Ray Charles - Moon Over Miami

When I was searching for other songs called Deep River Blues, I’m obsessive about these things, I found a fewer older ones that I assumed must be a variation of the traditional version that Watson had recorded, so I didn’t feel any rush to listen to them. When I finally did, though, I heard a completely different song, one that mentions the Mississippi river specifically. So now I have to put Deep River Blues back on the list.

After some digging around, I found out that this Deep River Blues dates to 1924... Now I had to figure out who made the first recording, a tricky task. I found two women, Rosa Henderson and Katherine Handy, another child of WC’s?, both recorded in 1924. This isn’t rocket science or American Idol, so I put them both on the list, along with a version by Willard Robison, because I like it. I haven’t had time yet to figure out if this song had legs like the other Deep River Blues. Maybe it’s been recorded a lot, maybe it’s been languishing since the 1920s.

Source: Deep River Blues by Dean Klinkenberg

Ray Charles - Moon Over Miami

• Written by: Joe Burke and Edgar Leslie
• Released on: The Genius Hits the Road album
• Released in: July 1960

Ray Charles · Moon Over Miami

"As a rock and roll, rhythm & blues, soul, blues, jazz, country and pop musician he helped to shape the sound of rhythm & blues. He brought a soulful sound to everything from country music to rock and roll to pop standards."

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