seems monotonous.

Blues may be America’s greatest cultural gift to the world, if not, it’s certainly on the short list. It was the key contributor to the origins of jazz, rock and roll, funk, soul, R&B, and hip hop, and it deeply influenced country and western and bluegrass music as well. Without blues, it’s fair to say, there might be little recognizably American music. Blues embodies human resilience in the face of adversity and suffering. It’s therefore the perfect musical tonic for a nation founded on slavery and genocide... and a country of extreme economic inequality whose fossil fueled luck is starting to run out.

Indeed, Americans will have plenty of reasons to sing the blues as this century wears on, as their nation’s oil and gas production inevitably declines, as climate change worsens droughts, wildfires, and megastorms, as decades of unsustainable economic growth turn to decades of contraction, as mountains of government, corporate, and consumer debt come due, and as festering resentments, urban/rural, racial, and regional, further erode an already fraying set of norms that enable political and legal systems to function... I can think of no music more fitting as a soundtrack for that enterprise than the blues.
Source: Blues for America by Richard Heinberg

Gerry Mulligan - Jeru

• First recording by: Miles Davis and His Orchestra
• Written by: Gerry Mulligan
• Released in: 1953

"In 1951, Mulligan formed the first pianoless quartet, an innovation which would influence musicians for decades to come. The quartet featured Chet Baker on trumpet, Carson Smith on bass, and Chico Hamilton on drums, and became a focal point of the West Coast Jazz movement."

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Richie Havens - Three Little Birds

Jazz is a genre of music like no other. It is a combination of cultures, elements, and vibrations that embrace the soul. It is a range of sounds and emotions in styles that can be characterized as ebullient, cool, enthusiastic, doleful, or any of a thousand other sensations, pulsations, and long bluesy notes.

Like jazz artists improvising to differentiate and discern, books about jazz for young readers stand out and away from other genres. Perhaps because of the broad yet exceptional and exclusive canvas of sounds and emotions in jazz, certain illustrators and authors for young people have capitalized on the unique relationship between text and image.

Picture books often weld images and sounds, words, yet jazz often creates dissonance. While words and art each contribute a portion to the ideas readers use to interpret or make sense of picture books, the words and art may not always reflect reciprocity... there is a dissonance between text and illustration. In a picture book, words and pictures never tell exactly the same story. It is this dissonance that catches the reader’s attention. Readers work to resolve the conflict between what they see and what they read or hear.

The literary and visual elements of jazz picture books depict extraordinary movement, boldness, and fluidity that mirror lines like the music itself... A practice of creating music, either by harmonic, melodic, or rhythmic means at the moment it is being performed. Improvisation is a signature attribute of jazz and is at the heart of many of its compositions... The movement of musical tones with respect to time, that is, how fast they move, tempo, and the patterns of long and short notes as well as of accents... An important stylistic element in jazz music, syncopation occurs when rhythmic accents are placed on weak beats or weak parts of the beat.
Source: These Books Are Not Quiet: Bebop, Blues, Swing, and Soul: Jazz in Children’s Books by Darwin L. Henderson, Brenda Dales, and Teresa Young

Richie Havens - Three Little Birds

• Released on: October 29, 2013
• Released on: ...His Last Songs album
• Genre: Folk

"Richie Havens was the opening act at Woodstock, sang jingles for television commercials, and was also the voice of the GeoSafari toys. His opening 1969 appearance at Woodstock catapulted him into stardom and was a major turning point in his career."

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Joy Division - Transmission

Music is an integral part of human life. Music is not simply a distraction or a pastime, but central to our identity and evolution as a species... music influences cognition by calling attention to powerful ways music is harnessed in advertising, films, ceremonies, and everyday human interactions. Humans create music and art in order to represent ideas that are important in life. Music plays an important and ongoing role in shaping people’s cognitive, social, and cultural understandings, which in turn, influences how people navigate their lives.

The inclusion of people with a wide variety of skills and interests during performances is important for encouraging participation. The differentiated musical tastes and abilities of the participants cultivates a unique dynamic, and some constraints, during performances. By the same token, musical interaction among novices and more skilled players provides scaffolding and ongoing musical challenges. In a participatory framework, having an ever expanding set of challenges is critical so as to avert boredom... the term andragogy to denote self directed learning, which takes place during dialogic, participatory forms of music making. When musical experiences are appropriately challenging and pleasurable, people return to the jam. As people learn new songs and engage with different people, they develop new skills... The practices that emerge when human beings are in relation with each other, supporting each other’s development as human beings on a journey toward self actualization, are by their very nature situated and local, and often very personal ways of making music.
Source: Jammin’ the Blues: Experiencing the Good Life by Ruth A. Debrot

Joy Division - Transmission

• Written by: Ian Kevin Curtis, Bernard Sumner
• Released on: November 1979
• Genre: New Wave, Post Punk

"Joy Division are regarded as a keynote group from their time and place. They have been the subject of several books and have been depicted in three major feature films. Joy Division members include Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner."

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The Coral - Beyond The Sun

Despite the retention of traditional instruments, the years immediately preceding World War II brought a definite change in the sound of the south Louisiana blues as it did throughout the states. The south Louisiana blues musicians started imitating the amplified sound of the bestselling artists of the day that they were hearing on the radio and recordings... With wailing harmonica and electric guitars booming over the wallowing sound of muffled swamp beat, the local musicians started to make their mark in the juke joints and bars. The 1950s saw the beginning of the development of south Louisiana urban blues, and by the end of the decade, the bluesmen begun to establish their warm recognizable style from the borrowed sounds. The style became known as Swamp Blues, and Baton Rouge became its home.

