BLUES LEGEND EDDY
CLEARWATER: JANUARY 10, 1935 - JUNE 1, 2018
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Grammy-nominated Chicago blues
legend Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater died of heart failure on Friday, June 1, in
his hometown of Skokie, Illinois. He was 83.
Born Edward Harrington on January
10, 1935 in Macon, Mississippi, Clearwater (as he came to be known) was
internationally lauded for his blues-rocking guitar playing, his original songs
and his flamboyant showmanship. He was inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame in
2016, and also won two Blues Music Awards including Contemporary Male Blues
Artist Of The Year in 2001.
Clearwater was equally comfortable playing the deepest, most intense blues or his own brand of rocking, good-time party music – a style he called “rock-a-blues,” mixing blues, rock, rockabilly, country and gospel. Between his slashing guitar work and his room-filling vocals, Clearwater was among the very finest practitioners of the West Side style of Chicago blues. DownBeat called him “a forceful six-stringer...He lays down gritty West Side shuffles and belly-grinding slow blues that highlight his raw chops, soulful vocals, and earthy, humorous lyrics." Blues Revue said he played “joyous rave-ups. He testifies with stunning soul fervor and powerful guitar. He is one of the blues’ finest songwriters.”
Clearwater was equally comfortable playing the deepest, most intense blues or his own brand of rocking, good-time party music – a style he called “rock-a-blues,” mixing blues, rock, rockabilly, country and gospel. Between his slashing guitar work and his room-filling vocals, Clearwater was among the very finest practitioners of the West Side style of Chicago blues. DownBeat called him “a forceful six-stringer...He lays down gritty West Side shuffles and belly-grinding slow blues that highlight his raw chops, soulful vocals, and earthy, humorous lyrics." Blues Revue said he played “joyous rave-ups. He testifies with stunning soul fervor and powerful guitar. He is one of the blues’ finest songwriters.”
Clearwater's musical talent
became clear early on. From his Mississippi birthplace, He and his family moved
to Birmingham, AL in 1948 when he was 13. With music from blues to gospel to
country & western surrounding him from an early age, Clearwater taught
himself to play guitar (left-handed and upside down), and began performing with
various gospel groups, including the legendary Five Blind Boys of Alabama.
After moving to Chicago in 1950, he stayed with an uncle and took a job as a
dishwasher, saving as much as he could from his $37 a week salary. His first
music jobs were with gospel groups playing in local churches. Through his uncle’s
contacts, Clearwater met many of Chicago’s blues stars. He fell deeper under
the spell of the blues, and befriended Magic Sam, who would become one of
Clearwater’s closest friends and teachers.
By 1953, as Guitar Eddy, he was
making a strong name for himself, working the South and West Side bars
regularly. After hearing Chuck Berry in 1957, Clearwater added a rock and roll
element to his already searing blues style, creating a unique signature sound.
He recorded his first single, Hill
Billy Blues, for his uncle’s Atomic H label in 1958 under the name
Clear Waters (his manager at the time, drummer Jump Jackson, came up with the
name as a play on Muddy Waters). The name Clear Waters morphed into Eddy
Clearwater. He worked the Chicago club circuit steadily throughout the 1950s,
1960s and into the 1970s. He found huge success in the 1970s among the city's
college crowd, who responded to his individual brand of blues, his rock and
roll spirit and his high energy stage show.
Clearwater's first full-length LP,
1980’s The Chief,
was the initial release on Chicago’s Rooster Blues label, launching him onto
the national and international blues scene. Over the decades he recorded over
15 solo albums and never stopped touring, with fans from Chicago to Japan to
Poland. His 2003 album on Bullseye Blues, Rock
‘N’ Roll City, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best
Traditional Blues Album. He released West
Side Strut on Alligator in 2008 to both international popular and
critical acclaim. His most recent CD was the self-released Soul Funky in 2014.
Clearwater is survived by his
wife, Renee Greenman Harrington Clearwater, children Heather Greenman, Alyssa
Jacquelyn, David Knopf, Randy Greenman, Jason Harrington and Edgar Harrington
and grandchildren Gabriella Knopf and Graham Knopf.
Services will be held on Tuesday, June 5 at 11:00am at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie, IL 60077.
