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All Music Guide:
Sam Lay was born March 20, 1935, in Birmingham, Alabama, and began his career as a drummer in Cleveland in 1954, working with the Moon Dog Combo. In 1957 he joined the Original Thunderbirds and stayed with that group until 1959, when he left for Chicago to work with the legendary Little Walter.
Lay began to work with Howlin' Wolf in 1960 and spent the next six years with that group. He and bassist Jerome Arnold were hired away from Wolf's band by Paul Butterfield in 1966 and became part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, recording that classic first album. Lay toured with Butterfield until late year when he accidentally shot himself.
Lay backed Bob Dylan at the historic 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when Dylan first introduced electric rock to the folk crowd. He went on to record with Dylan on Highway 61 Revisited. He can be heard on more than 40 classic Chess blues recordings, and his famous double-shuffle is the envy of every would-be blues drummer. In 1969, Lay played drums for the Muddy Waters' Fathers and Sons album, now a classic. He was also the original drummer for the James Cotton Blues Band.
Later in 1969, he also worked with the Siegel-Schwall Band. He went on to form the Sam Lay Blues Revival Band, which has involved many players over the years including Jimmy Rogers, George "Wild Child" Butler, Eddie Taylor, and others.
Lay was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1992 and received a nomination for a W.C. Handy award. He formed the Sam Lay Blues Band and recorded on Appaloosa Records (Shuffle Master, Sam Lay Live) and on Alligator with the Siegel-Schwall Band, with whom he often plays. 1996's Stone Blues was followed four years later by Rush Hour Blues. Live on Beale Street followed in fall 2000.
Wikipedia:
Sam Lay (born March 20, 1935, Birmingham, Alabama, United States) is an American drummer and vocalist, who has been performing since the late 1950s.
Life and career
Lay began his career in 1957, as the drummer for the Original Thunderbirds, and soon after became the drummer for the harmonica player Little Walter.
In the early 1960s, Lay began recording and performing with prominent blues musicians such as Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Eddie Taylor, John Lee Hooker, Jr. Wells, Bo Diddley, Magic Sam, Jimmy Rogers, Earl Hooker, and Muddy Waters. The recordings Lay made during this time, along with Waters' Fathers and Sons album recorded in 1969, are considered to be among the definitive works from the careers of Waters and Wolf.
In the mid 1960s, Lay joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and recorded and toured extensively with them. Bob Dylan, with Lay as his drummer, was the first performer to introduce electric-rock at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Lay also recorded with Dylan, most notably on the Highway 61 Revisited album.
Lay's drumming can be heard on over 40 recordings for the Chess Records label, with many notable blues performers. He has toured the major blues festivals around the US and Europe with the Chess Records All-Stars.
In the late 1980's Sam Lay was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis. He was recently inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in Los Angeles, and the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He was nominated eight times for the coveted W. C. Handy Award for "Best Instrumentalist" including a recent 2005 nomination.
Lay has two recent recordings with his own band on Appaloosa Records and Evidence Records, and two recordings on Alligator Records with the Siegel-Schwall Band. His own 1969 release on Blue Thumb Records, Sam Lay in Bluesland, was produced by Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites. He was nominated in 2000 for a Grammy Award for his performances on the Howlin' Wolf Tribute CD, and was honored by the Recording Academy in January 2002 with a Legends and Heroes Award for his significant musical contributions. He was prominently featured on a PBS-TV broadcast of seven episodes on the History of the Blues, produced by Academy Award winning director Martin Scorsese.
Lay also shot many home movies of fellow blues performers in small Chicago venues of the late 1950s and 1960s. These home movies were seen in the PBS special History of the Blues.
