Paul deLay
I have to put a word in for my favourite harp player Paul deLay. There's a lot of great players out there today but the one I enjoy listening to the most is Paul deLay. I'd rank him as one of the top 5 harp players of the modern age (i.e. post Little Walter etc). A fantastic, original and melodic diatonic and chromatic player. He was also a great singer and songwriter and had a really tight band behind him. If you haven't heard any of his music then I can recommend a couple of his CD's - 'Take it from the Turnaround' and 'Nice and Strong'. If your serious about harmonica then you've got to go buy them!
100% agree... I've been a fan of Paul's since I was a teenager. It was a huge pleasure to play with him each time I had the opportunity. Peter Dammin, his guitarist and the person that did his booking, was kind enough to hook me up with his earliest recordings and he was a monster from the start. I remember getting calls from Hummel from the road on two occasions just to say how much Paul tore it up the night before and how imaginative he was as a player. My all-time fav's of him are "Jimmy Jones" for soloing on Heavy Rotation and "Why Can't You Love Me" for lyrics from Take it From the Turnaround... his solo on Kid Ramos' album Greasy Kid Stuff "Say What You Mean, Baby" is killer as well.
My intro to Paul deLay left me disappointed. The only album I have (and have listened to) of Paul's is "deLay Does Chicago." I've since removed that album from my iPod, except for the song by Zora Young, "Come On Home," which I think is great - but it's not Paul.
Is there a another album that would represent deLay better and give me a better opinion of his work?
The first time I heard of Paul was a couple of tracks of his on a great various artist CD called 'Blues Harp Boogie - 25 years of the Blues Harmonica'. They were 'Mine all Mine' and 'Harpoon Man' both of which I believe were from early deLay Band albums. Another one of my favourites is a track called 'All My Money Gone' where he plays mostly in second position on an Eb harp then switches to third position (Ab harp) for one solo. I spent ages trying to replicate that whole song and that one solo really threw me until I finally realised what he was doing. Prior to hearing that I'd never thought to switch harmonicas and positions in order to get into a lower octave before. Great stuff!
"Take it from the Turnaround" is a later anthology of mid-period Paul (taken from the CDs "Paulzilla" and "The Other One")in all his lyrical humor and passion, and with plenty of innovative harp playing. It's nearly two CDs' worth of material on a single CD. I've got a copy up on eBay right now.
I have to agree - Paul was one of the freshest blues harmonica voices every. But he had it all; as for his writing, I think he had the ability to write a Broadway musical if he had turned his energies in that direction.
"Take it From the Turnaround" anthologizes two earlier CDs, "The Other One" and "Paulzilla." But it leaves out a few cuts, and there's nothing on either of those CDs that's easy to leave out.
As it turns out, both "The other One" and "Paulzilla" are back in print. I had spare copies of both, and put them up on Ebay recently. "The Other One" sold immediately; "Paulzilla" is still up there, along with my spare copies of "Take it from the Turnaround" and "Ocean of Tears", his first all-new post-prison CD, which also has some great songs.