Page 50 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2018

Living Legend:

Otis Rush

“Let Me hear You say Yeah!” Otis Rush, recording his album Cold Day in Hell on his birthday,
April 29, 1975. Photo by Amy van Singel, courtesy BluEsoterica Archives

By Jim O’Neal record companies, better pay for his talent and more respect
As soon as Otis Rush’s first record, “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” from the music world. Frustration, distrust and other problems
hit the streets in 1956, it was clear that an extraordinary plagued him. Yet he could still find release when he was on
young blues talent had emerged. The intensity and passion stage and his brilliance could shine.
of that record would characterize Rush’s best moments, on Blues ran deep in Otis Rush, and not just in a musical sense.
record and onstage, throughout his career, with the record When he sang “Some of this generation is millionaires, it’s hard
hitting the rhythm and blues charts and bringing Otis national for me to keep decent clothes to wear” in “Double Trouble,” he
bookings. was echoing pain and shame that dated back to the hardships
Otis Rush can indeed be proud of many highlights over and poverty of his childhood. Born on a farm near Philadelphia,
the years, as well as the influence his music exerted on MS, on April 29, 1934 (or sometime between 1932 and 1935
Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many – no birth certificate exists), he left home as a teenager, got
others. But his career never reached the heights that his talent married and farmed on his own before he settled in Chicago and
merited. He recorded masterpieces like “Double Trouble” and started working a series of day jobs. His main musical influence
“All Your Love (I Miss Loving).” He could amaze audiences initially was Muddy Waters, but Otis’ unique style, shaped by
with his guitar excursions or evoke tears or goosebumps (mine his self-taught method of holding the guitar upside down so he
included) with the sheer depth of emotion in his singing and could play left-handed, owed more to T-Bone Walker, B.B. King
playing. That was more than enough for diehard fans, but and later to Albert King. But he incorporated bits and pieces from
maybe Otis needed more showmanship and upbeat music many sources, from Charles Brown to Jody Williams to Jimmy
to reach a wider audience. He certainly needed better luck Smith, and once told me he tried to make his guitar sound like
and, from his point of view, he deserved better treatment from the way his older brother Leroy whistled.

Otis at Wise Fools Pub in Chicago, 1975. Performing for a British television crew at Eddie's Place in Chicago, 1975.
Photo by Amy van Singel, courtesy BluEsoterica Archive Photo by Amy van Singel, courtesy BluEsoterica Archives

48 Blues Festival Guide 2018