Blues Hall of Fame rhythm and blues artist Otis Clay, known as much for his big heart and charitable work in Chicago as for his singing, has died. He was 73.
The Mississippi-born Clay — whose gruff tenor-tinged voice on blues songs such as Trying to Live My Life Without You varied from his haunting but hopeful baritone on gospel standards like When the Gates Swing Open — died suddenly of a heart attack on Friday, his daughter Ronda Tankson said.
The one-time Grammy nominee received two nominations for this year’s 37th Blues Music Awards — Soul-Blues Male Artist and Soul-Blues Album for This Time for Real, his collaboration with Billy Price, Clay’s manager Miki Mulvehill said.
“Otis was the last standard-bearer for deep southern soul music, the really gospel-inflected music that was in its heyday in the late ’60s and early and mid-’70s,” Price said. “These styles change, and different styles are in the forefront, but Otis was just as strong in the past five years ... For that reason, he was an icon for a lot of us who work in this genre.”
Enthusiasts and record collectors flocked to Clay’s music because of its spare, “unvarnished” style wrought of the 1960s soul scenes in Memphis, Tennessee and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Price said.
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