R&B legend Billy Price leaving town for Baltimore
The Pittsburgh music scene just got a lot less soulful.
Billy Price, an R&B/soul legend here since the ‘70s, is heading east to a rival AFC North town.
“I’m moving to Baltimore next month,” he said. “[We] sold our house and bought one down there — and hope to do more gigs in that area, further south, and in other places where I haven’t been playing much. I certainly know a lot of musicians in D.C. and Baltimore, so I expect to be pretty active down there.”
Price, born Bill Pollak in New Jersey, attended Penn State University and then moved to Pittsburgh in the early 1970s with his band, the Rhythm Kings. He became one of the city’s biggest attractions through the ‘90s with Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band and, in recent years, the Billy Price Band.
Two years ago, he retired from his day job as manager of communications at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute.
“My partner Mary and I have been talking about moving to Baltimorefor a while,” he says. “She has a daughterin school there and sister in Alexandria (Virginia), and she is a painterand wants to be closer to New Yorkand the East Coast.”
Price, who last year won a Blues Music Award for his collaborative album with Otis Clay, “This Time for Real,” has a new album coming out June 15 on Vizztone, for which he will play a CD release show June 2 at the Stage at Karma on the South Side.