The Delta Meets Detroit: Aretha's Blues
Purists might not acknowledge Aretha as a blues singer, but so what? Even ifThe Delta Meets Detroitis at heart another way of raiding the Queen of Soul's catalog for niche-market sales, it's a convincer. Drawn from her Atlantic albums of the '60s and early '70s, these 16 tracks belong next to the work of Dinah Washington, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and the rest of the great urban blueswomen and -men. Even the songs Aretha borrows from others' repertoires ("Night Life," "Drown in My Own Tears") become her property: just listen to how "The Thrill Is Gone" here becomes a meditation on the phrase "free at last."--Rickey Wright