Drummer Sam Lay, popular for collaborating with Bob Dylan dies at 86
Feb 01, 2022
Washington [US], February 1 : Chicago blues drummer and vocalist, Sam Lay, who played with Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, has died at age 86.
According to Fox News, Lay had died on Saturday of natural causes in Chicago, Alligator Records revealed on Monday.
He was known for wearing a cape and carrying a walking stick and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 as part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. "Words can't describe it if you like blues like I do," Lay told a news outlet that year, referring to the band.
He added, "I enjoyed the moment of it, and everybody that was in that band, I enjoyed. I learned a lot from everybody in there, and they claim they learned a lot from me."
Alligator Records said Lay was known for his "trademark, hard-to-copy 'double-shuffle'" drumming, based on double-time hand-clapping in his childhood church.
Lay, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, played professionally in Cleveland in the mid-1950s before moving to Chicago, the record label said.
In 1969, he played drums on 'Fathers and Sons', Waters' best-selling record on Chess Records.
As per Fox News, the musician had backed up Dylan on drums in 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival. It caused a stir in the crowd because Dylan played an electric guitar and had turned to a rock sound.
