New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Back in
September of 2016 Richard Cagle and the Voodoo Choir were due to perform at Rudyard's in
Houston Texas. Rich had recently met Clay and let me know that this young man has talent beyond his years. After the meeting Rich invited Clay to open for him. Clay did his numbers and left the stage, Rich took the mic and asked Clay, "Hey where you going - you guys got a couple more songs in you don't you?" They did and that bit of generosity was never forgotten by Clay and the guys.
Clay's roots are in blues. It was his Dad who turned him on to
Jimi Hendrix and like all of us the fascination with the Hendrix sound kept the young boy inquisitive to the max. His parents saw something more than fan based intrigue and bought him his first rig.
Young Clay would balance his equipment on his bicycle and peddle over to his friend's garage to jam at the tender age of ten. By the time Clay would reach his twenties his prowess on a six string brought the attention of numerous well known artists including Ian Moore, Kam Wilson, and Monte Montgomery. Now in his twenties he was performing at noted listening rooms such as the acoustically perfect dinner theatre Dosey Doe. He would go on to perform on the Chevrolet Main Stage at the
Texas State Fair and not once but two years in a row, a rarity indeed. All the while both men, Richard and Clay, were curious about what the other had going on.
Back in the fall of 2016, Rich on the other hand, had just completed Brad Absher's new blues album and he was right on the cusp of announcing
Annika Chambers' new album on the Montrose Records label. It was Rich that launched the career of the widely acclaimed Carolyn
Wonderland and prior to that Rich had been one of the recording professionals for Johnny Winter.
Even back in 2016 Rich noted that Clay had the chops. He could see it early on. Most recently, earlier this year, they met up at the International Blues Challenge. Both came away from the meeting saying we should do something together and now they are going to do just that...
