The MC introducing Otis Clay on this live recording from the Lucerne Blues Festival calls him the “voice of America,” and this bit of hyperbole suggests how longevity can allow a relatively obscure artist to be presented as a legend. Otis Clay, a gospel singer who shifted to rhythm & blues during the 1960s, is best known for his early-’70s recordings on Hi, where Willie Mitchell produced his biggest hit, 1972’s “Trying To Live My Life Without You”, which rose to #24 on the R&B charts. Such statistics are hardly artistic barometers, of course, but they sure spoke loudly for his more gifted Hi colleague, Al Green.
In recent years, Clay has divided his efforts between gospel and old-school soul, and the mostly secular selections on Respect Yourself dance on the border between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Clay’s still got a gutsy growl of a voice, but his live set smacks of supper-club soul. The repertoire is mostly a collection of hits by others, including Green (“Love And Happiness”), O.V. Wright (“Nickel And A Nail”), and the Staple Singers (the title track). One nice surprise is Clay’s revival of the pre-P-Funk hit by the Parliaments, “I Just Wanna Testify”. But none of these covers shed new light on the originals, and the eight-piece, brass-inflected band is not much more than adequate.
Heaven knows, the world needs more great soul music. But the next time I reach for a continental live album by Otis, it’ll be Otis Redding’s Live In Europe.