5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #59

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. I'm Shakin', by Jack White

Always pretty sweet to hear a grooving swing laid down by an electric guitar backed by a full band including backing singers. This jumpin' and jivin' tune originally by Rudy Toombs from Jack White's first solo album Blunderbuss shows that he knows how to rock even outside of The White Stripes. If anything, it has more depth to it musically than a lot of songs from his former band did. It takes an older R&B/blues tune and puts some more modern balls to it.

2. Rack 'em Up, by Jonny Lang

This song from Jonny Lang's first album Lie to Me in my opinion is an under rated gem. It has such a smooth bassy groove that will get you dancing right in your seat. The guitar solos are absolutely juicy and will make you want to air guitar right along. It really does give you the image of a dimly lit smokey pool hall shooting a game with some local fellas. The fact that there is also some sweet horn playing just adds another layer of deliciousness to this bluesy jaunt.

3.  Blues Power, by Eric Clapton

If you need that boogie-woogie down in your very soul, look no further. Eric Clapton is considered one of the gods of the blues for a reason. Clapton shows just how well he does what he does on guitar with some of the tastiest blues licks in between lyrics that sound like he is having an absolute ball. It's enough to make even the stodgiest old fart to want to start running on blues power. Definitely a MUST for any blues/Clapton play list.

4. Somebody in My Home, by Howlin' Wolf

Howlin' Wolf had one of the most smokey blues powered voices I've ever heard from any musician. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in his track Somebody in My Home, which also shows off just how good of a harmonica player he was as well. It's a fairly laid back tune and doesn't quite hype things up the way Smokestack Lightnin' does but it nonetheless draws you into a whole other world where everything else around you slips away and you are on a plane of nothing but the sound of blues in the night.

5. As the Crow Flies, by Rory Gallagher

Although this wasn't originally a blues tune (written originally by Tony Joe White) Irish blues man Rory Gallagher turned it into an acoustic delta blues-like stomp in his Irish Tour '74 album. Makes the song sound like it could have been written 40 or 50 years before it had originally come out, honestly. I always have kind of found it interesting when an artist will take a song and make it sound like it was written in an older genre.