Not many teenagers and even adults nowadays take the time to explore the different genres of music. Today music is so accessible, so why not explore? One genre that truly captures emotions and feelings in the soul is blues. A lot of the older blues artists have passed away and they are the ones that truly set the scene for the blues era. In result of the artists passing and newer genres becoming more popular, the demand and love for the blues has dissipated.

One modern blues artist, Annie Lennox, is changing the way people look at blues. Lennox is a Scottish singer who has released three albums two being covers and her most recent called “Nostalgia.” Nostalgia was released in November of 2014 and her singles are still hitting high on the blues charts. Lennox performed her single, “I Put a Spell on You” at the Grammy’s in collaboration with the popular alternative artist, Hozier.

The word nostalgia can be defined as a sentimental yearning for the former happiness of another place or time. The songs on the album deal with a lot of pain and nostalgia that Lennox has felt herself and inspired her to sing these songs. In an album trailer Lennox says, “For me I went deeper Because for me the origins of these songs come from the blues and blues come from something beautiful and painful and it’s the mixture of the two things that I know very well.”

Lennox, herself, is amazing. She truly captures the emotion with her voice and her personalization of the pieces. She sings “I Put a Spell on You,” originally by Nina Simone. In this song, she clearly knows Simone’s style and emotion, but adds her own emotion and her own feelings to it.

“I’ve brought all of my sort of pain if you like and beauty and all the complexities that I experience in my world. The things I see and the things I can’t resolve, they’re in these songs,” Lennox said.

Lennox sings many classic tunes that would be a delight to the ear of many blues enthusiasts. Many people who don’t listen to blues or have never heard the blues might thing that it’s a little old fashioned, but Lennox wants to make these old songs relevant to today. The only way to sing blues well is to put your emotion and personal experience into it. That’s exactly what Lennox does when she sings these and it’s absolutely amazing.

“I want it to be relevant to today. I don’t want it to be just a journey into the past. I want it to have resonance to today,” Lennox said.