For those unaware, some albums are more than just music — they are pieces of the soul, captured forever. ‘His California Album’ is exactly that kind of masterpiece. In 1973/74, Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, one of America’s greatest and most moving voices, recorded this landmark work in Los Angeles.

Under the direction of Steve Barri — who would also produce ‘Dreamer’ (BAF18029) — and backed by guitar legends like Larry Carlton, Mel Brown, and Dean Parks, Bland created an album that still resonates like a warm summer night filled with hope and blues.

Songs like ‘This Time I’m Gone For Good’, ‘(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right’, and ‘Help Me Through The Day’ tell stories of love, heartbreak, and survival — delivered with a raw honesty that only Bobby Bland could summon.

Now it is finally available again — pressed on 180-gram vinyl, carefully remastered, and housed in a faithfully reproduced original cover. A must-have release not only for collectors, but for anyone who carries music deep within their heart, ‘His California Album’ is a timeless treasure for your record collection.

Side A:
1. This Time I’m Gone For Good
2. Up And Down World
3. It’s Not The Spotlight
4. ‘(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right’
5. Goin’ Down Slow

Slipping the vinyl record out of its sleeve, marveling at the beautiful 180G weight of it as the sun glints admiringly upon it, I placed it onto the record player, gently dropped the needle and sat back to enjoy the first side.

The set opens with This Time I’m Gone for Good, a slow ballad with Bobby milking every ounce of feeling with some incredibly juicy blues guitar (I should’ve stayed gone when I left before; You do me wrong when we’re together, but I keep coming back for more). Shown over the years as a track that went to #5 on the R&B charts along next is Vernon Morrison and Deadrick Malone’s Up & Down World which continues the soulful groove.

Gerry Goffin wrote the lyrics to It’s Not the Spotlight and the song’s opening has an eerie similarity to Carole King’s Child of Mine from her Writer album, if truth be told. Regardless, (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right has more of that lovely slow soul that mirrors a Me-&-Mrs.-Jones theme, the side winding down on Going Down Slow, which also went to the R&B top twenty with Michael Omartian’s piano oozing loads of feeling to match Bland’s vocal chops.

Side B:
1. The Right Place At The Right Time
2. Help Me Through The Day
3. Where My Baby Went
4. Friday The 13th Child
5. I’ve Got Use My Imagination

Flipping the vinyl over, The Right Place at the Right Time opens with a peppy Grazing in the Grass percussion and then blossoms into a lovely pop blues. Leon Russell actually wrote Help Me Through the Day (and which was also recorded by John Mayall and thus it cuts a classic blues ache. Where My Baby Went is another strong workingman’s blues with Friday The 13th Child just as sumptuous a listen today as it was back then.

I’ve Got to Use My Imagination closes the album as yet another now classic track. Joan Osborne has also taken it upon herself to record the song and did mighty fine justice to it, even if I say so myself. In closing, His California Album is a simply stunning set that sounds as fresh today as when it was released, trust me.

Official Purchase Link

www.bear-family.com