News archive
February 2025
Filter
174 articles
- February 21
-
- Transform your voice in just 12 months - score a year’s worth of vocal lessons for just $99 with 30 Day Singer
- Teenage Engineering celebrates 10 years of the Pocket Operator, the "world’s most affordable and accessible music machine"
- “The solos were not planned, they were spontaneously playing off of each other. We were really good at that": Joe Walsh tells the story of the Hotel California solo
- “There's a time and a place to bail out with dignity and grace - and not just flog a dead horse”: Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray says the band will split before they end up embarrassing themselves
- "I was having regular panic attacks about not being in control and being exploited": James Blake on how ditching his label and going independent has revitalized his career
- “We want your subscription to go to the artist you listen to. Nobody can fraud that”: Deezer's CEO takes on streaming giants with fairer royalties for artists
- “They’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all”: John Lydon writes off Sex Pistols tour as "karaoke"
- “In my head I was there with Freddie in those moments, even though this was happening long after he was gone”: How Brian May completed the last Queen song that Freddie Mercury wrote alone
- “Without small venues you wouldn’t have Depeche Mode, which is a world not really worth living in”: Kelly Lee Owens worries that clubs could be dead within the decade
- MusicRadar deals of the week: Score an impressive £487 off a Fender Jazzmaster, as well as hundreds off recording gear from Beyerdynamic and Universal Audio
- Native Instruments heads east for Scene: Lotus, its latest cinematic instrument
- “Your opportunity to own a piece of music history that is directly tied to two of the world’s foremost guitarists”: Gibson unveils Murphy Lab replica of Eric Clapton’s “Disraeli Gears” 1958 Les Paul Custom that he later gifted to Albert Lee
- February 20
-
- “It’s an old-fashioned piece of conceptual rock”: Steven Wilson issues album update and promises no less than the reinvention of the “extended classic rock solo”
- “We were always going to try to break boundaries and try new things”: It was the first No.1 pop single to feature rapping - and it came from Debbie Harry and Blondie
- “I have to try and talk about the neck without sounding offensive or angry”: Johnny Marr says satin finishes have no business being on a guitar neck
- “I don’t know why I’m apologising for Korg on their behalf…”: There’s a lot we love about Korg’s latest DIY synth – but it has one significant problem for owners of the original
- "You'll never read a manual again": How AI can help you learn to use your gear and instruments
- “The few who’ve played it say it's like having a spiritual experience with their guitar”: The $14,999 “urban myth” amplifier co-designed with Joe Walsh is finally available to order
- “The ‘gray bottoms’ have a little more high output – they have a punchier sound to them”: Joe Bonamassa and Seymour Duncan put pre-CBS tones on the menu with “Greenburst” Stratocaster pickup set
- “What if we made a record with guitars?”: Charli XCX teases new “Lou Reed” rock direction for her next album
- “I want to shout from a mountain top about this incredible technology”: Is Dreamtronic's Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro really the first artificial vocalist to finally nail the fake factor?
- February 19
-
- “The highest quality and most flexible polyphonic synthesizer ever created in a pedal format”: Meris has unveiled the Enzo X – is this “fully polyphonic monster” a game-changer for synth pedals?
