Ray Charles is rightly credited with almost single-handedly inventing soul and R&B in the early 1950s. But in the 1960s he surprised his fans, and the whole of the pop world, by turning his hand to country-and-western.

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Ask anyone to name the first female blues guitarist and you’ll probably be told it was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Or maybe Big Mama Thornton. Memphis Minnie came before both of them.

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I discovered the genius of Robbie Basho late in my musical explorations. He came to (minor) game alongside his fellow finger-pickers John Fahey and Leo Kottke but was forgotten for years after a premature death until a resurgence of interest in ‘American Primitive’ guitarists.

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Barrett Strong had the first hit for Tamla-Motown when he sang the original version of Money (That’s What I Want) in 1959.

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“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” That one line summed up Kris Kristofferson’s singular songwriting skill. It was like the entire Sixties ethos in a single phrase.

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I’ve heard this song by Marvin, I’ve heard it by Dusty and I’ve heard it by the Stones, but until now I’d never heard it by Barbara til now. In fact I’d never heard of Barbara Randolph at all.

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The name of JD Souther, who has just died, might not mean a lot to most music fans. But his legacy surely will when you hear his songs.

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Who remembers Los Angeles rockabilly band The Red Devils? Certainly not me. I didn’t even know there was a thriving cowpunk scene, fusing rockabilly and country, in early-Eighties LA.

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This is the first song I heard by Blancmange when it was included on the Some Bizarre Album compilation in 1981.

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And then they were three… Tito Jackson’s death, at the age of 70, leaves the Jackson 5 down to a trio of Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon.

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