Soul Groove Blues
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Soul Groove Blues is blues with a warm soul pocket: steady bass, organ, horns, backing vocals, clean guitar fills and singers who phrase like gospel or Southern soul artists. It is less explicitly funky than blues-funk and less pop-polished than adult contemporary blues. The groove is relaxed but firm, letting adult lyrics about love, money, cheating and resilience land with both blues grit and soul comfort.
History
Soul groove blues developed as blues singers worked with R&B and soul rhythm sections rather than older shuffle bands. Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton, Z.Z. Hill, Johnnie Taylor, Denise LaSalle, Latimore, Robert Cray and Ruthie Foster each connected blues feeling to soul timing. Southern soul-blues labels and live circuits kept this sound alive as mainstream R&B moved into other production styles.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City — Bobby "Blue" BlandSpotifyYouTube
- We're Gonna Make It — Little MiltonSpotifyYouTube
- Down Home Blues — Z.Z. HillSpotifyYouTube
- Who's Making Love — Johnnie TaylorSpotifyYouTube
- Trapped by a Thing Called Love — Denise LaSalleSpotifyYouTube
- Let's Straighten It Out — LatimoreSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- soul-blues histories
- Southern soul discographies
- artist biographies
- streaming/video checks