I. M. OTIS RUSH PnM.MiX

OTIS RUSH  (April 29, 1935 – September 29, 2018)

An architect of Chicago blues' West Side sound, whose style combined broodingly intense vocals and sweet, stinging guitar solos. (AllMusic)

- Tops (Otis Rush) Looking Back (Otis Rush) My Love Will Never Die (Otis Rush) It Takes Time (Otis Rush) Double Trouble (Otis Rush) All Your Love (I Miss Loving) (Otis Rush) Cold Day In Hell (Otis Rush) Checking on My Baby (Otis Rush) Love That Woman (Otis Rush) Three Times a Fool (Otis Rush) Right Place, Wrong Time (Otis Rush) Keep on Loving Me Baby (Otis Rush) I Can't Quit You Baby (Willie Dixon) -

Breaking into the R&B Top Ten his very first time out in 1956 with the startlingly intense slow blues "I Can't Quit You Baby," southpaw guitarist Otis Rush subsequently established himself as one of the premier bluesmen on the Chicago circuit. Rush is often credited with being one of the architects of the West side guitar style, along with Magic Sam and Buddy Guy. It's a nebulous honor, since Rush played clubs on Chicago's South side just as frequently during the sound's late-'50s incubation period. Nevertheless, his esteemed status as a prime Chicago innovator is eternally assured by the ringing, vibrato-enhanced guitar work that remains his stock in trade and a tortured, super-intense vocal delivery that can force the hairs on the back of your neck upwards in silent salute. If talent alone were the formula for widespread success, Rush would certainly have been Chicago's leading blues artist. But fate, luck, and the guitarist's own idiosyncrasies conspired to hold him back on several occasions when opportunity was virtually begging to be accepted.

Rush came to Chicago in 1948, met Muddy Waters, and knew instantly what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. The omnipresent Willie Dixon caught Rush's act and signed him to Eli Toscano's Cobra Records in 1956. The frighteningly intense "I Can't Quit You Baby" was the maiden effort for both artist and label, streaking to number six on Billboard's R&B chart. His 1956-1958 Cobra legacy is a magnificent one, distinguished by the Dixon-produced minor-key masterpieces "Double Trouble" and "My Love Will Never Die," the tough-as-nails "Three Times a Fool" and "Keep on Loving Me Baby," and the rhumba-rocking classic "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)." Rush apparently dashed off the latter tune in the car en route to Cobra's West Roosevelt Road studios, where he would cut it with the nucleus of Ike Turner's combo. (AllMusic)

Rest in Peace