Left-handed Chicago electric blues guitar legend Otis Rush is a living link to a Chicago blues scene ruled by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter in the late fifties. But the harsh reality that Rush had never quite attained the status of those icons in no way is a reflection on his talents; he is in fact an unsung legend who along with Buddy Guy helped to define that distinctive, wailing "West side" Chicago guitar sound that is widely copied by generations of followers all over the world today.
For Rush, the impact he made started almost as soon as he walked into a studio to lay down his first sides as a leader in 1956. That's when he started a brief but very fruitful stint with fledging Cobra Records and put to wax some smoking sides that can stand alongside anything Chess Records was putting out during that time.
Rush didn't put out a proper album until the late sixties but these seminal Cobra recordings have been collected about twenty years ago into a compilation, Otis Rush, 1956-1958: His Cobra Recordings. On it are Rush's afflicted vocal and Willie Dixon- or Rush-penned songs which already puts these blues in the top tier category.
Rush's groundbreaking fretwork puts it over the top.
Those urgent skittering lines, long bending notes and repeating figures are now old hat in both the rock and blues canon since the sixties. But hearing guitar riffs common on a 1966 Rolling Stones song in 1956 gives you an idea why these recordings are so celebrated today.
It all becomes apparent right from the first track, "Double Trouble," a Rush original later covered by Eric Clapton. In this earlier form Rush's drawn-out blues is punctuated by frighteningly shrill, upper-register notes.
Article comments
1 - Josh
Well done and well said, Pico. It's marvelous to have someone else flogging Otis Rush around here for a change.
I have almost an identical package of these Cobra recordings, but mine is slightly different. Those early sides are some of the most influential and brilliant works to come out of Chicago. Brilliant.
2 - Pico
"Brilliant" is the best way to describe this collection in one word. Thanks for the kind comments, Josh.