Sam Lay

Sam Lay (* 20th March 1935 in Birmingham , Alabama ) is a blues - drummer and singer.

His career began in Cleveland in 1954 when he joined the Moon Dog Combo. He was a member of the Original Thunderbirds from 1957 to 1959 until he finally moved to Chicago to work with Little Walter . In 1960 he joined the backing band of Howlin 'Wolf with Jerome Arnold , until the two met Paul Butterfield in 1965 and became members of his Butterfield Blues Band . Lay can only be heard on the band's debut album .

In the same year, Lay met Bob Dylan when the BBB played as his backing band at the Newport Folk Festival . As a result, he left the BBB to help out Dylan on its '65 production Highway 61 Revisited . In the second half of the 1960s Lay worked a lot as a session drummer, he can be heard on more than 40 blues albums from Chess Records . For example, he played on Muddy Waters ' album Fathers and Sons in 1969 .

He was also a founding member of the James Cotton Blues Band in 1969 and played for a while with the Siegel-Schwall Band until he finally founded the Sam Lay Blues Revival Band, in which Jimmy Rogers , George "Wild Child" Butler and Eddie Taylor, among others, were at times played.

In 1992 Lay was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and nominated for a WC Handy Award . Also in 1992 he founded the Sam Lay Blues Band, which released their debut album Shuffle Master that same year . This was followed by Sam Lay Live (recorded in 1994 but not released until 1996), Stone Blues (1996), Rush Hour Blues (2000) and Live on Beale Street (2000).