Corner Talk: There's a lady down in Greenville, South Carolina named Linda Rodney who records as Chocolate Thunder and can just sing her heart out! She has a new song entitled Run Run Run, produced and arranged by veteran musician Bobby Simmons, that is absolutely tailor made for the Southern Soul market. I'm hoping key radio and club jocks will pick up on the tune..........Lomax's Life's Lessons album is still hot hot hot!! In addition to the charting hit Swing It, I'm seeing/hearing air play for Baby It's Over, I'm In Love, If It's Broke and Second Hand Man........A promising new artist that deserves more recognition is Koree' Randolph. His debut album

Said I'm Looking has some smokin' tracks on it like Tastes Like Candy (which is now seeing some chart action), Sexy Lady and All I Want.........David Brinston first hit the Southern Soul scene in 1996 with the release of the smash tune Hit And Run and has been solid in the genre since that time. Why then was his October 2012 album It's Gonna Be A Showdown all but overlooked?  A lack of label recognition or marketing, maybe? Some strong tunes are on the recording including Hold On Me, Letting Me By and Fool..................Interesting on how Southern Soul songs that cross over tend to lag behind in the Beach music market. Andre' Lee's Back In The Day Cafe first appeared here on our Smokin' Top 45 Southern Soul songs in July, 2012 – it's run is pretty much over in the genre. It is now peaking in the Beach arena after a re-release on KHP Records, coming in at #2 on the Smokin' Top 45 Beach tunes, exactly one year later........ Speaking of the beach, traditional Beach music artist Danny Woods' latest release, It's Showtime With Danny Woods,  just showed up on the July 2013 Top 40 Southern Soul albums chart, debuting in the #33 spot.

Bobby Bland  1930 - 2013

What the late Bobby 'Blue' Bland has meant to the music industry over the last six decades is truly almost impossible to measure. His distinctive voice and charismatic delivery served to insure that his performances over the years have stood the test of time. We lost Bobby on June 23^rd at his home in Memphis after an ongoing illness – he was 83 years old.

Bobby was born and raised in rural Tennessee, moving to Memphis when he was 17. His early love of music compelled him to stay close to the Blues scene by gravitating to and hanging out with a loosely associated group of aspiring musicians that included Rosco Gordon and B.B. King. This eventually led to Bland becoming one of the founding members of the Beale Streeters along with Gordon, King, Johnny Ace and Little Junior Parker.  Bobby recorded several unpolished solo singles in the early ‘50’s on the Modern and Sun record labels without much early career success. He was, however, one of the first Blues artists outside of the Chicago area to be featured on the Chess label (licensed from Sun)   - which later became legendary for its Blues, R&B and Soul releases.

 After spending two plus years serving in the U.S. Army, Bobby returned to Memphis and began to hit his stride performing and recording. Teaming up with talented writer and arranger Joe Scott, Bland’s first major hit single on the Houston based Duke label, Farther Up The Road, went to #1 on Billboard’s R&B chart in 1957. He was beginning to perfect the pleading vocal delivery that would become his signature sound. This was the start of an amazing string of sixty-three singles that made the R&B and/or the Pop charts over a period of the next twenty-eight years. Twenty of Bobby’s albums also charted during that same period. Other huge hits included: I’ll Take Care Of You (#2 in 1960), I Pity The Fool (#1 in 1961), Don't Cry No More (#2 in 1961), Turn On Your Love Light (#2 in 1961), Stormy Monday Blues (#5 in 1962), Call On Me (#6 in 1963), That’s The Way Love Is (#1 in 1963) and These Hands (Small But Mighty) ( #4 in 1965). Bland has pretty much always been identified as a Blues singer, but the style he developed through the years was somewhat softer that many of his hardcore peers, combining smooth Soul and seminal R&B as part of his overall delivery. Bobby often mentioned the influences both Gospel and Country music had on him as well. In the pure Blues category, he trailed only former Beale Streeter partner B.B. King in terms of number of charting songs.

Bobby Bland was not one to rest on his laurels. During the late ‘50’s and the entire decade of the ‘60’s Bobby toured constantly - he averaged three hundred one night performances per year. He continued to release singles and albums primarily on the Duke and MCA labels throughout the ‘60’s,  ‘70’s and early '80's. Although his #1 hits had slowed down considerably, Bobby still reached the Top Ten on Billboard’s R&B singles charts eleven more times between 1966 and 1975, which included Good Time Charlie, I'm Too Far Gone (To Turn Around), You're All I Need, That Did It, Chains Of Love, This Time I'm Gone For Good and Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City. This period culminated with a #3 spot on the charts in 1975 for I Wouldn’t Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me).

Joining Malaco Records in 1985, Bobby became a key player in the revitalized Soul music movement that was happening in the South. He would age gracefully at Malaco – issuing eleven albums over the next eighteen years and becoming one of their most successful artists. Utilizing such songwriters as George Jackson, Larry Addison and the team of Sam Mosley/Robert Johnson, Bobby cranked out some killer tunes. Members Only, My Baby Is The Only One, Second Hand Heart, 24 Hours A Day,   Hurtin’ Time Again, I Can Take You To Heaven Tonight, Lay Love Aside,  I Had A Dream Last Night, Hurtin' Love, I Wanna Tell You About The Blues, I’ve Got A Twenty Room House, Let’s Have Some Fun, Just Take My Love and I’m Bobby B are just a few of the many strong tracks he recorded on the Malaco label. His 1989 Midnight Run album stayed on the R&B charts for over a year and a half and the 2003 Blues At Midnight release made it to #4 on Billboard’s Top Blues albums. All of his albums on the label appeared on either the Billboard R&B or Blues charts.

Long deserved recognition for Bobby came in the form of his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. He was the recipient of the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1997 and the Blues Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. Renowned music critic and Rolling Stone Record Guide co-editor Dave Marsh called Bland ''the Frank Sinatra of the Blues''. Marsh’s 1989 book The Heart of Rock and Soul – The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made listed six Bobby Bland songs in the group. Marsh called Bobby’s 1960 Lead Me On the ‘greatest 3 o’clock A.M. record ever made’. Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland was absolutely one of the greatest – his place in music history is firmly established for all time.