Billy Price and Otis Clay - This Time For Real (2015)

Last year saw the outstanding "Soul Brothers" duets album with Otis Clay and Johnny Rawls; this year it's Clay paired with Billy Price (who calls Clay his "mentor and biggest influence as a singer") for perfect harmony on an all-soul-covers album that's an amalgam of Memphis, Southern and Chicago soul, with some Detroit and Philly tossed in for good measure. It sounds every bit as though it could be from any time between 1966 and 1977, the years during which Clay logged his nine national chart appearances. He is not only "still active," he is practically hyperactive; as besides "Soul Brothers" in 2014, he also guest-appeared on Dave Specter's "Message in Blue"; while in 2013 he put out his own phenomenal retro-soul and soul-blues album "Truth Is," as well as being featured on Johnny Rawls' "Remembering O.V.," a tribute to O.V. Wright, who was Clay's labelmate at Hi Records in Memphis in the '70s.
Duke Robillard does the producing honors here, as he and his band provide the instrumental tracks. It's a 100% organic, completely convincing and compelling gem of a job they do, with Robillard's great electric guitar, a smokin' rhythm section, and saxes, horns and keyboards to match. There is not the slightest letdown for all of the album's twelve tracks and 49:12 running time.