Bobby “Blue” Bland was no stranger to heartache. Nicknamed the “Sinatra of the Blues,” he wielded a singularly effective approach: entrance listeners with his velvety smoothness before crushing them with ferocious displays of grief. The hulking crooner doesn't merely express sadness; he lets it consume him until it sounds as though his vocal cords have been torn to shreds. Though Bland recorded some of the most rollicking R&B of his generation, what he really savored were big, dramatic ballads that allowed him to erase the lines between bluesy sorrow and gospel tenderness.