My father’s incidental influence on the music I listened to during my formative years petered out as I got older. He usually bought whatever was offered through the Columbia House record club, mostly pop schlock that I had little interest in. Once in a while he’d order some records or CDs that collected dust, and those were usually the ones I noticed. He bought a series of CDs called Atlantic Blues, for instance, packed with great blues artists from the Atlantic label I’d never heard of it. Some were blues, some where R&B — cool cats like Van ‘Piano Man’ Walls, Rufus Thomas, Jay Mcshane, Mama Yancey, Jimmy Yancey, John Hammond Jr, Jack Dupree, Sippie Wallace, and Professor Longhair — and they were all an education for me. “Nothin’ Stays The Same Forever,” by Percy Mayfield, is the killer track on that collection that hit me the hardest and still does.

(It takes about 10 seconds before the music starts.)