Exactly when the term originated is unclear, but there exist several origin narratives... it refers to the Devil's Swamp, just on the edge of Scotlandville, where most of the bluesmen had lived for the past fifty years... they would hold jam sessions on the porches of their homes, overlooking Devil's Swamp. So the name swamp blues seemed appropriate and the bluesmen started referring to their highly percussive sound as the swamp sound.

Similarly, the itinerant bluesmen from Louisiana found work relatively easily in nearby Texas and there was much movement between Texas and south Louisiana as the itinerant workers and bluesmen wandered from job to job and from gig to gig. The fact that the smoother, sophisticated sound of the horns that were becoming an integral part of the new Chicago sound never became absorbed into the Swamp Blues sound. Despite the traditions of such instruments from nearby New Orleans, the absence illustrates how confident the Louisiana bluesmen already were, with their own distinctive sound, the lazy, wallowing bass, the muffled drums, and melodious vocals.
Source: Blues & Blacks in the Red Stick: Origins, Evolution, and Current Status by Joyce Jackson

The Coral - Beyond The Sun

• Recorded in: 2015
• Released on: Mar 4, 2016
• Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Alternative Rock

"The Coral's 2002 debut album, The Coral, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and listed as the fourth best album of the year by New Musical Express. Their second album, Magic and Medicine, produced four UK Top 20 singles."

See previous Song of the Day

Record Shops With Deals Under $5 (update 12/16/23)

Record Shops With Deals Under $5

Successful record store businesses serve as a resource for individuals with a deep interest in a particular musical style or styles and an enthusiastic love for music. Below is a list of record shops that offer online record deals and a selection for under $5 and packaged deals.

5DollarRecords
5DollarRecords is run by a Chicago area record collector and dealer. Records are minimum, Very Good (VG) condition record and cover. 5DollarRecords is an online record store where you can buy VG or better vinyl record albums from Rock, Pop, Oldies and more. They sold over 10,000 records online and in person to over 1,400 buyers with 450 buyers becoming returning customers, all since 2018.

Shipping in $, 5DollarRecords pay all shipping above. All records are shipped in record mailers, via USPS Media Mail, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 5DollarRecords will refund you upon successfully shipping back. They will pay shipping up to 5 records returned.

Voluptuous Vinyl
Voluptuous Vinyl is an online only vinyl record store specializing in music on vinyl, and cult film reviews and internati. A wide selection of vinyl records from all genres at discount prices. There's a lot of great artists and albums you're sure to find something you like! They offer ultrasonic cleaning, a 10 minute process with a secret solution that cleans and disinfects, record and cover.

Voluptuous Vinyl uses standard record mailers and two to three sturdy cardboard stiffeners. Orders ship every morning Monday - Friday, with exception of postal holidays. Records have a short window for cancellation and a full refund including processing fees, otherwise, refund requests must be made within 14 days and is situational.

Vintage Vinyl
They are a retail music and memorabilia store located in Bel-Air Maryland. They also offer sports items, CDs, guitars, sports memorabila and Ravens Memorabilia, records, shirts, vintage posters, rare and hard to find titles  and Anything music related. 

Vintage Vinyl offers free shipping with orders over $50 or you can visit their shop in Maryland. They ship daily.

Permanent Records Roadhouse
Permanent Records Roadhouse is an old school vinyl shop with a laid back bar featuring micro brewed beers and a patio. In addition to selling records and hosting live music and comedy,  they serve a full line of liquor, cocktails, wine and beer and various non alcoholic beverages. Permanent Records Roadhouse ships worldwide.

Permanent Records Roadhouse ships orders multiple times a week and will ships world wide. Or you can visit their brick and mortar shop in LA. 

Thursday's Golden Goodies
Thursday's Golden Goodies is the vinyl lovers candy store. Their store has more than 48,000 different vintage 45 RPM and LP records in stock, offering the big hits as well as the obscure gems. They have records ranging from music before the 1950's well into the 21st century. Thursday's Golden Goodies has the best prices, most efficient and cost effective shipping.

Most orders are shipped within the same business day. Particularly large orders may require more time to process. Thursday's Golden Goodies offers returns on purchase price within 5 days of receipt of merchandise.

Palm Beach Vinyl
Palm Beach Vinyl buy and sell quality vintage vinyl records and use a visual grade inspection for all their sales. You'll find plenty of underpriced deals and free shipping over $100. Promotions are offered often with constant updates to products and prices.

Palm Beach Vinyl ships orders every Tuesday and Thursday, $5.99 per order, and offers free shipping over $100. Damaged or incorrectly graded records can be returned for a full refund or store credit within 7 days of receiving your item.

Art of Listening Records
Art Of Listening Records is a local independent record store that appreciate the sound of vinyl, but also appreciate the artwork from the old school recording artists and record companies. A hometown virtual neighborhood record store with prices are beyond reasonable.

Art of Listening Records ships standard USPS and offers a 30 days refund policy minus shipping costs. 

Turntable Revival

Turntable revival is a niche record label based in New York City. The label has several unique and ongoing vinyl related initiatives and builds on their Direct to Vinyl Live Sessions project. A simple little passion project and an outlet for them to use the vintage audio equipment they appreciate while creating something practical for collectors to play records.

Turntable Revival offers cheap records and free shipping for orders over $30.

