Eddy Clearwater - Biography
By Marcus Kagler
Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater spent the majority of his first thirty years as a professional musician languishing in obscurity until his 1980 release, The Chief (Rooster Blues) was hailed as a classic of the modern Chicago Blues style. Hailed as “The Chief” due to the Indian headdress he often donned at live gigs, Clearwater was actually born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1935 then relocated to his adopted city of Chicago at the age of 15. Throughout the 50’s and 60’s, Clearwater was sidelined as a Chuck Berry knockoff, only issuing a series of 45’s that received little notice. Throughout the mid-60’s and early 70’s, Clearwater was relatively silent but he re-emerged in the late 70’s as a passionate blues guitarists with a penchant for feel good party jam sessions. When he released The Chief in 1980, Clearwater’s career was firmly back on track and today he remains one of the premiere Chicago Blues musicians playing festivals throughout the world and is still releasing albums of new material. Recently, Clearwater established the Cleartone Records label, which issued his live from Poland DVD, Live Rawa Blues Festival in 2006.