Otis Rush

b. 29 April 1934, Philadelphia, Mississippi, USA. A left-handed blues guitarist, Rush moved to Chicago where his impassioned singing and playing on I Can't Quit You Baby brought a Top 10 R&B hit in 1956. He became one of the ‘young turks’ of the Chicago scene together with Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Magic Sam. I Can't Quit You Baby and other Cobra recordings (Double Trouble, All Your Love) from the same era inspired British guitarists such as Peter Green, Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor who strived to re-create the starkly emotive quality of his solos. John Mayall opened the pivotal BLUESBREAKERSwith All Your Love and continued by making Rush more widely known in the UK with recordings of So Many Roads, I Can't Quit You Baby (also recorded by Led Zeppelin) and Double Trouble. In the early '60s, Rush recorded for Chess and Duke where So Many Roads and Homework became his best-known songs. As blues declined in popularity with black audiences, he turned increasingly to college concerts and collaborations with white blues artists such as Mike Bloomfield, with whom he made an album for Cotillion in 1969. During the '70s, Rush toured Europe and Japan, recording in Sweden, France and Japan as well as making two albums for Chicago-based label Delmark. RIGHT PLACE WRONG TIME had been made in 1971 for Capitol with producer Nick Gravenites, but was only issued on the independent Bullfrog label five years later. He performed and toured less frequently in the '80s, although an album made at the 1985 San Francisco Blues Festival showed him to be on top form. The influence of Rush has always been greater than his commercial standing and like Buddy Guy, his former stablemate at Chess he has become a guitarist's guitarist. In keeping with the recent blues boom Rush seems destined to benefit in a similar way that John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy have. John Porter the producer of Guy's excellent DAMN RIGHT I GOT THE BLUES was enlisted to work on AIN'T ENOUGH COMIN' IN. On this, his best work in many years Rush demonstrates total confidence and experience and is well supported by Mick Weaver (organ), Bill Payne (piano) and Greg Rzab (bass).