Portland bluesman Paul DeLay dies
03:00 PM PST on Wednesday, March 7, 2007
By DAVID KROUGH, kgw.com Staff
Paul DeLay, a favorite of the Portland blues scene died suddenly Wednesday.
The harmonica player and bandleader was diagnosed with late-stage leukemia earlier in the week and his condition deteriorated at the hospital, according to guitar player Peter Dammann. He was 55.
Dammann played with DeLay since the late 1980s in the Paul Delay band and also organizes the Waterfront Blues Festival. The band played for two decades in the Northwest and around the world for national acts, and released a half-dozen records.
It happened really fast, and (was) something nobody saw coming, Dammann said.
The band's last show was a headlining gig at the Ross Ragland Theater in Klamath Falls. Before that, the band spent a week in Mexico, playing benefits for a Mayan childrenís charity.
He seemed a little winded and fatigued, but in any case, it seemed like no big deal, Dammann said, noting that DeLay also suffered from adult diabetes.
DeLay won the Handy Award for best instrumentalist, recording of the year by the Portland Music Association in 1992 and several awards from the Cascade Blues Association