had that extra something special,” says Bellamy’s longtime friend and promoter Dawayne Gilley. “I felt lucky to be able to work with a one-of-a-kind artist - a first-rate singer and guitarist, a true professional as a studio arranger and producer, a distinctive and clever songwriter, and a vibrant entertainer who could keep an audience engaged and laughing.” “I happened to see him at the Club Paradox in 1999 just as all that was coming together, and knew he needed to be recorded,” O'Neal adds. had stayed under the radar as a guitarist and bandleader for other performers until put together a blues act in Kansas City that was fresh, exciting and original,” says O’Neal. Teaming up with Jim O’Neal, record producer and former editor of Living Blues Magazine, Bellamy recorded two critically acclaimed CDs as a band leader: “ Water to Wine” and “ Give Some Body to Somebody.” A veteran record producer, O’Neal was delighted with the opportunity to work with Bellamy. It’s just amazing that the rest of the world has not become aware of it yet,” Bellamy said. “I had no idea, until I moved here, of the musicianship in this city.

He was amazed at the vibrancy of the local blues scene. In the late 1990s, Bellamy moved with his daughter to Kansas City, Kansas. In between recording sessions and international tours with Everett, Bellamy played with Donny Hathaway, Billy Stewart, Walter Jackson, Gene Chandler, the Chi-Lites, Jimmy Reed, Otis Clay, Artie “Blues Boy” White, the Staple Singers, Bob Seger and others. His first big break came when he joined the Betty Everett group. In 1967, he recorded his first 45 under the name Gregory Washington. He picked up the guitar as a teenager and began accompanying local vocal groups. I’d get home at 1 or 2 in the morning, 12 years old, riding the train.” “At a young age my mother would let me travel almost 10 miles by myself late at night to go to a stage show at the Regal Theater. “I was like, ‘I want to do that.’ Plus he gets girls!” Bellamy recalled. His half-brother, Curtis Mayfield, often rehearsed with his band the Impressions in the living room of Bellamy’s family home. Bellamy was 'a distinctive and clever songwriter, and a vibrant entertainer who could keep an audience engaged and laughing,' says Jim O’Neal, who produced two of Bellamy's CDs.īellamy grew up on the West Side of Chicago surrounded by music.

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