Every time that there is a new album release by the American singer/songwriter Billy Price, it always feels like a special event.
At the age of 74, the New Jersey-born artist keeps on delighting his audience and any Blues, Soul and R&B aficionado through this irresistible blend of genres that Price has mastered to perfection for many years now, a blend that can be very much enjoyed on the artist's brand new record called Person Of Interest.
Price's new album, just as our website highly appreciated on the singer/songwriter's last studio album, back in 2019 and called Dog Eat Dog, is an equally beautifully written, arranged and performed record in every single detail, with the American artist showing no signs of slowing down, vocally, with age, when it comes to deliver remarkable vocal performances as he does on his new album.
Armed with an impressive array of collaborators and studio musicians which includes, among others, Jim Pugh on keys, Lenny Castro on percussion, Tony Braunagel on drums, a Horn Section of the highest quality (Eric Spaulding, Mark Pender and Ron Dziubla), a highly skilled number of guitar players like Shane Theriot, Josh Sklair, Johnny Lee Schell, plus Joe Bonamassa as Special Guest on one track, Billy Price has sculptured 13 new songs that delve into Americana's traditions with the artist's usual touches of class, elegance and, above all, Price's well known and highly appreciated overall talent and musical vision.
One of the many secrets of chiselling great songs, it's that of finding the right balance between verses, choruses, bridges and to allow, at the same time, each musician to express themselves in a professional capacity without any sonic overspillage on a song structure, something that Price manages to do very successfully on each of his records, including Person Of Interest, obviously.
Billy Price's new record balances carefully the Blues roots of Memphis on songs like They Knew or The Gift with the typical Stax Soul sound present on more marvelous songs, like I Lose It or Mercy, with some rather fabulous excursions into R&B too, through the album's title-track, for example or She Checks All The Boxes, the latter being a musical ode to the perfect woman that many men aspire to find in life.
Whilst the homage to one of Price's most loved artists he worked with, Roy Buchanan, via a song called Change Your Mind is very touching, lyrically speaking, on the other end Bonamassa's presence on lead guitar doesn't add much to the whole arrangement, in our opinion, whereas Price's vocal intensity is what really takes the song to the next level.
Person Of Interest is the record that really places Billy Price on the same path with some of the greatest artists of Soul, Blues and R&B of the last 5 decades of music. An artist that keeps on delivering quality music with such an impressive continuity as the years go by.
Person Of Interest is out now and it is available to be purchased via Little Village Foundation