Kayleighbug

Kayleighbug Books is a book store that sells fine books, music, games, and vintage vinyl. They are located in Cedar Grove, West Virginia and carry thousands and thousands of books, records, and movies. Keyleighbug Book's eBay store offers a buy 2 get 1 free and constantly has sales.

Kayleighbug Books offers discounted shipping when you purchase items together.

See previous post

Freedy Johnston - Madeline's Eye

It’s worth mentioning that the blues isn’t entirely dominated by the guitar, the keyboard gets a look in too. Primarily the piano and Hammond organ... Unlike most blues guitarists, better known blues piano players almost always mixed in other styles of music at some point in their careers. Typically, an accomplished blues pianist would dabble with or even wholeheartedly embrace styles like jazz, soul, rhythm’n’blues, gospel or funk, or some combination of any of the above... Piano blues was even more directly linked to gospel and spiritual music, since these were the kinds of instruments used in churches.

In the mid and late 1980s a more commercial, harder blues emerged that arguably crossed over a little with country music... Since the 1990s the blues as a core genre hasn’t changed massively, but then it never really did. What it has done, like so many other kinds of music, is melded and morphed with other kinds of music from around the world to create some really interesting takes on the old idea of the blues. Bands like Tinariwen for example who blend music from Mali with conventional blues to make something quite unlike either. Indeed in a kind of cyclical process, the blues has returned to many African countries and found new life there.

Ultimately the blues is a kind of universal musical language, which shouldn’t be surprising given that it’s possible to trace many forms of modern popular music back to it if you look hard enough. There’s something reassuring and familiar about its pacing, structure and chord sequences. Whether it’s a hobo playing boxcar blues on a three stringed guitar, a genius at the piano or a thundering, high powered blues band firing on all cylinders, it’s a kind of music that has shown remarkable staying power and doesn’t look likely to go away any time soon.
Source: A Brief History of Music Part 5: The Blues by Hollin Jones

Freedy Johnston - Madeline's Eye

• Release on: September 9, 2022
• Released on: Back On The Road To You album
• Genre: Folk, World, & Country

"Freedy Johnston's second record for was his breakthrough album in 1992. In 1994, he worked with producer Butch Vig and earned Rolling Stone's Songwriter of the Year award."

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Moondog - Behold

The history of jazz has been one of fusion. Its musicians and composers have continually drawn upon a huge range of different musics to create the rich and diverse tapestry that is world jazz today. Jazz is an evolving tradition of music making. And how often, in the life stories of individual jazz musicians, do we see these same patterns operating at microcosm?

The richness of Turkish music and culture sometimes seems at odds with its turbulent and cruel history. In 1979... the country suffered its third military take over in thirty years... Every kind of music was in Turkey at that point. But it was not appreciated. To understand the culture of the country, with those three military takeovers, Turkey could not go anywhere. Musically, it was very difficult. But things were beginning to happen.

Traditional Turkish music is essentially monophonic, rich in melody and rhythm but with little by way of harmony. The contrast with western music, with its beautiful harmonies but rhythmic weaknesses, could not be more marked. And Turkish musical scales are microtonal, unlike Western equally tempered scales.
Source: Fahir Atakoglu: Istanbul Blues by Duncan Heining


Moondog - Behold

• Vocals by: Louis Hardin
• Released in: 1971
• Genres: Avant Folk, Baroque Music

"Moondog was a blind musician and composer who invented and made his own instruments and who lived on the streets of New York for many years. He became an honorary member of the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in the late 1940s."

See previous Song of the Day

Game Theory - Penny, Things Won't

The blues points to a critical question for every person, what do we do with our sadness, pain, and disappointment? Do we use them to see more meaning in things and people? Do we use them to be kinder? Or do we use them to feel the whole world is bad, and to retreat from or lash out at other people? This, Aesthetic Realism explains, is the central fight in the mind of every person between the desire to like and respect the world, and the desire for contempt, which Eli Siegel defined as the disposition in every person to think we will be for ourselves by making less of the outside world.

The blues as musical form is against depression, even as the lyrics may describe that depressed feeling. This is explained greatly in a paper titled Feeling Bad, Good Will, and the Blues by Ellen Reiss, who is the Chairman of Education at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation in New York City.

By looking throughout the history of music, we can see how deep is the desire in humanity to relate pain and pleasure, the somber and the celebratory. A surprising example, which I’ve studied with my high school chorus is NY, is the motet Ave Verum Corpus, by the English Renaissance composer William Byrd. The piece begins in G minor but ends in G major, and throughout we find major and minor 3rds, 6ths and 7ths. And in the last phrase, on the words miserere mei, have mercy on me, we find major and minor actually overlapping. The altos and tenors begin, in G minor.
Source: Why Do the Blues Make Us Feel So Good? by Alan Shapiro

Game Theory - Penny, Things Won't

• Written by: Fred Juhos
• Released in: 1983
• Genre: Rock

"Game Theory was a power pop band which formed in 1982 in Sacremento, California. The band's only constant member was singer and songwriter Scott Miller, vocals and guitar, who led the band through two major lineup changes before he disbanded the group in 1990."

See previous Song of the Day

Andrew Hill - Morning Flower feat. Art Lewis & Chris White

The history of blues in America is fraught. The genre in the U.S. was created out of pains many in the Black community felt from being subjugated and marginalized. Born from the spirituals sung during slavery, the blues became a cathartic style, a way to artfully express sadness and create a sense of commiseration amongst a hurting community. Soon, the genre’s best players began getting a little bit of recognition and were able to cut a few records. Those albums weren’t as respected in the United States as they were in other regions of the world because of the inherent prejudice baked into the American social fabric. When those albums made it across the Atlantic Ocean, however, British musicians, who didn’t have the same history as Americans, began to honor and cherish the sounds. They tried to emulate them, too. That’s when bands... began to be global forces. They loved... artists who, in America, were barely making enough to get to the next gig. But in the U.K. they were gods.

