Soul music at its best here. As usual, there‘s nothing to fault with Otis Clay, a genuine voice of southern soul from backwoods Mississippi who learned his craft in the churches, bars and Juke Joints of his native deep south before moving, like many musicians before him, to the northern blues capital, Chicago. Here he refined his craft and became an important and popular soulster.
Price, his partner on this 12-track recording, hails from Pittsburgh on the East Coast. A long-time fan of Clay and his music, he developed his own impressive vocal delivery and skill in the 1970s as singer and frontman on the road and in the studio with blues guitarist, Roy Buchanan.
The album itself was recorded in Chicago and produced by the great Duke Robillard who also lends his own band for the excellent backing on this release.
This is music grounded in the Gospel tradition of the South but with a modern, searching soul and secularity at its very heart. Robillard‘s band gives the whole thing a supremely soulful and gripping edge with bags of glorious feeling, understanding and sheer class.
The result of this quality partnership is a wonderful album of enormous quality and deep soul style. (Bonedog Records BDRCD46)