- “There was a full moon and the curtains were open. Every time I looked up for ideas, I looked at the moon”: How teen prodigy Kate Bush created her timeless classic Wuthering Heights
- “These things work for me and I am finding out a lot of other guitar players like ‘em too”: Paul Reed Smith loved his Charcoal Phoenix so much that PRS has released this rare bird in strictly limited numbers
- “The crown jewel of grand pianos”: Native Instruments’ Claire: Avant creates avant-garde soundscapes out of the world's largest grand piano currently in production
- “I owe it to my brethren in metal not to have a Spotify account because they don’t pay people”: Cradle Of Filth's Dani Filth amps up music’s increasingly anti-Spotify sentiment
- “You would get suspended for even having a guitar”: Brian May says it was “illegal” to have a guitar at his school – but he and his friends played during lunch hour anyway
- "Fall in love with his royal badness all over again": Purple Rain gets new Dolby Vision and Atmos audio makeover for a one-night-only cinema rerelease
- “He is the only one who knew when his songs were finished… And I will continue to respect that”: Final Avicii collaborator slams new posthumous release
- “Three simple controls and one toggle that offer a wide range of sounds, perfect for beginners and professionals alike”: JHS Pedals expands mega-value $99 3 Series with Tape Echo, Rotary Chorus and Oil Can Delay
- "A great drummer whose innovative patterns helped shape our songs": Rick Buckler, drummer of The Jam, dies aged 69 after a short illness
- Spitfire Audio's latest instrument captures the sound of the Radiophonic Workshop, the hugely influential BBC department "purely for making bonkers noises"
- “Meeting your heroes can be disappointing, but not with Bon. It was our first real tour, and he was great to us”: Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott pays tribute to the late, great AC/DC singer Bon Scott
- February 18
-
- “I want to continue to have something that’s not microwavable in a world today where our attention span is pretty much lost”: Kendrick Lamar officially becomes the world's biggest hip-hop artist
- "It's a theremin on steroids": Soma Laboratory's Flux brings the theremin into the 21st century with sixteen dimensions of control over a supercharged synthesizer
- “Gibson was able to put the universe on it… the planet Mercury is here, and that is a little nod to a friend of mine”: Inspired by the stars and co-designed by the Queen guitarist, Gibson unveils exquisite Brian May SJ-200 12-String
- “You know I’m putting my heart and soul into new music”: Madonna teases new music as Confessions Pt.2 becomes a reality
- “He’s fighting as hard as he can”: Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon delivers an update on guitarist Andy Taylor
- "One of the most fascinating techniques in the modern synthesist's arsenal": This free synth plugin transforms physics into sound
- “I glared at him and stuck out my tongue, lowered my head so we were face-to-face with each other and said, ‘Aaahhhh!’”: Gene Simmons recalls the rivalry between Kiss and Black Sabbath in the ’70s
- “Jesus, that was hard! But I got it. I welcome the challenges”: Guitar hero Steve Vai reveals the difficulties of playing King Crimson music - and how he gets by with a little help from Robert Fripp
- “Our focus is on restoring the imbalance of gender, culture and privilege within the UK’s creative space”: Adele and Stormzy producer Fraser T Smith launches scheme to encourage more diversity in music production
- “Kiss just had an attitude back then. The four of us were so different, but when we got together it was magic!”: How lead guitarist Ace Frehley wrote and recorded his first classic Kiss song
- February 17
-
- "Steven cannot put himself under the rigours of doing a full worldwide tour because there’s a lot of pressure”: Why a recent live performance from Aerosmith's Steven Tyler was a one-off
- "Sometimes just a few notes on the piano are enough to be scarier than a 90-piece orchestra": What makes Severance's theme music so "eerily satisfying"?
- "I'm not planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath but I am doing little bits and pieces with them”: Ozzy Osbourne’s health will restrict his involvement in Villa Park gig this July
- Guns N’ Roses and Tool added to Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s final show at Villa Park
- Watch: Pantera and Bruce Dickinson unite to perform Walk in Paris
- "He was so drunk, we couldn't even finish the show": Surviving members of The Doors on the breakdown of the band and life with Jim Morrison
- Post Malone fronting Nirvana, Miley Cyrus channels Sinéad O’Connor, David Byrne and Robyn, Lady Gaga joins The Lonely Island… SNL’s 50th anniversary weekend had something for everyone
- February 14
-
- “Crafted for the true metal enthusiast, this axe embodies the soul of legendary guitarist Zakk Wylde”: Paging all “shred warriors,” Wylde Audio’s Berzerker takes the shape of metal guitars to new extremes