Later, when the British invasion kicked in full swing... the blues and its players earned more recognition and opportunity. After the British invasion, blues was heard more and more on the radio. White folks were showing up more and more in the Black clubs in the U.S. to hear where it all came from. It was a testament to the power of the music and also the largely repressive nature of the times.
Source: Buddy Guy Lives for the Blues, “If I Can Make You Smile, I Can Sleep Better”by Jacob Uitti


Andrew Hill - Morning Flower feat. Art Lewis & Chris White

• Released on: Invitation album
• Recorded on: October 17, 1974
• Written by: Andrew Hill

"Andrew Hill was a uniquely gifted composer, pianist and educator although his status remained largely inside knowledge in the jazz world for most of his career. Hill recorded for Blue Note Records for nearly a decade, producing a dozen albums."

See previous Song of the Day

David Allan Coe - Fuzzy Was An Outlaw

Blues music can trace its roots back to the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s, where it evolved from the oral tradition of African American work songs and spirituals. Its recurring chord progression, microtonal notes, and lyrical content often focusing on love and sadness set it apart as a unique genre. Early blues instruments, such as the banjo, guitar, harmonica, and piano, were used to create the distinct sound that would later evolve into a variety of subgenres, including rural blues and urban blues.

The blues band is a fundamental element of blues music, providing the basis for the sound and allowing for improvisation and artistic expression. Each instrument in the band plays a specific role in creating a unified sound, with the drummer maintaining the tempo, the guitar and bass providing accompaniment and solos, and the harmonica and vocals providing the melody.

The significance of the blues band in the genre cannot be understated, as it serves as the foundation for the music and allows each musician to contribute their own unique voice and style to the overall sound. The combination of skilled musicians and diverse instruments results in a rich and captivating blues sound that continues to captivate audiences around the world.

Blues music has had a lasting impact on numerous other genres of music, such as rock, jazz, R&B, hip hop, country, and pop music. The fusion of blues with these other genres has resulted in a diverse and innovative musical landscape that continues to evolve and captivate audiences around the world... As the genre continues to evolve and inspire new generations of artists, the influence of blues music on the broader musical landscape remains as strong and enduring as ever.
Source: About Blues Music: History, Artists, Instruments, Origins, Characteristics, Types, and Songs

David Allan Coe - Fuzzy Was An Outlaw

• Lyrics by: David Allan Coe
• Genre: Country, Pop/Rock
• Release on: October 29, 1995

"David Allan Coe's musical style derives from blues, rock, and country music traditions. His vocal style is described as a throaty baritone. His lyrical content is often humorous or comedic. He initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene."

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Della Reese - Yes Indeed

The original country or rural blues did not come to be recorded until around 1925, when the record com­panies realised they could make quite a profit by asking black farmers, who were at best semi professional musicians, to record a few songs for them in return for a little whisky and about $5 per song. The lady singers, being professional entertainers, of course requested more.

Thanks to this fortunate circum­stance, we are now rea­sonably certain that the country blues originated from the Mississippi Delta, an area in the state of Mississippi which must not be confused with the Delta of the Mississippi river in Louisiana. Blacks here once made up over 90% of the population, and were heav­ily exploited and oppressed. Typic­ally in this original form of the blues, a black sharecropper would sing about his hardships, while accompanying himself on the guitar. The rural blues also developed in the cotton growing region of East Texas, and through much of the South Eastern part of the USA.

After a period of hibernation in the 50's, the growing popularity of blues with young white audiences gave a lot of black blues singers the opportunity to play again on a larger scale, for more money than before.

Still, it is quite clear that today the blues, as an inde­pendent genre, is no longer considered as very fashion­able. Yet with its easy to learn three chord structure, it is a conven­ient springboard for musical improvisation. It has had a wide influence on modern popular music of many varieties, and on musicians who wish to return to the roots of modern popular music before jumping off in another, perhaps new, direction.
Source: Music: The Story Of The Blues by Robert Springer

Della Reese - Yes Indeed

• Written by: Sy Oliver
• Genre: Jazz, Blues, Pop
• Released in: Feb 1954

"An actress, singer, talk show host, and author, the Dells Reese first started singing in church in her hometown of Detroit. By the age of 13, she was touring with gospel great Mahalia Jackson; then, at 18, she formed the Meditation Singers and became the first performer to bring gospel music to the casinos of Las Vegas."

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They Might Be Giants - By The Time You Get This

Jazz cool concerned the recuperation of individuality in the arts against the century’s totalitarian ideologies. And the embodiment of cool was the improvising jazz musician, creating and recreating his individual voice nightly. Along with jazz cool there was also a subgenre called cool jazz, a romantic melodic sensibility that valued restraint, flow, and self expression over sonic power, rhythmic emphasis, and even virtuosity.

Jazz was the dominant subculture of the post war era, and its influential slang was cool’s first rebel code. In effect, cool was a password for an unstated code of ethics, when it crossed over in New York’s jazz clubs, every Beat Generation writer noticed. Jack Kerouac wrote a letter to Neal Cassady to explain his new theory of cool in 1950... it meant pleasant, somewhat meditative, and without tension, young people were acting cool, unemotional, withdrawn. Within a few years, the phrase play it cool, meaning, keep your emotions suppressed, appeared in hit songs.

