This Mid-Year Best of 2015 list also includes Boz Scaggs, Pops Staples, Papa Mali, Wes Montgomery, Robben Ford, the Word, Steve Earle and Beth Hart.

Robert Randolph helps set a new standard for improv gospel-jazz country blues supergroups. Because, yeah, they’re the only one.

“Mercy!” Staples crows. “Oooh boy, you’re banging on that guit-fiddle!”

Named after one of their dad’s favorite sayings, and featuring found-object recordings of R.L. Burnside and Otha Turner, you’d expect the Dickinson Brothers’ new North Mississippi Allstars album to be riven with nostalgia. You May Also Like: The Word [Robert Randolph, John Medeski + North Mississippi All-Stars], “When I SeeRead More

If whack jazz isn’t exactly your cup of tea, this fifth and final installment of “The Best of 2008” might suit you better. It’s all about the blues, here. I took a fairly broad view of what is called “the blues.” Some of these records may not have a singleRead More

This marked the North Mississippi Allstars’ first offering in three years and the first since mentor R.L. Burnside passed away in 2005. The NMA’s station in life has been to provide a heavily-amped version of Junior Kimbrough, and you have to wonder if success will cause them to stray fromRead More

Much like jazz, most young people get introduced to the blues from artists who mix it with a more mainstream type of music, which usually means rock. Twenty years ago Stevie Ray Vaughan’s music was the gateway to the straight blues while the young Jonny Lang led the way thereRead More