Eddy Clearwater

Eddy Clearwater was born Edward Harrington in Macon, Mississippi in 1935. He grew up hearing the Delta blues of artists like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, and that sound stayed with him when he moved to Chicago in the late 1950s. There he started playing clubs, sometimes with harmonica player Big Walter Horton, and put out his first album, 'Blues From The Back Door,' in 1960.

He kept recording through the 1960s and 1970s, with albums like 'West Side Soul' and 'The Chief.' His songs often drew from his own life, like 'Came Up The Hard Way' and 'Mayor Daley's Blues.' The 1980s and 1990s brought some rough patches, but he kept working, putting out records such as 'Real Deal' and 'Cool Blues Walk.'

In the 2000s, things picked up again. Eddy Clearwater died in 2018 at 83.