Paul deLay

For originality in contemporary blues with a capital "o," one need look no further than West Coast harmonica stylist, singer, and songwriter Paul deLay. DeLay is the freshest songwriting voice to come onto the West Coast blues scene since Robert Cray rose to prominence in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1980s. Not surprisingly, he backs up his original songs with some very stylized chromatic harmonica playing that incorporates a sense of swing and jazz, largely based on the Chicago blues harp masters. DeLay was born January 31, 1952, in Portland, OR, but raised in the Ardenwald neighborhood of Milwaukee, in a musically inclined family. After hearing Paul Butterfield play "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," he became hooked on blues harmonica by age eight. He took his inspiration from Big Walter "Shakey" Horton and Little Walter Jacobs, and later, George "Harmonica" Smith and Charlie Musselwhite. DeLay took lessons on piano and tried to teach himself guitar and drums, but he found his true calling when he picked up the harmonica. He began playing along with records at first, and later formed a jug band in the 1960s. DeLay led a band called Brown Sugar, which played in Portland-area clubs for most of the 1970s, and then began leading a band under his own name in 1978. DeLay toured with Chicago piano player Sunnyland Slim and guitarist Hubert Sumlin for a few months that same year. When he got off the road, he concentrated his efforts on developing his own sound while leading his own band. He began writing his own songs in 1980, and by that point he was already a veteran of the bandstand. DeLay knew he didn't want to write standard blues songs, and to this day he avoids clichéd lyrical themes. The Paul deLay Band recorded four independent albums on their own label by...