One of the most incomprehensible mysteries of the music business involves one of the most beautiful voices of Blues and Soul of the last half a century and the reason why he doesn't seat, solely commercially speaking, on the same throne of fellow artists such as Al Green, Donny Hathaway or Robert Cray, just to mention a few.
At the age of 73, the American singer and songwriter William Pollak, better known as Billy Price, is still today one of the purest and finest singers you can possibly hear on a worldwide scale and an artist that has defined the beauty of Soul music, in particular, through his legendary live performances and hugely accomplished studio albums, like his latest called Dog Eat Dog, also reviewed by our website back few years ago.
Price, for the very first time in his remarkable career, has decided towards the end of 2022, to release a monumental 41-tracks retrospective career-span collection under form of a triple CD called 50 + Years Of Soul, which contains some of the most inspired on and off stage performances of the Pittsburgh-based singer/songwriter.
Truth to be told, 50 + Years Of Soul, is much a more than a retrospective view at Billy Price's outstanding body of work of the last 5 decades, something that can be easily appreciated also through the extensive booklet that comes within the triple album's package. It's a record that tells the tale of the rise of the American artist since his early days in Pittsburgh and the way his music, his confidence in his natural vocal ability and the experience gained, also, by working at some point with fellow artists like Roy Buchanan and Otis Clay, have all brought Price to be considered as one of the hottest tickets in town wherever Price was performing and still performs to these days.
Billy Price has wisely decided not to create an album setlist that would necessarily follow a chronological order of his career and related discography. Instead, the talented singer/songwriter has cleverly picked studio and live tracks, throughout the 3 cds part of 50 + Years Of Soul in a way that transports the listener back and fore in time, alternating songs and live performances in an instinctive way that follows the nature and the essence of what Soul Music is all about, which is immediate feeling and spontaneity.
It is, very likely, for this very reason that Price chose to put, on the same disc, tracks like his opulent 10-minute-plus medley of 1981's "The Jury Of Love: Cry, Cry, Cry/BP's Dream/Eight Men & Four Women" from his They Found Me Guilty album with the Keystone Rhythm Band with songs like the rather heartwarming Absolute Love, from Price's 1988 record Free At Last or musical gems like My Love Comes Tumbling Down from the 2009's Night Work album with an outtake of Al Green's Let's Get Married originally recorded and never released back in 1979 on Disc 2.
Among all those breathtaking songs and live performances spread throughout this fabulous compilation, the sole thing that never changes is the purity and the beauty of Billy Price's voice; soulful, intense, passionate and powerful, never losing its intensity throughout the many years of Price's glorious career.
"It began at the Fox Cafe' in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, at the corner of Walnut and Bellefonte..", the sleeve notes of this magnificent retrospective collection state and what a stunning journey this has been, so far, for the New Jersey-born singer/songwriter. Price is right up there with the best names in the music business and his talent knows no limits.
50 + Years Of Soul is the perfect soundtrack for your Sunday mornings and for your late nights, no matter the weather outside. Most importantly, it is the ultimate musical statement of one of the best Soul singers and performers of the last 5 decades of American music.
50 + Years Of Soul is out now and it is available to be purchased via Amazon