- “This company has not only copied the trade-dress, they have even assimilated the history of Musitronics into their videos”: Musitronics slams “$2 billion German company” for copying Mu-Tron effects
- “A high-spec instrument at a competitive price”: Sustainiac pickups, onboard Z.Vex Fuzz Factory circuits, a Night Sky Holosparkle finish? Manson lavishes Matt Bellamy-approved specs on updated M-Series electrics
- Adele or Oasis? The most popular breakup and love songs that guitarists and pianists want to learn to play
- You can now sample via USB-C using your Ableton Move
- “I said, ‘Of course we’re gonna be better than Metallica!’”: Bruce Dickinson explains why he was trash talking when he rejoined Iron Maiden
- Fender launches a slew of patriotic deals this Presidents' Day with hundreds off a wide range of USA-made guitars - including $200 off select American Professional II models and more
- SampleRadar: 345 free glitch drums samples
- “Not a single person paid. No one came in. I think I got a Diet Coke out of it”: Joe Bonamassa dishes the dirt on his worst gig ever
- “Joe is on fire! What better inspiration can you get?”: Steve Vai describes the “craziness” of his new music with Joe Satriani
- “The world’s leader in cast iron cookware”: Primus get a thorough panning for the 35th anniversary of Frizzle Fry
- “I am so honoured to have one of my biggest idols on a song that means so much to me”: Sabrina Carpenter snags Dolly Parton for a duet on a new version of Please Please Please
- “We were forcing some of these ideas into the wrong context”: Andy Powers on how the difficulties of designing a new Taylor electric led to the launch of Powers Electric
- “There is no pain, but it feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play”: Stray Cats rockabilly legend Brian Setzer has autoimmune disease and cannot play guitar
- “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”: Universal Music cave in to Chappell Roan and launch the Music Industry Mental Health Fund
- “I don’t want to be trapped again, with the same musicians making the same sound”: New John Lennon documentary sheds light on his dark, tragic, final decade
- 50 years of Phaedra: Tangerine Dream’s forward-thinking, futurist, synth classic is now an antique
- Chappell Roan’s Grammy speech triggers celebrity pile-on as pop’s big names step up to pledge charity cash
- February 13
-
- Feed your GAS habit for free with RePedal, an ‘AI guitar pedal maker’ that creates a new distortion stompbox plugin every time you click it
- “A nice fusion of synthesizers and epic pop”: Queen drummer Roger Taylor names the best song he ever wrote for the band - and the Queen song he hates!
- "Does he love her, does he not love her? People play it at weddings, but it has that strangeness about it…": As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, 10cc's Graham Gouldman and Kevin Godley discuss the making of their classic anti-love song
- “Seven amps and instant access to a crushing set of tones”: IK Multimedia adds former Ozzy shredder and Firewind guitarist Gus G to its signature Tonex lineup
- "Love is in the air, your AI Valentine's Day music is ready": We test the best and worst AI love song generators for the 'perfect gift' this Valentine's day
- The rumours were true: Thom Yorke officially becomes a Warp Records artist via a new single with Mark Pritchard - and a nightmarish video
- “Mick Jagger came with Matt Voss... his favourite song was Biting Bullets”: INXS classic album Listen Like Thieves gets the Giles Martin treatment for 40th Anniversary remix
- “It’s a privilege to be involved in this good cause… especially when it involves making a fantastic Les Paul”: Gibson unveils the ‘84 Les Paul Standard with Bigsby, signed by Johnny Marr, to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust
- Clash of the Liams: Prodigy’s Howlett misses out on Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nom, while Oasis’ Gallagher tells fans not to “waste your time”
- “Explosive passion and exciting energy!”: Watch Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes rocking out in 1999
- “Users can simply plug it into their instrument, connect earbuds or headphones, call up a memory, and go”: Boss refreshes the Katana:Go headphone amp – new look and exterior design, same sounds and features
- Presidents' Day is here, and that means epic music gear deals at Guitar Center - save $500 on a stunning Gibson Les Paul, $100 off the ever-popular Casio CDP-S110 and much more
- “When you’re watching a horror film and you get that tingling sensation when something frightens you – I wanted to create that in music”: How Black Sabbath became the scariest band on Earth
- "I don’t want to be part of anything that mentally disturbed": Here are all of the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees
- February 12
-
- “We always have one song, on every album, that doesn’t quite click. And we thought that Tom Sawyer was going to be the one”: How Rush finally nailed their most famous song
- “‘Let me see,’ I said. I didn’t want to see the movie. I just wanted to get eyes on it to make sure it was what she said it was. It was”: Sly Stone says he once acquired some very intimate footage of Jimi Hendrix
- “Charts, shmarts, man. Who measures that? Her album’s cool”: After being beaten by Sabrina Carpenter, Travis Scott is totally down for a collab
- Psst… Paul McCartney MIGHT be playing a secret gig tonight
- “None of my albums have ever been on any chart. I'm personally deeply proud of this”: Jacob Collier says he’s jazzed to be the only non-charting artist to be twice-nominated for the Grammy Album of the Year
- “It's like recording sounds across time”: How Yumi Matsutoya, one of Japan's biggest ever artists, used AI to turn back the clock when crafting her new album
- “Trust me, 20 years from now it will all be nonsense”: Kendrick Lamar scored the biggest Super Bowl half-time audience ever and Noel Gallagher isn’t impressed
- DrumCraft’s Urban Beats delivers pro-quality looks and sound for the compact stage and budget
- "I love them, they just sing, they’re absolutely gorgeous:" Mike Portnoy just crashed Sabian’s party with seven sexy cymbals
- Donald Trump’s tariffs appear to be benefitting an unexpected industry: K-Pop
- “A noise like God conducting the soundtrack to the end of the world!”: The classic Black Sabbath album with the most bizarre song they ever recorded
- February 11
-
- “Brutal looks, razor-sharp tone, and unbeatable playability”: Schecter unveils the Red Dawn series, sleek and shreddable S-styles with baritone, 7-string and EverTune options – and multi-voiced Fishman Fluence humbuckers as standard
- Could this robotic glove make you a better piano player? Researchers give pianists a helping hand with exoskeleton that improves finger speed
- “The best ever grime producer”: Influential producer and beat maker Terror Danjah has died
- “My ego was telling me, ‘These aliens have programmed you to be a rock star!’”: The famous singer who claims that extraterrestrials tapped into his brain!
- “I’m a Nirvana fan, but it was just a regular guitar to me”: Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt left unimpressed by Kurt Cobain’s “haunted” Martin acoustic
- “I thought it was my friend joking when the receptionist said ‘Bob Dylan on the phone for you,’ but I could tell as soon as he spoke, it was Bob”: Dave Stewart recalls his first meeting with Bob Dylan as he unveils new covers album, Dave Does Dylan
- February 10
-
- “Wth did we just watch?”: Seal stars as… a seal in bonkers new Mountain Dew ad
- “I don’t make the rules. We’re trying to do the right thing. It is what it is, I’m the singer. Get off my case”: Liam Gallagher responds to fans who’ve had their Oasis tickets falsely cancelled
- “The ultimate wireless guitar rig built into premium headphones”: Positive Grid cuts the cable with Spark Neo
- “Boy, he’s a weird guy. He’s got one orange sneaker, one red sneaker”: Gene Simmons on Ace Frehley’s memorable audition for Kiss
- “I think singers tend to be a little insecure!”: Iron Maiden leader Steve Harris recalls how he gambled everything by changing the band’s frontman
- “Even global stars must follow local rules - no permit, no performance”: Plug pulled on Ed Sheeran busking in India
- "There's a new free DAW in town": openDAW promises to open the door to music production for beginners, students and beatmakers on a budget
- “Radio stations all said Layne’s voice is wrong”: Alice In Chains and Jane’s Addiction producer Dave Jerden helped to define the sound of alternative rock
- Why did Jon Batiste have a Jupiter-8 plugin controller, a Maschine+ and an Ableton Live controller sitting on his piano when he sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl? We’re still not sure
- “Random dudes are allowed to criticise my Grammy speech, but they best put their money where their mouth is, otherwise MOVE out of the way”: Chappell Roan stands her ground on need to support developing artists
- “The Beatles and Ramones played 30 minute sets, and if I could, I would do the same”: Jack White bemoans fans feeling their ticket ‘entitles’ them to a mammoth setlist
- February 8
- February 7
-
- “I thought it was too pop. I rebelled against it”: How Ozzy Osbourne learned to love a song that was written and recorded in one hour and ended up becoming Black Sabbath’s biggest hit
- “I loved that he showed up with a $200 guitar… It’s humble”: Timothée Chalamet learned to play guitar for his Oscar-nominated role in Bob Dylan biopic on a beginner Yamaha acoustic
- Full Bucket Music takes on another rare vintage synth with Paralogy, its free plugin emulation of the Crumar Trilogy and Stratus
- “Can you imagine sharing the stage with your 14-year-old self?”: Donny Osmond uses “mind-blowing AI and CGI technology” to duet with… himself
