Paul deLay
Friday, 26 June 2009 18:24
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(photo by Allan J. deLay)
Muddy Awards
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1989 Best Blues Harp
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1990 Best Blues Harp
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1991 Best Blues harp
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1991 The Paul deLay Band won Best Blues Act
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1991 "The Other One" won Best Northwest Recording
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1991 Inducted into the CBA Hall of Fame for Best Blues Harp
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1992 "Paulzilla" won Best Northwest Recording
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1995 Best Blues Harp
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1996 Best Blues harp
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1997 Best Blues harp
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1999 The Paul deLay Band won Best Contemporary Blues Act
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2000 Best Blues harp
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2001 Best Blues Harp
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The Blues World of Paul deLay:
Waterfront Memories and Harmonica Players
by Greg Johnson
Article Reprint from the July, 2001 BluesNotes
When it comes to Portland's music scene, perhaps no one style has been more productive over the past 30 years than the Blues. And, during those past three decades, a handful of performers have withstood the test of time, continuing to make their mark despite the passing years. Paul deLay is without a doubt one of these artists, surpassing even his own accomplishments consistently with every new release. This feat has not been overlooked, both locally and internationally, as Paul routinely receives accolades with "Muddy Awards" and nominations for W.C. Handys in recognition for both his playing and songwriting skills. When it comes to naming the elite harmonica players to be found on this planet today, the name Paul deLay is always found amongst those at the very top.
Recently I had the opportunity to conduct two interviews with Paul. Among the topics that we discussed were a few of his favorite memories from his Waterfront Blues Festival experiences, thoughts of fellow harp players past and present, and his upcoming new CD. Sometimes candid, sometimes humorous, Paul deLay is always an entertaining individual, onstage or off.
BluesNotes (B/N): Paul, you've played at Blues festivals all around the world, how does the Waterfront Blues Festival compare with others'?
Paul delay (PdL): Oh, it's as good or better than any of them. The business of doing two stages is not at all common. There's a wonderful momentum that you get with being able to have one band hittin' after another like that. It's tremendous. Also, the fact that the bands are playing 45-50-minute sets for the most part keeps things from getting monotonous. I've played a lot of festivals where you're doing more like a couple of hours and things can get a little less exciting. Unless you're somebody super, like Los Lobos at this year's show. I'm sure that if you give them plenty of time, they'd sound like there's never a dull moment.
The weather is really quite agreeable here, too, with the exception of occasional rain. I think I'm kind of due this year. I have a gut feeling the rain's going to land on us this time- But, I've played in places like Davenport, Iowa, a couple years back with Rockin' Johnny and it was unbelievably hot. It was really oppressive, really hard to function for me not being acclimated. Even standing there by the Mississippi River and all, I really didn't have an encore in me when they wanted one. That was also true at Winthrop. I was sitting in a truck trying to warm up my voice before I started to sing and I was actually passing out a little bit before I got onstage, because it was closing in around 115 degrees. You're not going to run into that down by the good of Willamette, depending on global warming, but it's very unlikely in that respect as well.
B/N: Peter (Dammann) has done a wonderful job of bringing in a variety of musicians over the years. Do you think that this blend is making the Waterfront more of a draw to everyone in general?
PdL: Well, I think for instance, the idea of bringing in Los Lobos is brilliant. Because, not only first and foremost will they bring in a whole lot of people and raise a lot of money for the Oregon Food Bank, but it might also bring in folks that might not be attending a Blues festival otherwise.
B/N: And, in the long run, they also get exposed to the more traditional Blues performers, like a Jimmy Burns for example.
PdL: Sure. What I think is really likeable is the overall vibe of the crowd. It's such a delightful bunch of people to be amongst. I can't even remember there ever being a fist-fight over all these years. And, that's not true of a lot of Rock and Country concerts.
At a lot of festivals you often see a lot of politics at play with booking agents and promoters regarding the bands that are brought in. I believe the priority here is to bring in the best people, not just who may be currently the most popular. The quality of the performers and the research that goes into who actually comes out here is something that is very special.
B/N: You've played the Waterfront Blues Festival many times over the years, do you have any particular sets that stand out in your memory?
PdL: I really enjoyed working with Angela Strehli (1997). I've played with her over in Norway, too. I just dig the heck out of her. She works with a lot of great harp players. I thought that I was cracking her up some and I get a kick out of her band, too. Yeah, that was a stand-out for me. It's fun just to be a harp player, to get deep into that old school thing. You can blow a lot that way.
