Everyone has favorites. Three of my most-favorite women singers are Billie Holiday, Irma Thomas, and Barbara Lewis. Billie Holiday, IMO, is hands-down the best singer I have ever heard. Her microtones, nuances, and ambiance are just the best for my taste. She is so good that I seldom play her records because she takes so much out of me that I have to get up to even listen to her.

In the late 1960s, in particular with the Ann Arbor Blues Festivals in 1969 and 1970, the blues were coming to town. Since Chicago is only a few hours drive from Ann Arbor, some of the Chicago blues greats were finding their way here.

I am feeling a little nostalgic. I just read the book on a friend of mine, the great blues guitarist-- “Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero” by Ed Ward. Excellent book. I don’t blog much on my musical background, but I have one. Here is a little taste of that both in Ann Arbor and elsewhere.