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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Paul Delay: another appreciation thread
Paul Delay: another appreciation thread
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kudzurunner
1983 posts
Oct 29, 2010
8:22 AM
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I put a bunch of things on my iPod this morning for an 8 mile run, including five versions of "You Don't Have to Go" (Jimmy Reed, Muddy, etc.), and when the Paul Delay version came on, I was blown away all over again. If you don't have the cut, which can be purchased at Amazon mp3s and was released on the "Bott & Paid For!" album in 2006, do yourself a favor this weekend and go for it.
http://www.amazon.com/Oh-Baby-You-Dont-Have/dp/B0012AO684/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288364724&sr=1-2
I was struck by a number of things about this cut:
1) Delay has an instantly recognizable signature in the particular sort of vibrato he throws on his notes.
2) He makes incredibly creative and unpredictable use of blow arpeggios and octave leaps. This makes his solos the opposite of whatever one might mean by "patterned," "stylized," "formalized," whatever term one might use for those who simply follow the old Chicago rulebook. I won't name names, but the breed is easy to spot: If you find yourself listening to a solo to see how closely somebody is able to adhere to a particular well-known exemplar (Big & Little Walter, Rice Miller, etc.), you're listening to a formalist, and you're listening AS a formalist. If, on the other hand, you listen to blues harmonica soloists with the hope of being startled into a smile by something new AND idiomatic, something you've never heard before, something it hadn't ever occurred to you was there to be played--well, this particular cut by Paul Delay will please you.
3) Delay has a beautiful sense of time; his solos swing on a moment-by-moment basis, WITHIN the beat. Dennis Gruenling and Rick Estrin do this. It's a jazzman's approach. (I'm able to do it only occasionally, but in general, like Big Walter, I swing ahead of the beat in a fairly predictable way.) Delay is one of the few who can really do this.
4) Delay's style is completely modern, unbeholden to any particular player or school--although it is, for all that, deeply within the grand tradition of the instrument. Great tone, great blue notes, all the good stuff. And he does NOT use overblows. He proves, as does Sugar Blue, that overblows are not needed in order to be forward-looking.
This one cut, in short, convinced me all over again that Delay more than earns his place in my Second-Ten all-time list and perhaps should be considered for the Top Ten list. He is that good. This one solo is exploding with ideas that should provoke all of us to head back to the woodshed. I don't know how influential he's been, but he deserves to be. Those blow arpeggios, in a traditional Chicago shuffle context, are essentially an unexplored terrain (although Sugar Blue, interestingly, also uses them as part of HIS innovative approach.) The revolution they represent resembles the bebop revolution: they're the overtones (11ths and 13ths) rather than the obvious chord tones. Delay gets huge respect from me.
Last Edited by on Oct 29, 2010 8:33 AM
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captin beef harp
58 posts
Oct 29, 2010
8:53 AM
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thanks for this post
Paul Delay has long been a favorite of mine. even on his Delay does chicago his playing is like no one else. i do great big kid and what comin next in my set. and even though ive heard these cuts over and over for years his style still throws me.
i also think he has one of the best voices.
and made portland a blues capitol
and like Rick Estrin has a great sence of humor. take it from the turn around is a two in one. nice one to have
( btw eight miles im so tired now )
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Joe_L
754 posts
Oct 29, 2010
9:22 AM
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Paul deLay was a very talented guy. I've listened to his recordings. I've seen him live. He was a very skilled player, but his music didn't move me much.
I think he was a great songwriter.
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Andrew
1216 posts
Oct 29, 2010
9:35 AM
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Yeah, to me, a refreshing, new style of playing.
Interestingly, I had to get it from Amazon.co.uk - mp3 downloads from Amazon.com aren't available in the UK.
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Andrew,
gentleman of leisure,
noodler extraordinaire.
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chromaticblues
248 posts
Oct 29, 2010
9:53 AM
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Yeah you hit on the head with that. I love his chromatic work. I play chrom in third and I think he did almost everything in second ( I not sure about that I only had a few of his recordings from the 80's and early ninties), but it is almost hypnotic the way he played. A real visionary with spot on delivery. Great stuff!
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nacoran
3105 posts
Oct 29, 2010
12:07 PM
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I ran today! Ok, it was only across 2 streets so I could make both of them in one walk cycle, but I've been working out on a step machine and I wasn't out of breath, so that's something. I used to love to run.
I wish Amazon would play a little longer clip. Maybe I'll get out my credit card later and listen to the whole track.
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Nate
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tmf714
295 posts
Oct 29, 2010
1:02 PM
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Every one of Pauls albums/cd's contained at least one,if not more,tunes in third postion on diatonic.
Paul was a true visionary of where the harmonica can be taken. Gone way too soon-I miss Paul.
Last Edited by on Oct 29, 2010 1:03 PM
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wheezer
173 posts
Oct 29, 2010
2:12 PM
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My favorite is "All My Money Gone". Not only great harp but what about those soulful vocals!
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