- “Sometimes I can do the big drum fill in the intro to The Trooper. But even then it's a bit flaky, it’s not clean”: Iron Maiden legend Nicko McBrain’s “difficult decision” to retire from touring
- “The Netflix documentary will not be released”: Prince’s estate claims a “big win for his legacy” as it confirms that the completed but controversial 9-hour documentary about him won’t be broadcast
- “It’s just about being alive. It’s about the voice carrying much more information than words do”: The power and intensity in Jeff Buckley’s greatest song
- “Any other musical discussion that has taken place has been kind of anti-Brat": Charli XCX producers reveal a possible about-face in the direction of the multi-Grammy winner
- Discover new rhythms, patterns and sound palettes with UVI’s multi-faceted Mosaiq
- February 6
-
- “This thing is your one-way ticket to funky town”: Behringer’s long-awaited Mu-Tron III clone arrives and promises a rabbit-hole of retro-funk tones for just $69
- “There was a forty-foot cliff and I’d dived off it into the ocean. Apparently I’d said it was a good day to fly!”: The day that Ozzy Osbourne could have killed himself
- “I love it when people change my songs and make them their own. He flipped the lyrics round to sing ‘I saw the whole of the moon’”: Mike Scott says he enjoyed Prince’s cover of The Waterboys’ biggest hit, but did he really write it about him?
- “AI is about as close to reality as you can ever imagine”: Gene Simmons discusses the prospect of a virtual KISS and says the “future of entertainment is here”
- "Have you ever been playing something awesome and thought 'I should have recorded that?' Now, you did!": Jamcorder automatically records everything you play on piano - so you'll never lose a spontaneous jam again
- "Music genres have undergone a noticeable simplification": Study concludes that modern music is not complex enough - and it's all your fault
- "A staggering number of ideas to experiment with" : a new set of chance composing cards could be the 2025 update to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies
- “Dude, I'm just trying to make the song as best as it can be! You’re so impatient!": Studio footage shows producer Andrew Watt berating Elton John during the recording of his new album Who Believes In Angels?, a collaboration with Brandi Carlile
- “U wanna hear the raw files”: Producer Mike Dean tells streamers to switch off auto levelling on every music platform, and hear the music as it was meant to be heard
- This Valentines Day, say it with… strings, plectrums and some bargain-priced software bundles?
- “When we heard the album we were speechless!”: How Led Zeppelin's debut blew Peter Frampton away - and inspired countless guitarists
- “It was Gary’s idea to bring the Irishness back into Thin Lizzy": Guitar hero Gary Moore made only one album with the band - and it’s a classic
- February 5
-
- “I was like, ‘this cannot happen’. There’s a time and a place and it’s not with Glinda; she doesn’t have that kind of rhythm”: Ariana Grande tells Billie Eilish why she said no to the idea of having “trap drums” in one of her showstopping songs in Wicked
- Strum is a deconstructed, accessible guitar that anybody can play
- Toraiz ChordCat is a chord-focused groovebox that'll help theory-averse beatmakers cook up chord sequences
- “Jimmy Page arrived carrying a Waitrose bag. I thought he’d brought sandwiches with him”: How new Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary nearly never happened
- “How do musicians and young bands get paid? I can’t work it out”: Turns out that Gavin Rossdale doesn’t have the answers
- Arturia's limited-edition DrumBrute Impact 1984 gives its analogue drum machine an '80s facelift
- “The greatest heavy metal show ever!”: Ozzy Osbourne reunites Black Sabbath’s original line-up for a final show in Birmingham
- "Reggae is more freeform than the blues. But more important, reggae is for everyone": Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch a Fire, track-by-track
- "I’m not sure that journey is fully understood. And frankly, we probably haven’t done a very good job of explaining it": Spotify just posted their first-ever year of profit
- Beyoncé to tour Cowboy Carter in 2025: Here are all those global venues and dates - and how to get tickets
- February 4
-
- “Expect a heavy weather-checked finish, heavy belt buckle wear, light arm wear, and light neckwear”: The Gibson Custom Shop unveils its first Heavy Aged Murphy Lab acoustic guitars
- “We are convinced that we will inspire many Beatles fans all over the world with this beautiful acoustic guitar”: Framus reissues John Lennon’s record-breaking $2.86m “Help!” Hootenanny 12-string
- "I aggravated it so I could drive back to London and go to the match": Bill Wyman once faked toothache to skip the Stones and watch the cup final
- Here are all the winners in the 2024 Drumeo Awards. Did your favourite sticksmith make the cut?
