Bobby 'Blue' Bland dies aged 83

Bobby "Blue" Bland, a distinguished singer who blended Southern blues and soul in songs such as "Shoes", "Turn on Your Love Light", "Further On Up the Road," and “I Pity The Fool”, died on Sunday. He was 83.

Rodd Bland said his father died about 5:30 p.m. Sunday due to complications from an on-going illness at his Memphis home surrounded by relatives. He was a pioneer of the modern soul-blues sound.

Bland was a member of the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Known as "The Lion of The Blues," was born in 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee. He moved to Memphis in 1947 where he began mixing sounds from gospel, blues and R&B music, joining the Beale Streeters, a group that included Johnny Ace, B.B. King and Junior Parker, according to Bland's biography on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website.

"His hallmark was his supple, confidential soul-blues delivery," the website said.

Bland received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.