Bobby Bland: Two Steps from the Blues

"There's a game called Voice of the Century, in which music lovers try to pick the best singer in the history of pop music, regardless of genre. Sam Cooke turns up on many ballots, as does George Jones. Some people hold out for Harry Nilsson or Marion Williams. One of the dark horses in the discussion is Bobby (Blue) Bland, who sang gospel in Memphis before releasing a series of R. & B. singles in the early sixties ('Cry Cry Cry,' 'I Pity the Fool'), many of which were collected on the flawless album 'Two Steps from the Blues.' Bland's best work is canonical for singers like Van Morrison (another perennial Voice of the Century contender), and it's easy to hear why: he was a powerhouse with nuance, a technically superb singer who moved effortlessly between hoarse testifying and angelic melisma, often worrying a line to the point where he engineered a half-dozen twists and turns in a single word" (Ben Greenman, "Critic's Notebook," New Yorker, 1/31/11).
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