Hot on the heels of hearing of the passing of Blues and Soul legend Howard Tate last night, I also heard the sad news on the passing of another Blues and Soul legend, Dobie Gray, who passed away last night at the age of 71.
I hate these things. They are never easy.
My first exposure to Dobie Gray came by way of his debut hit The In Crowd which dominated the radio, when the Beatles and Rolling Stones weren't. I didn't really hear very much from him for a few years until the early 70's when he came out with Drift Away, which has since become a staple on FM Radio ever since.
Rather than play that, as I am sure if you've been anywhere near a radio you've heard a few hundred times today, I thought I would play something else from that period. Lovin' The Easy Way is a track maybe not as well known but certainly every bit as much a tribute to the versatility and wide-ranging talent that Dobie Gray had.
You couldn't pigeon hole Dobie Gray as "this" kind of singer or "that" kind of singer. He just did what he did and he did it wonderfully well.
Doesn't get much better than that for anybody.
