Remembering Paul

I met Paul deLay almost thirty years ago after I'd returned to Portland (permanently, it turned out) to work on a children's film. I had returned west bag-and-baggage, owning no keys, after my world had fallen apart on Maryland's eastern shore. I needed a job and got one as A.D. and gofer on an indie film project -- got it too soon after returning, as a matter of fact. No time to get my head back on straight. At any rate, I was a fan the moment I heard Paul's blues harp. I grew up on Little Walter. We were both partying heavily in those days and ended up at the same bars, so I introduced myself and we became acquaintances.

We became closer after I started dating his ex, the pair still being tight friends. Later I was baby-sitting a lodge in central Oregon for Dick during his wealthy days and when the deLay band came to the area, he always put them up. More opportunity for partying. Paul was one of the few boozers I'd say was crazier than I was. I remember he used to drink room-temperature vodka straight, drink it like water. I get sick just thinking of it.

I got to know Paul more personally largely through his ex and to see a gentle side to the man, who like many artists had considerable energy, which often was self-destructive. As Paul grew as a musician, I grew less fond of his music personally since I belong to the old "less is more" school of blues and Paul's great craft took him into jazz-related areas of blues. I always admired him. I just listened to him less and went out to see him less (a typical deLay set would only have two or three old-school blues, the rest being more "complicated" than this).

Paul was always overweight and everytime I saw him after an absence he looked much heavier than I remembered. No one expected him to live into old age, I suppose. But this was still a shock. To have terminal leukemia that's only discovered just before the organs shut down! He probably had piss poor health insurance, being a musician.

I had a ritual during the 80s when I nominated Paul for the Governor's Arts Award every year. Nothing came of it.