Bill Dicey

The Great Bill Dicey, with his son Joe on guitar.

As far as I know it was Bill Dicey who started the NYC blues scene back in the 1970s. When I met him he was runnin' the show at Dan Lynch, on 2nd ave. between 13th and 14 streets, booking the club and hosting the Sunday blues jam. I first went there in 1979. I borrowed somebody's 335 and played some frantic Clapton riffs. Bill told me to relax. That's the best advice one musician can give to another; really the best advice you can give to someone who's doing something. You can't do something well unless you're relaxed when you're doing it. Bill always booked me and always asked me to sit in with him on Honey Bee 'cause I could play the Muddy Waters part. I remember wandering down to Lynch's one New Year's Eve; Bill asked me to sit in and I wound up playing the whole gig with Bill and Charles Otis, (I forget who played bass; it might have been Horace Evans or Claude Richardson). Bill even gave me a few unexpected bucks at the end of the night.

Bill recorded on the Spivey Label and here are some wavs from one of his LPs.