Yet, the ethos of cool also has roots in West African cultures, where it is called itutu, or spiritual balance, among the Yoruba. Many African languages have a similar term, with cool as the literal translation of unusual calmness, to have this quality is to be known as a peacemaker, as a person able to cool out a situation, as a person who keeps his or her own counsel. In addition, cool rhythms are central to West African drumming practices. Cool rhythms are relaxed, steady, and supportive, hot rhythms, in contrast, are aggressive, heated, and propulsive... So when jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding played the White House in 2016, she simply stated, Jazz is urban cool.
Source: The Origins of Cool in Post WWII America by Joel Dinerstein

They Might Be Giants - By The Time You Get This

• Produced By: They Might Be Giants and Pat Dillett
• Release date: January 19, 2018
• Release on: I Like Fun album 

"They Might Be Giants are best known for an unconventional and experimental style of alternative music. Over their career, the group has found success on the modern rock charts. More recently they have found success in the children's music genre, and in theme music for television and film."

See previous Song of the Day

Guns N' Roses - Patience

The music of Hawaii, which is located in the Pacific Ocean, has strong Polynesian and European influences. Portuguese and Spanish sailors and vaqueros, cowboys brought instruments that are now very popular, such as the guitar and the cavaquinho. The cavaquinho became the ukulele. One of the most popular styles is Hawaiian slack key guitar. Dancing Cat Records specialized in this typically Hawaiian guitar style.

Appalachian music is greatly influenced by English and Celtic, Scottish and Irish ballads, religious songs and African American music. Musical genres in the southern Appalachians include old time, bluegrass, Gospel and country music. The most common musical instruments are the fiddle, which came from the British Isles and Ireland, the banjo, which is of African origin, and more recently the guitar, which is originally from Spain but has become widely used internationally.

Polish, German, Slovak, Czech and Hungarian immigrants who settled in eastern and central Texas during the late 19th century brought their native languages, music and dance traditions and instruments with them. Polkas, waltzes and obereks blended with older reels and quadrilles already popular with Texans. The introduction of the accordion opened up new possibilities and generated the creation of new hybrid musical forms. Polkas are played by Tex Mex conjunto acts and western swing bands. Central and Eastern European immigrants who set roots in the industrial North brought polkas and other popular dances with them.
Source: American Music by Teresa Nelson-Romero

Guns N' Roses - Patience

• Written by: Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, Axl Rose, Steven Adler
• Genre: Acoustic Rock Ballad
• Released in: 1988

"Guns N' Roses's 1987 breakthrough, Appetite for Destruction, 18-times platinum and the highest-selling debut album of all-time. Their current lineup includes Rose lead vocals, McKagan bass, Fortus rhythm guitar, Slash lead guitar, Melissa Reese synth & programming, Frank Ferrer drums, and Reed keyboard and percussion."

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Willie Nelson - Angel Eyes

The blues is a genre and a form, but it is also a feeling. You’ve probably heard the phrase I’ve got the blues or I’m feeling blue. Being blue refers to feeling sad, melancholy, downtrodden, heartbroken, down, guilt, despair, or other gloomy emotions. Although there are happy and uplifting blues songs, blues music is focused around harsh realities of life. Love is also a central subject, love and loss, being mistreated, and romance gone wrong are frequently sung about.

The presentation of the subject matter is expressive, honest, and straightforward. Since the blues is expressing pain, the performer should have and understanding of and be able to communicate that pain. The language used in that communication is simple and down to earth. Lyrics are accessible and tend to avoid embellishment, convolution, picturesque descriptions, or grandiose settings.

When blues artists share their truth, both artists and audience feel that deep meaning. Not every blues artist has had a rough upbringing, struggled with poverty, had to do grueling labor, or had their heart broken the way they describe in their music. However, what blues musicians are honest and truthful about is the feeling of having the blues. Genuine blues music isn’t learned, it’s felt.

Source: What is Blues Music? by Dr. Victor Ezquerra


Willie Nelson - Angel Eyes

• Released in: 1980
• Genre: Folk, Country
• Written by: Rodney Crowell

"Willie Nelson received the 2015 Gershwin Prize in Washington, D.C., in November and feted with a series of events. The prize honors a living music artist’s lifetime achievement in promoting song to enhance cultural understanding, entertaining and informing audiences, and inspiring new generations."

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Salim Nourallah - Permanant Holiday

With similar roots to blues, and blues as one of its roots, jazz also took from another American art form, ragtime, to create its unique syncopated sound. Its early detractors were many, from Henry Ford to Thomas Edison, but racism was often the reason for cries of it's immoral. Yet the insistent, danceable, heartfelt sounds quickly spread American culture to the far corners of the globe.

Its ever mutating style turned itself into swing music, soul and cool jazz. Jazz's knock on effect was further seen in rock and roll's development in the United States in the 1950s. Artists from Elvis Presley to Chuck Berry created their rock and roll using the musical influences of boogie woogie and blues, along with jazz. Rock's popularity quickly spread around the world.

Soul music, which grew up alongside rock and roll, also developed out of African American gospel, and rhythm and blues traditions... The end of the century saw the birth of hip hop music and culture. In the mid 1970s in the Bronx, New York DJs began isolating percussion rhythms from songs and talking over and between the songs. Rap music, with its semi autobiographical lyrics and deep rhythms were just one more evolution in the blues tradition that had started at the beginning of the century, and one further, enormous transformation in the world of music created and nurtured in the African American community.
Source: 20th Century Music by Oregon Public Broadcasting

Salim Nourallah - Permanant Holiday

• Released in: August 7, 2015
• Genre: Rock, Pop
• Released on: Skeleton Closet album

"Salim Nourallah is a singer/songwriter whose unique style is known for its layered vocals, melodies, and nontrivial arrangements. He has garnered 2006 Dallas Observer Music Awards in three categories, Best Album, Best Song, and Best Producer."

