Topic: Blues Music

Top Picks: Paul Rishell's old country blues, a new novel on the Tudors, and more

Ronald Reagan offers advice for all bridegrooms, PBS airs the documentary about soldiers on the battlefield and at home, 'Hell and Back Again,' and more top picks.

Obama sings the blues with Mick Jagger, B.B. King (+video)

President Obama took the microphone Tuesday to sing a few bars of 'Sweet Home Chicago' during a blues concert at the White House. Are Mick Jagger and B.B. King in danger of being upstaged? You decide.

Legendary blues singer Etta James embodied refined soul music

James' spirit could not be contained — perhaps that's what made her so magnetic in music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of R&B, blues and rock 'n' roll's underrated legends.

Richard Gere guitar collection fetches $1M in NYC

Richard Gere says he's parting with the instruments to support global humanitarian causes. Christie's says the "Pretty Woman" star studied trumpet and is a self-taught pianist and guitarist.

Top Picks: Remembering 9/11

'Engineering Ground Zero' on PBS, The New York Philharmonic plays Mahler's Resurrection Symphony also on PBS, Paul McCartney's 'Concert for New York City' on Showtime, and more.

Elvis Presley: His five greatest songs

Elvis Presley fans gather at the Graceland Memorial in Memphis today to show appreciation to the King. It is the 34th anniversary of the day Elvis died.

The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll, by Preston Lauterbach.

A groundbreaking history of the black juke joints that birthed rock 'n' roll.

Record Store Day: Five gems worth hunting for

Here are five gems that you'll never see warping in the sun at a garage sale at my house.

Pinetop Perkins was 'one of the last great Mississippi Bluesmen'

Pinetop Perkins, an old school bluesman with the gravelly voice, for years had played the rickety bars among the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, and toured far beyond them with rock pioneer Ike Turner in the 1950s.

Top Picks: Brainteasers, 'Invizimals,' 'Radioactive,' and more

PBS specials on scientific wonders, a PlayStation game that projects monsters, a book on Madame Curie, and more recommendations.

Top picks: 'Coming Back: New Orleans Resurgent' photos, 'Toy Story 3,' new album '...Featuring Norah Jones,' and more

Photojournalist Mario Tama's 'Coming Back: New Orleans Resurgent,' Pixar's 'Toy Story 3' on DVD, star-studded collaborations in '...Featuring Norah Jones,' and more recommendations.

Janiva Magness: She's earned the right to sing the blues

Heralded blues singer draws on a troubled childhood in foster homes to bring truth to her songs.

Timbuktu, the birthplace of blues

Don't argue with an African about the birthplace of blues. It's Timbuktu. Hear why.

Stars, famous and not-so-famous, descend on DC for huge inaugural parties

Honeyboy's not-so-blue gig: Inauguration party

From sharecropping childhood to the election of a black president, Mississippi bluesman Honeyboy Edwards has a long story.

Review: 'Cadillac Records'

Set in 1950s Chicago, the story follows Chess record label's influential role in launching the careers of some musical greats.

Six Picks: Recommendations from the Monitor staff

Tally up your carbon footprint, giggle at 30-second 'bunnified' movies, lift your mood with some Depression-era blues, and more.

The changing face of Chicago blues

Foreign-born players and whites pick up the slack creating a global appeal and expanded songbook.

The Stones 'Light' up screens

Martin Scorsese's concert film captures Jagger's every strut and shimmy.