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Bobby "Blue" Bland -- Performance At Phelps Lounge, June 6 & 7

Bobby "Blue" Bland -- Performance At Phelps Lounge, June 6 & 7 image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
July
Year
1976
OCR Text

Performance

At Phelps Lounge, June 6 & 7

Just about every time a holiday rolls around nowadays, Bobby "Blue" Bland can be found singing down at Phelps' Lounge, a comfortable nightclub located in an otherwise bleak section of Oakland Avenue near Holbrook. This is a wonderful arrangement for Detroiters, because Bobby Bland is an internationally-respected rhythm and blues artist who happens to be just as strong, self-confident, and polished now as he's ever been during his storied 25year career.

The classic Bobby "Blue" Bland voice -- that velvet-edged gravel that sold millions of records -- is still very healthy. And Bobby Bland still has the utmost control of that voice, just as he seems to have control over almost everything else when he mounts the stage at Phelps'. He is a master of smoothness and nonchalance, carrying on an earthy dialogue with the more active members of his audience while keeping an intense fire and emotion going in his music.

Phelps' seems particularly appropriate for the music of Bobby Bland -- it has a definite 1950's-type plushness that brings to mind the days of processed hair and wide pants, when "Two Steps from the Blues" was Bland's first million-seller and he was the only blues artist ever to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, singing "I Pity the Fool."

Bland continues to work from his long string of hits from the fifties and sixties, and with these songs -- which still provide the perfect vehicles for that husky voice -- he can get just about anything he wants out of an audience. We saw Bobby two nights in a row at Phelps', when he was held over after a particularly successful Memorial Day weekend, and heard powerful versions of such gems as "Saint James Infirmary," "Two Steps from the Blues," "I'll Take Care of You," "I Pity the Fool," "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" (his most recent hit, from 1974), "Army Blues" (the fabled original single for Duke Records, from 1952), "It's My Own Fault," and "Driftin' and Driftin'."

At 45, Bobby "Blue" Bland is a highly skilled musician, a master of timing and drama with tremendous poise and confidence that is obviously the result of wide experience and long, hard work. He's a total musical experience that shouldn't be missed -- really!

-- Frank Bach