Otis Rush

jdgm

The great Otis Rush has passed away today at age 84.....alas. He had been ill for a considerable time following a stroke.

Otis Rush was the left-handed Chicago blues guitarist, singer and songwriter who influenced nearly every white blues guitarist of the 60s.
Eric Clapton's career trajectory would have been very different without him, and E.C. always acknowledged that by including a Rush composition in his sets for many years.
He wrote "All Your Love", "So Many Roads", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "Homework", "Double Trouble" (SRV named his band after that tune) and many, many more classics.
He played left-handed and upside down, as Albert King did.

R.I.P. One of the greatest ever.

prowla

How bizarre, I was just listening to Otis Redding when I read this; I had to do a double take there. Unfortunately, he didn't have quite as good a run in life as Otis Rush and died a few months after the Monterey Festival.

richardhomer

Great player - RIP

nocasternoproblem

Sad news.  So Many Roads was one of the first blues numbers I learnt.

Jalapeno

scrumhalf

He also had a hell of a voice.

RIP.

EricTheWeary

Just seen the news. When I was going through my blues nut phase he was an artist I didn't understand why he wasn't bigger. Awesome voice, awesome guitar and, from time to time, could pick an awesome choon ( Led Zeppelin ripping him off might be some testament to that). 
Lot of dark, foreboding blues; obvious influence on Clapton, Green and many others. IIRC he heard Ike Turner using the vibrato arm on a strat and set out to replicate that with just his fingers on heavy strings. Quite happy to step outside the typical blues formats as well and throw in a rhumba rythmn or odd chord changes.

He hadn't been well for a long time or active as a musician but soldiered on until 84. 
RIP. 

jellyroll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wClZqTt4bk