A tribute to Paul deLay

A full, final tribute to Paul takes up three large pages of today's Sunday Oregonian.

clipped from www.oregonlive.com A big Buddha of blues JOHN FOYSTON As more than 1,000 fans and dozens of musicians said goodbye to bluesman Paul deLay last Sunday night, a battered road case of harmonicas was propped open on its stand and a microphone sat unused on a stool at center stage. "He never called it a stool -- that was his throne," stage manager Bill Phillips said in the crowded, clamorous backstage at the Portland Art Museum's Kridel Ballroom. "The crew set that up because we all loved Paul. The last time that case was open was when he played his last gig." DeLay's final show was a benefit in early March in Klamath Falls. A couple of days later, deLay went to the doctor with what he thought was persistent bronchitis. Instead, tests found end-stage leukemia. He soon lapsed into a coma. On Wednesday morning, March 7, Paul Joseph deLay died at the age of 55.