Blues and soul: two of the most elastic but emotive words in popular music. They may defy precise definitions, but you know them when you hear them. Different people think of different things: for some, blues is the black music that came out of the Deep South, as epitomized by Bessie Smith and B.B. King; for others it is a wider church that includes Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Soul, too, is an inclusive term that encompasses Otis Redding, James Brown, and Whitney Houston.
Icons of Blues and Soul presents a selection of great artists from both genres, from the early blues pioneers such as Leadbelly to the new generations of bluesmen who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s; from artists such as Ray Charles who put the blues together with the sounds of gospel to create soul in the late 1950s to those who carried soul music into the new millennium. Icons of Blues and Soul includes more than 75 artists who span the whole of the twentieth century. There are thought-provoking inclusions-and controversial omissions-that will inform and entertain in equal measure.