Billy Price: East End Avenue

BILLY PRICE
East End Avenue
Bonedog (US) BDRCD-18

'It’s Almost Time For Me To Go’ exhorts the Pittsburgh-based singer but not before he rips into the bluesy opener ‘Keep It To Yourself’, one of five songs Billy Price co-wrote with Jon and Sally Tiven for this varied and exemplary soulful 14-track CD produced by Billy with Jeff Ingersoll at the Mojo Boneyard studio in McKeesport, PA. Local song-writer Mike Sweeney contributes six songs including ‘Soul Sailin’’, possessing a similar feel to Solomon Burke’s ‘Soul Searchin’’, the nostalgic trip down ‘East End Avenue’, and a tribute to Dyke and The Blazers on ‘Funky Like Dyke, part 2’. Keyboardist Jimmy Britton penned the light-hearted, jovial romp ‘If You Cook Like You Walk’ whilst a lengthy take on the ballad ‘Faithful And True’, previously recorded by Z.Z. Hill, is the only non-original track on display. Billy enters Robert Cray territory on ‘The Other Side Of You’ but saves his best vocal performance for ‘The Price I Paid For Loving You’, a scorching piano-led deep-soul gem.

On some of his past recordings, Billy has tended to over-stretch at times, but here he hits the target with a mix of verve and restraint. Together with a set of quality songs and a tight, funky band replete with horns and back-ups, this top-drawer release deserves to catapult him to a much wider audience.

-Ray Ellis

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