Ronnie Earl pays tribute to his good friend Otis Rush

Revered by blues and rock musicians alike, legendary guitarist/vocalist Otis Rush is perhaps the most intense, soulful bluesman of his era. Since the 1950s when he had his first chart-topping hit on Cobra Records “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” Rush has gone on to influence musicians such as Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Peter Green, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Luther Allison, and Michael Bloomfield. Rush, along with Buddy Guy and Magic Sam, pioneered the “West Side Sound,” a minor-key sound characterized by impassioned gospel-tinged vocals and bursts of arpeggio guitar riffs. His unique approach is offset by his left-handed technique – playing the guitar upside down and backwards: Rush bends the strings downward for dramatic effect.

Ronnie Earl has been described as “The John Coltrane of the guitar who marries the spiritual with the traditional” . Here he plays the Berlin Blues Fest in Berlin, CT.

Ronnie considers blues guitarist and vocalist Otis Rush as having the greatest musical influence on his life, as well as Magic Sam, Guitar Slim, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Wes Montgomery, all of whom have deeply and profoundly shaped and inspired his playing. Ronnie is a now a four-time (1997,1999, 2014, 2018) W.C. Handy Blues Award winner, renamed the Blues Music Awards, as Guitar Player of the Year. He has served as an Associate Professor of Guitar at Berklee College of Music, taught for five years at the National Guitar summer workshop in Connecticut.

Ronnie Earl has played alongside such greats as B. B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner, Otis Rush, Earl King, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, Etta James, and Big Mama Thornton as well as gifted young blues guitarists who he just might pull up on stage at a moment’s notice. #bluesfestival

David ONeil @The Blues Plate Special