
DATE: Saturday, July 26, 1997               TAG: 9707250092

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   84 lines

BILLY PRICE IS COMING BACK WITH GLORY-DAYS SOUL SOUND

BY DAY, HE IS Bill Pollak, supervisor of a team of writers and editors at a software research/development center in Pittsburgh.

By night, slipping into a sharp suit and Ray-Bans, he is soul superman Billy Price.

Not as many nights as when he was packing Norfolk's old Kings Head Inn. Not nearly. Price and his Keystone Rhythm Band logged long hours away from home in the late-'70s and 1980s: Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Charlottesville, Richmond, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago. . . .

The road, though, leads only so far.

``I was always trying to figure out how to make it in music,'' said Price, who makes his first area appearance in seven years tonight at the Corner Pocket in Williamsburg. ``It's important, but for someone like me, it can detract from the pure joy of doing it.''

His conclusion? He didn't have to make it in music.

In 1990, he disbanded the KRB. The next year, he enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, where he received a master's in professional writing.

Today, he's got the best of both worlds, supervising at the Software Engineering Institute and making the Pittsburgh club circuit with the Billy Price Band - maybe 10 nights a month in the summer, fewer during the winter. He occasionally gets as far south as D.C.

Price, 47, has been trying to get down this way for years. Credit tonight's gig to good timing; afterward, he's off to the Outer Banks for a vacation.

``You go to a club and see a guy playing or singing, that's kind of a one-dimensional thing,'' he said this week from his office. ``People are more complicated than that. It's kind of boring to do just that. Driving from Norfolk to Richmond, gazing out the window, I was starting to think, `Life's passing me by.' ''

The poor performance of ``Free at Last,'' his last of four albums with the Keystone Rhythm Band, figured heavily in the decision to pursue a new career. So did the direction the music had taken.

``We put heart and soul into writing and recording it,'' said Price, the father of four. ``It died so quickly, it was very demoralizing.

``Musically, where we were when we broke up wasn't where I wanted to be. I'm not much of a rock guy, and that's what it had become. It was just something you fall into. You wake up one day and say, `Hey, I don't like this anymore. I don't know how to pull the plug.' It had gotten beyond my ability to control it.

``I made decent money, it just wasn't enough to justify the lifestyle. The trade-off was working out on the wrong end.''

One thing that does work is ``The Soul Collection'' (Green Dolphin), his new album released this spring. A tribute to such unsung songwriters as James Carr, Syl Johnson and Lamont Dozier, it finds Price on familiar turf.

With guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and three horns behind him - the same lineup he's bringing to Williamsburg - it also finds him in glory-days form.

A bonus is his killer duet with friend and mentor Otis Clay on the latter's ``That's How It Is.'' Price and co-producer/longtime drummer H.B. Bennett had taken the tapes to Chicago to record backup vocals with former members of the Emotions when Clay showed up in the studio.

``H.B. had been bugging me for a long time,'' said Price, who toured with guitarist Roy Buchanan for three years in the mid-'70s. ``As busy as I am, it's hard to get myself moving. I finally said, `Yeah, we have to do something.' We put a rhythm section together and went to this funky, low-tech studio outside of Pittsburgh. It really clicked.

``I was able to finance it myself, which is nice. I don't have to answer to any investors. Now, I'm doing what I want. I have absolutely no reason to compromise. The fans who have followed me want me to do that.''

The album's success already has Price looking for a distribution deal. Just don't look for him regularly on the club circuit. He isn't giving up his career at the Software Engineering Institute, not for the long-term, anyway.

``If I get some distribution on the CD,'' he said, ``who knows? I might take a month of sabbatical and go out and do some festivals next summer.'' ILLUSTRATION: JOHN McWILLIAMS

THE BILLY PRICE BAND

IF YOU GO

Who: The Billy Price Band

When: 9 tonight; doors open at 6

Where: Corner Pocket, 5251-31 John Tyler Highway, Williamsburg

Tickets: $20

Call: (757) 220-0808

Directions: Take Interstate 64 west to 199 west (Jamestown). The

Corner Pocket is in the Williamsburg Shopping Center, on the left at

the fifth stoplight. KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW