Eddie Clearwater
| Eddy Clearwater | |
|---|---|
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Clearwater at the Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, Massachusetts, April 20, 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Edward Harrington |
| Also known as | Guitar Eddy, Clear Waters, The Chief |
| Born |
January 10, 1935 Macon, Mississippi, United States |
| Genres |
Chicago blues Electric blues |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer |
| Instruments | Vocals, electric guitar |
| Years active | 1953—present |
| Associated acts | Ronnie Baker Brooks, Lonnie Brooks, Muddy Waters, Carey Bell |
| Website | eddyclearwater.com |
Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater is the stage name of Edward Harrington (born January 10, 1935), an American Chicago blues musician. Blues Revue said he plays “joyous rave-ups…he testifies with stunning soul fervor and powerful guitar. One of the blues’ finest songwriters.”
Harrington was born in Macon, Mississippi, on January 10, 1935. Raised by his Cherokee grandmother in Mississippi, he began playing guitar at the age of 13. His family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1948. He taught himself to play the guitar (left-handed and upside down) and began performing with gospel groups, including the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. He moved to Chicago in 1950, playing predominantly gospel, and later developed his blues artistry after working with Magic Sam, Otis Rush, and others.
Clearwater is best known for his activity in the Chicago blues scene since the 1950s. He performs in the U.S. (especially around the Chicago area, where he resides) and internationally, having played at blues festivals in France, Germany, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands. His sound has been described as “hard-driving Windy City blues, soul-tinged balladry, acoustic country blues and gospel uplift….good natured fretboard fireworks.”
When he left the South for Chicago in 1950, he worked as a dishwasher while living with an uncle, through whom he met many of Chicago’s blues masters, including Otis Rush (also a left-handed guitaritst) and Magic Sam. Inspired by the music of Chuck Berry, he began performing some of Berry’s songs and writing in a style influenced by him. Clearwater still regularly performs songs by Rush, Magic Sam and Berry, as well as original compositions. In 1953, then known as Guitar Eddy, he began working regularly in bars on Chicago’s South and West Sides. His first single, the Berry-styled “Hill Billy Blues”, was recorded in 1958 for his uncle’s Atomic H label, under the moniker Clear Waters, a name given to him by his manager, drummer Jump Jackson, as a play on the name of the famous Muddy Waters.
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Wikipedia