The Rockin' Johnny show (1999). It was great fun to be able to invite those guys back. They were dazzled by the whole scene and quite impressed with Oregon in general. I drove them to a gig we did in Tacoma, and they were looking up at these big old fir trees. I'd sort of taken them for granted, but here we'd have these big wide highways with no pot-holes and the situation looked a heck of lot cleaner than Chicago. But, they said the Waterfront itself was the biggest and best festival they'd ever seen and they had a great time.
B/N: That same year you also did a workshop with Charlie Musselwhite on the third stage.
PdL: People are still talking about that. They still come up to me at gigs and say that they really enjoyed that little thing. I know that Charlie and I enjoyed ourselves quite a lot, it was really a lot of fun. I don't get to hang with Mr. Musselwhite near as much as I'd like to. He's a great guy.
Last year, I played with my trio (on the third stage), with Janice Scroggins and our drummer Kelly Dunn, after our set with the Big Band. It was just a golden day and the response was huge; very, very warm. I've had a great time both times on that stage, I could hardly pick a favorite.
B/N: Summertime usually finds a lot of festival work. Locally you're scheduled to appear at the G.I. Blues at Camp Withycomb (July 21st) and at Bronze, Blues & Brews in Joseph, Oregon (Aug 11th). Is there a tour in the work, for the summer or any other festivals?
PdL: We've got a couple of good-sized festivals up in Canada this year. Stuff on Whidbey Island and along the Coast. too. All of which are climates that I very much enjoy. Actually, a lot of that Canadian stuff will be new territory for me and sounds exciting. It's always good for me to go someplace where they haven't heard all of my old jokes. (Laughs.)
B/N: You have a new recording coming out pretty soon, "Heavy Rotation," on Evidence Records.
PdL: It should be out in a couple of months from now. We got a little hung up with some of the graphics and liner notes, unfortunately. We were hoping to have it out by the time the festival hit, but it will be a little farther down the line. We're very excited about it. I think it's the best thing we've ever done, and I think people will respond accordingly.
It's just the Paul deLay Band. I decided not to bring in any guest stars at all or to get too fancy with it. We've decided to just go within the band and feature the talents of the guys we have. It's all stuff that we can do exactly the same way you hear it live; well almost, about 99% of it. The whole album is sort of based around the organ sound up. It's a nice sort of style that you don't hear people use that much. The band is very much framed around that organ sound these days. 1 think its one of our most distinctive characteristics.
B/N: Are there any particular songs that are going to stand out on the album?
PdL: There's a couple that are way out of the strike zone. Yeah, there's one called "It Isn't Easy Being Big," that's . . . how am I going to say this? It should appeal to 1/3 of this country's population. And another very haunting tune that's called "Remember Me". It has some really crazy guitar and a very, very heart-felt lyric. It really seems to move people when we've played it live.
B/N: You don't find too many bands that utilize both a harmonica and saxophone player like the connection you have with Dan Fincher.
PdL: I think the two of us can blend very well, especially if the harmonica isn't too distorted. Using an electric Blues harp in section, if you will, to my ear sounds a little raggedy. But, if you try to listen to the sound, they can blend quite nicely. It's fun to solo your head off and play everything you can think of all night long. But, I think in the future you're going to hear my music take a turn. I intend to do things in sections with other instruments, using a lot more of the call-and-response style. I think that those two ideas are under-used and can be very, very powerful.
B/N: The style of music that you play has often been questioned by the so-called "Blues Purists." How do you vision yourself'?
PdL: Well, I could see where people with less imagination could feel threatened. I think that as far as "Blues Purists" go, they fail to realize that if you're going to play real Blues you need to do it out of your own experience. And, hopefully in your own way, with your own style. I've actually had people complain about my albums because they think I should be doing Muddy Waters, which of course I've always done and enjoy doing. But, if you're playing Blues, are you supposed to be doing what you're feeling or what somebody else did 30, 40 years ago? Let's get real here. I can appreciate both the arranged and the traditional guys like those in Chicago. I thoroughly enjoy doing things with both of them and would like to continue to record both traditional and more inventive material. They both have their problems. It's fun to just put down exactly what you're playing at the moment, but its also a great deal of fun if you really care about a special kind of writing to arrange a song. It's another perfectly legitimate way of presenting a piece of music.
B/N: In the past you have been quite open with the influence that Big Walter Horton had upon you. You mentioned earlier your respect for Charlie Musselwhite. Were there any other harmonica players that have left an impact on you personally?
PdL: Well, George "Harmonica" Smith definitely comes to mind. I met him when we played years ago. I think I was still in Brown Sugar then, so it had to be back in the mid-70s. I had a great time getting to know him over a couple of dates.
Mr. (James) Cotton's sound has been a bigger influence than I even realized. Especially when I went back to Chicago and I tried to play serious Blues harp. I found myself leaning on his style. I had the chance to tell him how much I really appreciated him backstage at the Handy Awards (1999), and I gave him one of my CDs. I had a word with him again at a gig he did here recently (at the Crystal Ballroom). I told him that I had stolen some licks from him over the years and the least I could do was come out and learn to steal some more. (Laughs.) He seemed to think that made good sense.
I think quite possibly the best guy out there these days is Carey Bell. I find his playing to be absolutely delightful. It's amazing to hear him go all over that same old territory that a lot of harp players do, but just sounding fresh patterns on that same old axe. He's very clever, very slippery and I think he sounds really way on top of his game right now.
B/N: You mentioned George "Harmonica" Smith. He's probably the single most influential person when it comes to West Coast harp players. What are some of your reflections on some of the other West Coast players, perhaps like Johnny Dyer or the late William Clarke?
PdL: I've worked with Dyer a little bit and he has a couple of slick licks. I thought that William Clarke was really making a heck of a lot of progress right toward the end of his career. The stuff he did on Alligator was surprisingly strong compared to some of his early work. I was really sad to miss Mark Hummel's show recently (Cascade Bar & Grill). I've done his Harmonica Blow-Down shows before. I was down there with Kim Wilson, Dyer, Hummel, Mr. Bell and myself. I remember being on a bill with James Harman, too. He just cracks me up.
Harman sat in with us at a show at Key Largo a few years back after the Waterfront (1996). You don't really run into too many people like that. He suggested that we do a shuffle, but he wouldn't count it off for those of us a little more picky. He was just in a mood to throw down. I reminded him of that night when I saw him recently when I was in California working on a Kid Ramos album along with him. Rick Estrin and Charlie Musselwhite He told me, "Well, if you don't have anything to say, then you shouldn't be up there, you know." (Laughs.)
B/N: I talk to a lot of people from around the country about Blues music and I find quite a number of them are familiar with Northwest artists such as Paul deLay, Curtis Salgado and Lloyd Jones. Do you hear any other local performers' names come up in your travels?
PdL: I suppose Duffy Bishop would be one that comes up. But, I think for those people, Curtis and Lloyd for instance, there's a perfectly good reason for the fact that people are reacting to our music, to their music. It's just the simple fact that they're extremely talented and dedicated guys. I don't see any reason why people wouldn't appreciate what we've got going on here in the Northwest.
There are quite a few folks that don't think Blues can be played west of the Rockies. I don't think that's so. People are very territorial on that sort of thing. Places like the Deep South or the "Chitlin Circuit," where they have had a lot of folks come out of their particular way. They're taught that old school and are not in a big hurry to experiment with it much. But, we've got to keep trying or the music is going to die.
I wish that some radio stations were a little less Blues-Rock oriented and played a few more of the classics. It's always interesting to hear the new products, but sometimes it gets pretty badly diluted. I mean, the idea if you're going with the music is to let off a little steam for crying out loud. And, cute songs about computers . . . I really don't think you can write a Blues song about anything having to do with computers and make it work.
B/N: Are there any players locally that you feel have something really special going for them?
PdL: I think that Robbie Laws has made really remarkable progress over the years that I've known him. I think he's coming on strong. I had the pleasure of playing with him a couple of times over the past couple of years and I find he's finding his own voice and showing a great deal of potential.
B/N: You recently got together with some of the other members of Brown Sugar (Lloyd Jones and Jim Mesi) at the Trail's End to do an interview for an upcoming documentary on the Portland Blues scene's history. Does it seem strange that 30 years down the road, the three of you are still at the top of the scene here in Portland?
PdL: You know, I guess that's kind of what we ended up realizing after we talked for a while. Why we have done as well as we have, which of course hasn't been profitable for any of us. (Laughs.) Nonetheless, conditions have been good. We're very lucky to have supportive families and really decent venues to work in. It's been great playing around here. It's been a little more on the hand-to-mouth side. you know, paycheck-to-paycheck, than one might've hoped. But, there's still time I think perhaps to write a hit.
B/N: What is it that keeps Paul deLay in Portland? I know that you grew up here, but with the recognition as being one of the world's premier harmonica players, you could probably relocate anywhere and still be quite a draw musically. So, why Portland?
PdL: This is home. No question about it. I'd miss it a whole lot and I've never seen anywhere that compares. I would just get too homesick anywhere else.
Make a point to catch Paul deLay perform at the Waterfront Blues Festival with the Paul deLay Band on July 8th, 7-7:45 pm on the North Stage and also during the Bill Rhoades Harmonica Blow-Off at the Festival this year on Friday, July 6th.