- "We’ve heard your frustrations": Native Instruments responds to customer concerns, announcing Maschine 3, Kontakt 8 support and Play Series instruments for Maschine+
- “All the songs are about life on the road and things that were going down within the band”: Recently unearthed footage shows Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham discussing the making of the album that would end up being one of the biggest of all time
- “It meant a great deal to him and remains one of our most beloved of Jack’s treasures”: Cream legend Jack Bruce’s EB-1 violin bass to go on display at the Gibson Garage London
- “We used to play that song faster…”: Slipknot’s Eloy Casagrande reveals the secret lessons he gave his Sepultura replacement
- “I didn’t know what to do. It sounded like an angry wasp”: Brian May recalls the time he played live through Jimi Hendrix’s Marshall – and it didn’t go well
- Behringer releases RD-78, a $199 Roland CR-78 clone that promises to "bring the magic of the '70s and '80s back to life"
- Tool’s Danny Carey just invented an exercise bike with a built-in drum workout
- 10,000 AI-generated tracks are being uploaded to Deezer every day and it's fighting back
- “It had so much weight. So much power”: How Led Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown set the template for heavy metal and inspired a legendary punk guitarist
- “With Off The Rails, I was stuck – didn’t quite know where to finish it – so I went and saw Killers of the Flower Moon”: Jerry Cantrell reveals how Jeff Beck and Martin Scorsese influenced new solo album I Want Blood
- “That very first meeting we had was quite intense. He just wanted to know how thoroughly we knew the subject”: Becoming Led Zeppelin filmmakers tell of their first meeting with Jimmy Page
- “I just love the music so much that I just can’t give up”: Meet the conductor still working at 97
- February 3
-
- “We’re making new guitars that don’t exist for the sole purpose of writing something”: Polyphia's Tim Henson teases new 8-string meisterworks that could require a whole new guitar to play along
- "Stop trawling the small ads and boot sales": Kays Catalogue classic the JEN SX1000 just got reborn as a plugin and iOS app
- “It gives you that power that sometimes pop, rock and techno songs need”: Charli XCX's Brat mastering engineer Idania Valencia on her go-to plugins and the threat of AI
- Prince's former bandmate reveals her "total surprise" when, without warning, he gave her the nod to play the Purple Rain guitar solo in front of her hometown audience
- Spotify wins major court case, over controversial 'bundling' that lowered artist payments
- Grammys 2025: All the winners and nominees in EVERY category
- “He turned out to be the nicest, funniest guy I'd ever hung out with": Steve Lukather on meeting his hero, George Harrison
- "He was very particular on vocal sound. There was a particular tone that he liked”: One of George Michael’s backing singers on why she was one of the very few female vocalists who was able to record with him
- “We put a lot of effort into making sound design easy and visual. And year after year, we try to emphasise this even more”: The story of Arturia’s Pigments synth, from early challenges to the “huge milestone” of version 6
- Grammys 2025: All of this year's winners and losers
- “We were in between shots, around 2 or 3 in the morning... Just one of those moments that you knew something big was happening”: Actor Mekhi Phifer on being one of the first people to hear Eminem’s Lose Yourself
- “We toured with Mötley Crüe, and I was like, ‘Please tell me I'm not going to end up like that!’”: Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson recalls his wild years in the ’80s
- February 2
- February 1
-
- “It's a song with enough twists and quirks to make it stand out from the pop landscape”: A music professor breaks down Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe!
- “Part of a beautiful American tradition”: A music theory expert explains the country roots of Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em, and why it also owes a debt to the blues