The neighborhood in the small Delta town of Shelby where I grew up consisted mostly of older people whose children had long ago moved on. In order to play with children my age, I had to ride my bicycle a mile away to a neighborhood called, “The Horseshoe” where scores of children lived. Because of this, I spent a lot of time at the Standard Oil service station located next door to my house to have something to do.
This gas station was a black owned and operated business and I stood out like a sore thumb as the only white child hanging around there. The music the workers listened to while fixing flat tires, changing the oil in cars, and pumping gas was the black radio station out of Memphis, WDIA. I loved all of those songs and to this day that music is embedded into my DNA.
The blues great, Otis Clay, was one of artists that we listened to at the service station back then.
Clay was born and raised in the Waxhaw community just south of Gunnison on Highway 1 in the western part of my county. He died last week at the age of 73 from a heart attack in Chicago.
During his vibrant career, Clay released many hits with Hi Records based in Memphis. Owner and producer, Willie Mitchell, who’s work with Al Green and others, enabled the small record company to release records world-wide and in doing so the small label received some huge recognition. All of this paved the way for Clay’s career.
Clay came from a musical family in Waxhaw. In 1957, he moved to Chicago where other Southern blues artists were relocating. He made his first solo record in 1962 and his first hit arrived in 1967 with “That’s How It Is”. Clay continued to land other hits on the charts such as “A Lasting Love”, “She’s About A Mover”, “Hard Working Woman”, “Is It Over” and his largest hit, “Trying To Live My Life Without You,”. Clay’s song, “Tryin To Live My Life Without You”, was recorded by the rock artist, Bob Seger and that song made it to Number 5 on the charts in 1981. Pretty good for a guy who grew up on the riverside.
Clay toured extensively in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He performed in landmark venues around the country such as the prestigious Lincoln Center in New York City where another Bolivar County great, classical pianist, Bruce Levingston has often played.
Clay was a Grammy nominee, inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2013, and he received other prominent awards and recognitions during his career. Clay also met and rubbed shoulders with all of the greats that ranged from B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, to Eric Clapton.
“Otis was the last standard-bearer for deep Southern soul music, the really gospel-inflected music that was in its heyday in the late 60s and mid 70s,” well-known artist, Billy Price commented in the Commercial-Appeal this past weekend.
Clay was an exceptional musician and I’m proud he hailed from my county.
Scott Coopwood, a seventh generation Deltan, lives in Cleveland, Mississippi, with his wife Cindy and their three children. Scott is the publisher and owner of Delta Magazine, one of the South’s leading lifestyle publications, the Delta Business Journal, the first business publication in the Mississippi Delta; and Cleveland’s weekly newspaper, The Cleveland Current.
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