Wielding his hulking baritone with an otherwordly cadence (rumor has it, one record executive was convinced he sang in yiddish), Nappy Brown stormed the R&B charts in the 1950s with a string of frenetic gospel-and-blues drenched soul recordings. He reached a pinnacle on 1955's dynamic "Don't Be Angry," a swinging classic with echoes of early rock that snuck onto the pop chart. Sent to prison in the 1960s, Brown faded into relative obscurity. However, in the 1980s, he found new legions of fans in the blues world, and became a fixture at festivals, recording a host of records, and performing practically right up until his death in 2008 at age 78.