Blues musician Sam Lay died Saturday (January 29), his record label Alligator has confirmed. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Lay was experiencing heart problems, was taken to a nursing facility near his Chicago home, and died shortly after arriving.
Lay, a member of the Blues, Jazz, and Rock & Roll Halls of Fame, helped bring Chicago blues to a rock and roll audience. A virtuosic player, he was renowned for his “double-shuffle”—a distinctive drum beat based on the double-time hand-clapping he would hear in church as a child—and memorable fashion sense, often see donning a cape and cane. Featured on some of the most iconic records in American music, Lay performed and recorded with the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, and many others.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama on March 20, 1935. He first played professionally in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950s. He would later move to Chicago and join Little Walter’s band. His next gig was with Howlin’ Wolf’s band, with whom he recorded “Killing Floor,” “I Ain’t Superstitious,” “The Red Rooster,” “Goin’ Down Slow,” and “300 Pounds Of Joy.” In the ’60s, Lay joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, with whom he would be inducted into the Rock Hall. He tracked drums for Bob Dylan’s 1965 classic Highway 61 Revisited, and was behind the kit in 1965 when Bob shocked the folk scene at Newport with his amplified guitars. In 1969, he drummed on Muddy Waters’ Fathers & Sons.
1969’s Sam Lay In Bluesland was his first recording under his own name; he would record six more albums as a bandleader. He recorded two albums for Alligator with the Siegel-Schwall Band, which he worked with until his death.
In recent years Lay served as the last living link between the present and the late musicians that had shaped the blues. He was nominated for a Grammy in 1998 for his performances on the Tribute To Howlin’ Wolf compilation. In 2003, Lay was featured in Martin Scorcese’s PBS documentary series The History of the Blues, and was the subject of the 2009 documentary Sam Lay In Bluesland. He last performed in 2018 at the Chicago Blues Festival.
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