See previous Song of the Day

Christine Perfect - And That's Saying a Lot

The blues have been called chronicles of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically and endured with grace and dignity... It’s the combination of despair and hope that gives the blues such an approachable quality, as these two things often live together in the hearts of everyday people. The music acknowledges the truth of trouble in the world around us and in our own hearts. To call out such despair for what it is and then to undercut it with hope is what makes the blues so powerful.

Sadness and lament are emotions familiar to all people, and songs, when rightly written, have always been a place where these emotions can safely be expressed... Allowing the nature of the blues to have a seat at the table of church life is good for the congregation. Reflective sadness has a place in the life of a congregation.

It’s good for us to be shaken by the losses in our world that have taken place at the hands of injustice, inequality, poverty, depression, disease, and war... the blues can teach us to take up residence in those troubling spaces where there is hurt and to practice the difficult speech of hopeful lament.
Source: Lent Is a Time to Sing the Blues by Derek Sweatman


Christine Perfect - And That's Saying a Lot

• Written by: Walter Godfrey, Chuck Jackson
• Genre: Blues Rock, Rhythm & Blues
• Released in: 1970

"Keyboardist Christine Perfect, married John McVie and joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1998 received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music."

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Ron Thompson - Marie Marie

New Orleans’s blues heritage encompasses two related traditions, small band, jazz based blues and piano professors who delighted audiences with their combination of artistry and showmanship. Both traditions trace their origins to the turn of the twentieth century, when solo pianists could earn good money by playing in labor camps, informal drinking establishments, and legalized houses of prostitution in Storyville. As the century progressed, New Orleans pianists absorbed the newer boogie woogie and stride piano styles while remaining faithful to the Spanish and French influences that filtered into the city through the Caribbean. These styles flavored early R&B and rock ’n roll with relaxed tempos and strong, syncopated rhythmic patterns that came to be known as the New Orleans sound.

At the same time, traveling medicine shows, vaudeville, and neighborhood dance halls fostered a small band tradition that shaped early jazz. In fact, early blues and early jazz were so thoroughly intertwined in New Orleans that in many cases it was impossible to tease them apart... The blues originated in rural areas and small towns, of course, and musicians from less populated parts of Louisiana also contributed to the state’s blues heritage. Beginning in the late 1940s, Alexandria native Little Walter explored ways to combine blues harmonica with electric amplification, cupping a harmonica and microphone in his hands while playing.

Source: Blues Music by Roger Hahn

Ron Thompson - Marie Marie

• Released on: Treat Her Like Gold/No Bad Days album
• Released in: 1983
• Genre: Blues, Electric Blues

"Ron Thompson was an American electric blues and blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. Thompson commented, blues is like a medicine, or religion to me, it'll cleanse your soul."

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Rose Royce - If Walls Could Talk

In the 1920s, the centre of the jazz world had shifted from New Orleans to the speakeasies of Prohibition era Chicago.. A new style of solo improvisation earned trumpeter, cornet player and gravelly voiced singer Louis Armstrong worldwide acclaim... Standards of musicianship reached a pinnacle, and the decade as a whole became known as the jazz age.

The end of Prohibition in 1933 forced many musicians out of the illegal drinking clubs and into the open. Jazz adapted its style for wider appeal, tailoring itself to the dance hall in the form of big bands and swing... The smoothness of swing provoked a jazz rebellion in the form of bebop, or hot jazz, an experimental form with complex rhythms and harmonies, led by saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and guitarist Charlie Christian, the first to use electrical amplification.

Songs such as This Land is Your Land, caused a quiet revolution in folk music, expressing popular sentiments about the Great Depression and the suffering of the poor... The mixing of musical styles opened up new avenues. Under the influence of swing, country music, which itself was an adaptation of folk and blues, was transformed. Western swing emerged, with amplified guitars and strong dance rhythms, and honky tonk developed.

Source: The evolution of music: Blues, jazz and the rise of popular music by Mandi Goodier

Rose Royce - If Walls Could Talk

• Written by Arthur Baker, Richard Scher & Terry Price
• Released on: 1987
• Genre: Electronic, Disco

"With the recruitment of lead singer Gwen Dickey, aka Rose Norwalt, Rose Royce seemed to have solidified their independence as a band. They garnered their name and broke into the mainstream with their involvement in the Joel Schumacher film, Car Wash."

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The Sun days - You Can't Make Me Make up My Mind

In the beginning the blues was purely the music of the black people of the south, had several forms, and was generally played slow and sad. But by the twenties, due to the popularity of African American blues singers like Bessie Smith, the 12 bar blues became the standard form of the blues and sub genres... Since that time many hybrid forms of the blues have developed including rock blues and even punk blues.

Jazz came out of those same southern African American communities at the same time, but was the result of the combining of African and European music. From the beginning jazz has always incorporated popular music of the time, and it is characterized by the use of blue notes, improvisation, syncopation, and what was coined the swung note. The term jazz encompasses early New Orleans Dixieland jazz, the big band music of the swing era, bebop, Latin jazz, fusion, acid jazz, funk, hip hop, and of course, the blues.

