Bobby 'Blue' Bland (1930 - 2013) was one of the leading US-American Blues, R&B and Soul entertainers. He knew how to combine the intensity of Gospel music with the expression of the Blues. His voice sounded as he wanted to bear witness to one's resolve but he was able to let his voice sound soft, sometimes cool but always cultivated. Thus he also reached out to the fans of Frank Sinatra and Nat 'King' Cole with tremendous success. He formed his remarkable style of singing out of many different influences, characteristic and exclusively reserved for Bobby 'Blue' Bland. Blands voice was always the center of attention. After his huge successes during the 1950s and 1960s for the Duke label, he moved to ABC Dunhill when Duke was sold. He could reach a wider white audience in the early 1970s with his two LPs, 'His California Album' and 'Dreamer', plus productions together with B.B. King. 'Dreamer' was the record company's trial to produce an album in California with the cool Soul appeal of the city of Los Angeles. As a timeless Soul and Blues classic the album contains the in recent years often sampled track Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City, one of the musical back bones to one of the favorites by Jay Z. The whole album is a wonderful soundtrack for those lonely nights alone and blue in a sleazy joint trying to forget a lost love in a bottle of bourbon. 'Dreamer' is the warm velvet cover against cold loneliness with so many great songs like I Wouldn't Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me) and Whose Foolin' Who?, the bluesy Cold Day In Hell, Lovin' On Borrowed Time and When You Come To The End Of Your Road. I Ain't Gonna Be The First To Cry has indeed the lyrical quality of The Thrill Is Gone. The production by Steve Barri and Michael Omartian sounds full and ponderous. The accompanying musicians, amongst them guitarists Dean Parks and Larry Carlton, bassist Wilton Felder and drummer Ed Green, belong to the cream of L.A.'s studio musicians.
