Though ZZ Hill never had a crossover smash, his melding of blues and R&B made him a star in the bars of the Deep South, where hard-working fans danced and drank the weekend away to the songs on this playlist. Born in Texas, Hill started out in gospel and cut some extraordinary soul cuts in the ‘60s and ‘70s with luminaries like Allen Toussaint, Lamont Dozier and Swamp Dogg. Cheating songs were a specialty. On this playlist, he makes doing wrong sound irresistible, especially on a string of horn-driven blues gems cut at the end of his career for Mississippi's Malaco Records.
