R&B music giant Earl Gaines, the vocalist behind the 1955 Louis Brooks & His Hi-Toppers hit "It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)," died in Nashville, Tennessee on December 31, 2009. Gaines was 74 years old.

Born in Decatur, Alabama and raised on a farm, Gaines learned to sing in his local church. He moved to Nashville at the age of 16 years old to pursue a career in blues music, and taught himself the drums to help ensure steady employment. Gaines first worked as a demo singer for songwriter and local R&B scenemaker Ted Jarrett, who also got him work in the city's thriving club scene.

"It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)" was the first national hit for the Nashville-based Excello Records label, and launched Gaines' solo career. The singer would record and perform throughout the rest of the 1950s and '60s, both solo and with various bands, and Gaines would enjoy a handful of hits before retiring from music in 1975.

Gaines worked as a truck driver until re-starting his musical career in 1989 with the release of the House Party album. Helped by Nashville producer and guitarist Fred James, Gaines released critically-acclaimed albums like I Believe In Your Love and Everything's Gonna Be Alright during the 1990s, but by 2000 he would once again retreat from music. This would all change when Gaines became one of the biggest features of the Night Train To Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970 exhibit that was sponsored by the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Gaines' contributions to both rhythm & blues and Nashville's R&B history were acknowledged by the exhibit and accompanying CD. Gaines' newfound fame lured him out of retirement, and resulted in concert bookings, parties, and one last album, 2008's Nothin' But The Blues. "I'm truly grateful," Gaines told The Tennessean newspaper when the exhibit closed in 2005. "This exhibit let people know Nashville is not just country and western. At one time this was a big blues city. Fats Domino, James Brown, B.B. King, all of them come here to cut R&B." Earl Gaines was as good as they come, a great vocalist and a gentleman.

Photo courtesy Price Grabber

Blues Revue magazine recently published its February/March 2010 issue with a cover story on "The Decade's Best Blues." Polling a group of over three-dozen blues journalists, including your humble About.com Blues Guide, the magazine offers the critic's picks for the "25 great albums that defined the past 10 years."

The Reverend's own list of the ten best blues albums intersects that of Blues Revue's critic's poll on five essential titles, including the magazine's choice for the best album of '00s, and although I personally think that my fellow scribes missed the boat on a couple of their collective choices (Charlie Musselwhite, anybody?), overall the magazine presents a mighty impressive list of blues talent and diversity. You could do worse than owning any (or all) of these 25 titles.

Check out the Reverend's list of the best blues albums of the decade, and then run down to your local newsstand and grab a copy of Blues Revue and see how they shake out. Beside "The Decade's Best Blues," the February/March 2010 issue of Blues Revue includes articles on New Orleans legend Bryan Lee, Memphis songwriter Charlie Wood, Slim Harpo, and Jack Bruce as well as the usual blues CD reviews and other literary goodies.

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Photo courtesy Blues Revue magazine

From the "Queen of the Chicago Blues," Koko Taylor to John Cephas and Willie King, the blues world lost a wealth of talent this year. Too many aging (and more than a few young) artists passed away, leaving behind a lifetime of great music and mourning fans. We honor these bluesmen and women, obscure and well-known alike, with this list of blues artists that died in 2009.

Koko Taylor photo courtesy Alligator Records

King Records, the Cincinnati-based independent label that specialized in blues, R&B, and country music during the 1950s and '60s, may finally be receiving the respect due such an important part of the 20th century American music landscape. In the wake of author Jon Hartley Fox's excellent book on the label, King of the Queen City, the city of Cincinnati is beginning to look upon its former musical ambassador to the world with a different perspective.

The Cincinnati U.S.A. Music Heritage Foundation has placed a marker outside 811 Race Street honoring the 1945-1955 existence of the E.T. Herzog Recording Co., where several of King Record's influential early hit records were recorded. The foundation also moved into the space that once housed the studio and is looking to build a collection of the label's releases to display. CUMHF president Elliott Ruther is also said to be interested in launching a course on King Records at Cincinnati State University, where he serves as the director of development.

Most interesting, however, are plans to begin fundraising for a full-fledged King Records museum honoring the label that the visionary Syd Nathan founded in the late 1940s. A "King Studios" committee has been formed with an eye towards raising $10 - $12 million to build a 12,000-square-foot museum, for-profit recording studio, multipurpose space, and visual arts studio.

From the late-1940s through the mid-1960s, the list of artists recorded by King Records is truly phenomenal. From blues greats like Freddie King and John Lee Hooker and R&B pioneers like James Brown to country legends like the Delmore Brothers, King Records made stars from a diverse range of artists, breaking down racial and musical barriers while releasing some great music. Although the label went under shortly after Nathan's death in 1968, it is well deserving of a permanent place in Cincinnati music history.

Related Content: Jon Hartley Fox - King of the Queen City book review

Photo courtesy University of Illinois Press