OTIS CLAY

I have seen Otis many times and never get tired of watching him. It's like seeing Sam & Dave, Percy Sledge or Solomon Burke back in the day - brings back so many memories when all these folks toured in small bars and not large concert halls or arenas - where at the most there were 200 people in the joint. And the cover charge would be about $10.00 or so .... cocktails were extra!!

But of course, a lot of you never got to see those guys up close & personal .... LOL - He knows how to play an audience - and his cover's of O.V. Wrights tunes are great! As general rule I don't like cover artists .....

Bio:
Otis Clay made most of his best-known records in Memphis during the early '70s, but he's still universally hailed as Chicago's deep soul king. In a city filled to overflowing with legendary blues artists, Clay has become the proud standard-bearer for Chicago's enduring soul tradition.

Like so many of his contemporaries, Clay's intense vocal style reflects a gospel background. He made the secular jump in 1965, signing with Chicago's One-derful Records and issuing a series of gospel-tinged soul records that were a lot grittier than the customary Windy City soul sound. Clay inaugurated Atlantic's Cotillion subsidiary in 1968 with a supercharged cover of the Sir Douglas Quintet's "She's About a Mover," produced by Rick Hall in Muscle Shoals shortly before the singer joined forces with Hi Records boss Willie Mitchell. With the relentlessly driving Hi Rhythm Section in tow, Clay waxed his biggest seller in 1972 "Trying to Live My Life Without You," later covered very successfully by Bob Seger.

Although Clay's tenure on Hi may have been his most commercially potent, he steadily recorded and gigged ever since. He is a genuine hero in Japan, where he's recorded two sizzling live albums filled with the churning grooves, punchy horns, and searing vocals that inevitably characterize the best deep soul — no matter where it's recorded, a fact proved by another live set recorded in Switzerland in 2003, Respect Yourself, and released in 2005 by Blind Pig Records. In 2007, Clay returned to the studio and recorded the gospel album Walk a Mile in My Shoes on his Chicago-based Echo label.
Biography by Bill Dahl (Allmusic)

Review:
Best of the Hi Records Years is an excellent collection of Otis Clay's early-'70s heyday, featuring such songs as "If I Could Reach Out" and the classic "Trying to Live My Life Without You." Although these recordings aren't quite as gritty as his singles for One-derful! and Cotillion Records, the tight Hi rhythm section keeps things at a steady, sexy groove, so they are nevertheless excellent and deeply soulful and are arguably his best work, making this compilation an essential addition to any comprehensive '70s soul collection.
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine (Allmusic)