In the early part of the 20th century jazz and blues quickly spread up the Mississippi and all across the country and became the popular music of the day. Cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and New York City became hotbeds of jazz and blues. As these African American creations became popular with the general population, writers began to put these previously unwritten songs down on paper... But one thing is certain, both jazz and blues are purely American art forms that originated in the United States, and many feel that jazz and blues are America’s greatest gift to world culture.
Source: Jazz and Blues - Who Knew! by Greg Tivis

The Sun days - You Can't Make Me Make up My Mind

• Release Date: July 2015
• Lyrics by: Joe Enocsson
• Genre: Rock, Pop

"The Sun Days (not to be confused with England's The Sundays) are a guitar centric quintet from Gothenburg, Sweden. Led by the facile vocals of singer/model Elsa Fredriksson Holmgren, founding bandmembers also include Erik Bjarnar, Simon Boontham, Joe Enocsson, and Johan Ramnebrink."

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Donny Hathaway - A Song for You

We don’t know what kind of music, exactly, was first called blues. Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were singing slow, sad songs about their troubles in love and life by 1910 or thereabouts, but no one seems to have called them blues singers until the late teens, and by that time blues had already come and gone as a hot dance craze, played by brass bands and ragtime orchestras, and been supplanted by jazz. In 1915, the first newspaper article to mention jazz as a musical style was headlined Blues Is Jazz and Jazz Is Blues, which makes perfect sense if you look at how many early jazz bands relied on the basic 12 bar blues form. But there was also a lot of blues that was not jazz, and some jazz that was not blues.

A century later, it is even harder to sort out what blues means, or more to the point, what it doesn’t mean. We often hear that blues is the root of all American music, from country to rock to rap, and it doesn’t stop there, the haunting music of northern Mali is frequently described as African blues, rembetika, fado, and flamenco are described as Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish blues, respectively, and enka is described as Japanese blues. For many people, blues continues to denote emotion and is a catch all term for any music that feels soulful. That might serve as a good general definition, except that the most popular blues style in the United States is a rowdy, bar band sound featuring fast tempos and screaming electric guitar solos.

Source: The State Of The Blues Today by Elijah Wald


Donny Hathaway - A Song for You

• Released on: April 2, 1971
• Written by: Leon Russell
• Genre: Soul

"Donny Hathaway was considered an eccentric by many. He cultivated many unusual interests, and was a devotee of mid-20th century French classical composers. Several anecdotes about Hathaway are contained in Jerry Wexler's book Rhythm And The Blues."

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The Hold Steady - The Prior Procedure

During a 1975 interview, B.B. King told William Ferris, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, how bricks were used to make a one string. Once you nailed this nail in there, put that wire around these two nails, like one on this end and one on the other and wrap it tight. Then you’d take a couple of bricks and you’d put one under this side and one under that one that would stretch this wire and make it tighter. And you’d keep pushing that brick, stretching this wire, making it tight until it would sound like one string on the guitar... Blues musicians also used baling wire to make one and two stringed instruments similar to those found throughout West Africa, where they are fashioned with resonators made of carved wood, a gourd, or a tin can. When I was about ten years old I made a fiddle out of a cigar box, a guitar out of goods boxes for my buddy Louis Carter, and we would play for the white people’s picnics. Big Joe Williams recalled making a one string guitar for himself as a child by stapling two thread spools to a small box and stretching bailing wire between the spools. He played it with the neck off a half pint whisky bottle. Harmonica players also used bailing wire to make neck racks for their harps so they could play guitar and harmonica at the same time.

When a conductor got a locomotive steaming at top speed, he was said to be balling the jack, as in they were balling the jack at the time of the wreck. The train was the jack short for the jackass carrying the load. To ball meant to go flat out, pedal to the metal, and came from the railman’s hand gesture signaling the crew to go faster. By the 1920s, the expression balling the jack had leapt from the rail yards into the popular lexicon as an expression for any wild, all out effort, from dancing to sex to gamblers risking everything on a single toss of the dice. Shortened to balling, it came to mean having a wild time in and out of bed. The phrase was given a push by the Balling the Jack fad, which reportedly began as a sexy juke joint dance involving plenty of bumping and grinding. It evolved into a group dance involving vigorous hand clapping and chanting or Balling the Jack for the Follies based on the African American ragtime tune. The Balling the Jack craze swept white America, eventually getting mixed in with the Lindy Hop to become a popular swing step.
Source: The Language of The Blues by Robert Sabin

The Hold Steady - The Prior Procedure

• Produced by: Josh Kaufman
• Released in: February 19, 2021
• Released on: The Prior Procedure album

"The Hold Steady is Bobby Drake drummer, Craig Finn on vocals, Tad Kubler guitar and vocals, Franz Nicolay on keyboards, Galen Polivka bass) and Steve Selvidge guitar and vocals."

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A Short History of Radio Events

Radio continues to be a relevant form of mass communication and remains one of the few free services to anyone with a receiver.


Image by Jose Pedro Santos

The first commercial radio broadcast in 1920, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, under the call sign KDKA, broadcast the live returns of the Harding/Cox presidential election. Within just four years of the initial KDKA broadcast, 600 stations existed in the U.S. and radio’s rapid popularity contributed to our shared national identity by providing syndicated news, sports, and music.

Radio stations gradually phased out vinyl single and LP records in the mid 1980s and went to CDs. Huge turntables and tape recorders disappeared, replaced by smaller CD players.

Radio program formats differ by country, regulation, and markets. For instance, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission designates the 88 - 92 megahertz band in the U.S. for non profit or educational programming, with advertising prohibited.

