Glenn Pavone Gone

Glenn Pavone
Glenn Pavone, the long-time frontman for the Cyclones and the axeman of the Billy Price Band for nearly a decade, died last night after a three-year battle with cancer at the age of 52.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the Burket-Truby Funeral Home, 421 Allegheny Avenue in Oakmont. The funeral will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday in Riverside Community Church, 401 Allegheny Avenue, Oakmont.

Pavone was a native of Alexandria, Va., and started playing the guitar at seven, inspired by "Purple Haze." He started performing on stage when he was nine.

He first played with the Bill Blue Band. Their album "Sing Like Thunder," on Adelphi Records was a regional hit in the Washington D.C., Virginia, and North Carolina areas. Looking for a new guitarist, Billy Price had him sit in with his band, gigging at Desperado's in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., and he blew Price away.

Pavone came to Pittsburgh and spent nine years with Price's Keystone Rhythm Band during the '80s. While with the KRB, Pavone recorded the albums "Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band Live" and "Free at Last" on Antenna Records. The latter featured "I'm Gonna Win The War," where his writing was nominated for a W. C. Handy Award.

He went on his own to record and perform with The Cyclones afterward for the next two decades. Their debut CD "Twist This" had a hit track "Oh Babe" that was a local big seller, and was aired heavily on WDVE in 1994. They recorded two more CDs, "Twist That" and "Cyclones R.U.L.E."

Pavone was noted for two things. First was the way he could make a guitar wail. He played bluesy rock from the Jimi/Stevie Ray school, and was equally adept at lead or rhythm guitar. And he could finger the strings on his Strat like an old timey picker. He knew his tool; Pavone built his own axes, even the necks; nothing off the shelf for him.

He was voted Pittsburgh's best guitarist several times, and even received national recognition for his work. He turned down an opportunity to go national and join the Nighthawks, who knew well of his work (Jimmy Thackery was the one who set up his audition with Billy Price), because he didn't want to leave Pittsburgh.

Pavone was also known as one of the friendliest, funniest, and most humble guys in the local music world, always dressed in shades, a polo or tee shirt and slacks. In a City whose musicians sit in with one another and run in the same circles as a rule, Glenn Pavone was everyone's BFF.

Heck, Norm Nardini called Pavone "the Big Cheese, Glenn Provolone." And Pavone himself, as related by Rege Behe in the Tribune Review, when told he had won the Pittsburgh's best guitarist award, asked if the voters didn't mean the best golfer.

The Cyclones played everywhere. Not only did they hit the clubs and festivals, but they'd perform for the low-pay music series sponsored by municipal rec departments from Allegheny County, Pittsburgh and Monroeville so everyone could get a taste of the blues.

He got to be part of the documentary "Pittsburgh: Getting to the Bottom of our Blues (2009)" by Rodney Underwood, sharing the spotlight with the region's other talented but often overlooked blues players.

Like a lot of Pittsburgh music men, Pavone had a day job. His was with Field Environmental Instruments in Point Breeze, and he'd bike to work from his Edgewood home. He had two passions in his life besides music: his wife Nancy, who he met while with the KRB, and golf.

Now Pittsburgh's finest guitarist is gone, and way too soon. Charon is the only one that could take the title from him.


Glenn Pavone - "Voodoo Child" jam at Rosebud

blue eyed soul, pittsburgh style

Billy Price Band Blog

Billy Pollak has been blasting out Muscle Shoal style R&B for over three decades now, gigging up and down the East Coast. He's an institution in Pittsburgh, even if he is a transplant from Jersey. You might know him better by his stage name of Billy Price. He picked that nom de plume to commemorate New Orlean's blues singer Lloyd ("Stagger Lee", "Personality") Price.

As a teenager, Price listened to New York City's R&B stations, and from home it was just a short jaunt into the Big Apple to catch shows at the Apollo and other New York theaters. During soul music's peak, Price spent many of his Saturdays enjoying the acts of Solomon Burke, Joe Tex, Ben E. King, James Brown and Jackie Wilson.

While white America was into the guitar-oriented Chicago blues of Muddy Waters and B.B. King, Price dug the southern fried soul of brass heavy bands like Junior Parker and Bobby "Blue" Bland, belting out their rhythms with tenor saxes and trumpets on the Stax and Hi labels. It was then off to college.

He rolled into town from Penn State in 1971, single-handedly championing a crusade to get Pittsburgh hoppin' to soul and later, jump. Back then, the city's blood ran hot for doo-wop and hard rock. Price and the Rhythm Kings reintroduced Pittsburgh to R&B and the dance floor. He still brings down the house with "Can I Change My Mind," the old Tyrone Davis hit.

Billy Price first attracted national attention during his 1972-'76 gig with DC bluesman Roy Buchanan. Price was the singer on two of Buchanan's LPs. He toured the U.S. and Canada with him, playing such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Roxy, the Troubadour in Los Angeles, and the Spectrum in Philadelphia. After his time with Buchanan, he left the business briefly to get his degree.

Price then assembled the brass driven Keystone Rhythm Band in 1977 with guitarist Glenn Pavone and a brass section featuring Kenny Blake and Eric Leeds. Before their breakup in 1990, the band recorded four well received LPs and developed a strong reputation as a live act all along the East Coast.

They toured on a circuit that stretched from Boston to Atlanta with large followings in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and North Carolina. But when their last album wasn't the anticipated national breakthrough they hoped it would be, the group folded after a decade of work despite their still solid R&B sound.

Price quickly formed The Billy Price Band. In addition to performing hits from Price's years with Buchanan and the Keystone Rhythm Band, they incorporated some new sets of the blues, R&B, and soul into their act.

The band is a comfortable fit. As Price noted to the Post-Gazette's Scott Mervis, "I’ve been playing with Dave Dodd and Tom Valentine since the late ’70s. Jimmy Britton has been with me since 2005. Eric DeFade has played sax with me for more than 20 years, and Steve Delach has been on guitar for close to 10 years. Even my road manager, Pete Leary, has a 20-year gold watch."

They've also worked with Otis Clay and Fred Chapellier. His album with Rush, “This Time for Real,” was nominated for best soul blues album at the 37th Annual Blues Music Awards in Memphis and he was recently voted a 2016 Pittsburgh Rock ’N Roll Legends Award.

Price holds a master's degree in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon and is now the communications manager at CMU's Software Engineering Institute, where he's an adjunct professor. He's still cutting albums and the band performs regularly, occasionally touring but generally hitting the local club scene.

Catch his act. If you like it funky, you'll love Billy Price.

Can I Change My Mind

(You can follow Pittsburgh's Soul Man at Billy Price.com)