Pureplay of the Day: Aardvark Blues

The quest for great blues finds another watering hole in Aardvark Blues. This Internet-only station had us at Ana Popovic, the Serbian blues-rocker and favorite in the RAIN editorial office. Two days of listening has yielded many song look-ups and discoveries.

Launched in 2012, Aardvark Blues (www.aardvarkbluesfm.com) is donation-supported, and runs occasional promos. Otherwise, ad-free. the programming includes a respectful dose of traditional blues, but is mostly blues-rock with compelling backbeats and scorching guitar work.

Reliable streaming is provided by the RadioTuna platform. Clicking the “Listen Live” icon brings up a pop-up player (or new browser tab, depending on your setup). You can also use an external player — our test of Windows Media worked fine, but the music metadata (song title, band) did not transfer to that window.

If you tire of the blues … well, first of all, shame on you. But the same no-nonsense programming is available from the same Aardvark outfit on the rock side, at (you guessed it) Aardvark Rock (www.aardvarkrockfm.com).