| Sad Street | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Bobby "Blue" Bland |
| Cover: | Sad Street Bobby Blue Bland Album Cover.jpg |
| Released: | 1995 |
| Studio: | Muscle Shoals Sound |
| Genre: | Blues |
| Label: | Malaco[1] |
| Producer: | Wolf Stephenson, Tommy Couch |
| Prev Title: | Turn on Your Love Light: The Duke Recordings Vol. 2 |
| Prev Year: | 1994 |
| Next Title: | That Did It!: The Duke Recordings Vol. 3 |
| Next Year: | 1996 |
Sad Street is an album by the American musician Bobby "Blue" Bland.[2] It was released in 1995.[3]
The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Contemporary Blues Album".[4] It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Blues Albums chart.[5]
Sad Street was produced by Wolf Stephenson and Tommy Couch. It was recorded with the Muscle Shoals house band; string arrangements were done in Miami, Florida.[6] [7] The title song was written by George Jackson, with many others provided by the songwriting partnership of Sam Mosley and Robert Johnson.[8]
The Commercial Appeal opined that "Bland gets deep into the blues," writing that "'Double Trouble' deals with the age-old blues dilemma of dealing with a troublesome wife and girlfriend." The Tampa Tribune thought that the album "perfectly captures his wistful romanticism and raspy-smooth vocals."[9]
Texas Monthly concluded that Malaco's "synthesizer-and-strings approach has kept him contemporary without making him sound foolish."[3] The San Antonio Express-News noted that "Sad Street find Bland still working a smooth, sophisticated, but unmistakably blues-driven, groove."[10]
AllMusic wrote that "Malaco's well-oiled, violin-enriched studio sound fit Bland's laid-back contemporary approach just fine (even if his voice admittedly wasn't what it used to be)." MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide agreed that Bland's voice was "a ravaged hulk by this point." The Sunday Times deemed Sad Street a "gritty" album that proved Bland's "Southern blues credentials."[11]