Formats change in popularity as time passes and technology improves. Early radio equipment only allowed program material to be broadcast in real time, known as live broadcasting. As technology for sound recording improved, an increase of broadcasts programming used prerecorded material. Some stations now operate without direct human intervention by using entirely prerecorded material sequenced by computer control.

Image by Fringer Cat

In 1936, an experimental station authorized to Major Edwin H. Armstrong for experimental FM broadcasts at 40 kW power in Alpine, NJ, demonstrated FM radio technology to the FCC. In1937, The Federal Communications Commission issued its first AM construction permit. And in 1938,  Mel Allen announced the first World Series broadcast on CBS radio and War of the Worlds aired and caused mass panic when many radio listeners believed it was real.

Year	Establishments	Standard Broadcast	Frequency Modulation	Independent Stations
1927		681
1928		677
1929		606
1930		618
1931		612
1932		604
1933		598
1934	449	593
1935	569	623
1936		656
1937	629	704
1938	660	743
1939	705	778
1940	765	847	3
1941	825	897	56	2
1942	862	925	50	5
1943	852	912	55	5
1944	885	924	60	4
1945	969	955	65	5
1946	1555	1215	258	8
1947	3551	1795	918	52
1948	3967	2084	1020	103
1949	4085	2006	865	104
1950	3098	2144	788	86
1951	3129	2281	703	66
1952	3132	2355	650	56
1953	3393	2458	630	116
1954	3749	2583	580	123
1955	3875	2734	522	124
1956	4048	2896	656	51
1957	4276	3079	665	67
1958	4542	3253	703	93
1959	4802	3377	816	165

In 1961, WGFM in Schenectady, New York was the first station to broadcast in stereo. The first Telstar satellite was launched into space in 62. And in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act, creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Year	Establishments	Standard Broadcast	Frequency Modulation	Independent Stations
1960	4218	3483	906	218
1961	5269	3602	1075	249
1962	5558	3745	1213	279
1963	5749	3860	1341	294
1964	4777	3976	1425	306
1965	4867	4025	1569	338
1966	5008	4075	1605	381
1967	5100	4135	1806	405
1968	5236	4203	2026	387
1969	5309	4264	2198	442
1970	5584	4288	2393	464
1971	5708	4324	2258	527
1972	5826	4422	2468	559
1973	5936	4434	2560	616
1974	6136	4467	2713	678
1975	6228	4488	2847	703
1976	6339	4525	2947	713
1977	6316	4474	3007	741
1978	6462	4577	3206	777
1979	5769	4634	3300	835
1980	5875	4598	3292	1156
1981	9451	4634	3349	1177
1982	9842	4668	3380	1255
1983	10092	4377	3527	1285
1984	10374	4754	3527	1348
1985		4718	3716
1986	10975	4863	3944	1509
1987	11207	3902	4041	1577
1988	11271	4932	4155	1621
1989	11907	4975	4269	1666

Image by Sonny Mauricio

In1993, The Commission specified a stereo standard for AM radio. President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law. The Act sought to increase competition in the industry by lifting station ownership caps, easing rules applicable to broadcasters, and deregulating the license renewal process. The Creation of the Emergency Alert Service, a national public alert system, and auctions for the first two satellite based Digital Audio Radio Service licenses were in 1997. In 2000, the FCC created the Low Power FM (LPFM) radio service to provide highly local noncommercial educational broadcasts. In 2001, XM Satellite radio launches. In 2002, Sirius Satellite radio launches and HD radio In band On channel (IBOC) system, allowing hybrid digital/analog operations on an interim basis.

Year	Establishments	Standard Broadcast	Frequency Modulation	Independent Stations
1990	10830	4987	4392	1438
1991	10830	4985	4570	1507
1992	11334	4961	4785	1588
1993	11577	4994	4971	1662
1994	11710	4913	5109	1715
1995	11987	4150	5730	1805
1996	12112	4857	5419	1850
1997	12227	4762	5542	1906
1998	12373	4793	5662	2000
1999	12615	4783	5766	2066
2000	12717	4685	5892	2140
2001	13120	4727	6051	2259
2002	13331	4804	6161	2354
2003	13563	4802	6207	2552
2004	13525	4770	6217	2533
2005	13660	4758	6215	2672
2006	13837	4754	6266	2817
2007	13939	4776	6309	2892
2008	13997	4786	6427	3040
2009	14253	4798	6479	3151
2010	14420	4782	6526	3311
2011	14952	4766	6542	3644
2012	15128	4745	6580	3803
2013	15358	4728	6613	3989
2014	15432	4705	6652	4075
2015	26471	4702	6659	4081
2016	17007	4680	6715	4096
2017	17456	4666	6754	4112
2018	17649	4633	6741	4125
2019	17685	4613	6762	4139
2020	17637	4546	6704	4196

For more information:
Vinyl’s much-hyped return to radio
Celebrating 100 Years of Commercial Radio
Radio broadcasting
Amateur radio
International Amateur Radio Union


The International Amateur Radio Union or IARU, is an international confederation of national organisations that allows a forum for common matters of concern to amateur radio operators worldwide. The IARU was founded in 1925 and as of July 2021, it is composed of 172 national member societies. About 830,000 amateur radio stations are located in IARU Region 2, the Americas, followed by IARU Region 3, South and East Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with about 750,000 stations. A significantly smaller number, about 400,000, are located in IARU Region 1, Europe, Middle East, CIS, Africa.


Download data:
For radio establishments in america
For radio advertising and expense since 1934

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