Bobby "Blue" Bland

This 1973 album is one of Bland's overlooked gems. In an attempt to crack the burgeoning soft-rock market of the early 1970s, Bland recorded his most subdued and introspective batch of tunes to date. At the time, a lot of fans of the crooner's brawny Texas blues dismissed His California Album as a cheap attempt to keep up with the Van Morrisons and Leon Russells of the world. But it's hard to argue with jams like the smoky "Up and Down World" and "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right."