On Thursday March 1, 2007 blues legend Bobby Rush makes several appearances in Oxford. He’ll perform a song or two on Thacker Mountain Radio, and at 7:45 he’ll return to Off Square Books for a special event in which he’ll tell stories and play solo on his guitar and harmonica in support of his new acoustic CD, Raw. Later in the evening Rush will appear at The Library together with his full band and female dancers.
| The son of a preacher man, Bobby Rush was born Emmet Ellis, Jr., in the north Louisiana town of Homer; he later adopted his stage name out of respect for his father. He built his first instrument, a primitive guitar or "diddley bow," and in his early teens he was donning a fake mustache and appearing at local juke joints as a solo artist. In the mid-'50s he moved up to Chicago, where his bands included Freddie King, Earl |
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Hooker, and Luther Allison, while on jaunts back to his family home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he performed with Elmore James and James' cousin Boyd Gilmore.
Rush began working as a bandleader already as a teenager, and his entrepreneurial flair became legendary among fellow musicians, who fondly recall his working in disguise as the emcee on his own gigs and shuffling between three gigs a night with separate bands at West Side nightclubs.
Rush's popularity as a live performer in Chicago set back the development of his recording career, but he began to achieve national acclaim in 1971 following the success of his hit “Chicken Heads” on Galaxy records. Over the next decade he recorded for labels including Jewel, Philadelphia International, Warner Brothers, and toured widely on the "chitlin circuit," the decades old network of clubs that stretches in a rough triangle between east Texas, north Florida, and Chicago.
In the early '80s Rush moved from Chicago to his current home of Jackson, Mississippi, where he recorded a series of albums for the LeJam, Ichiban, and Malaco labels, and gained the title of “King of the Chitlin Circuit” in the wake of hits including “Sue,” “Wearin' It Out,” “Ain't Studdin' You,” and “Hoochie Man.”
Rush calls his music “folk funk,” an apt description for a blend that's both decidedly modern and deeply rooted in tradition. Over the decades he has consistently updated his show by incorporating new styles—jump blues, Chicago style deep blues, soul, funk, and even hip-hop—into a fresh mix. At the same time, his original compositions often stem from his dipping into the well of folk wisdom, as exemplified by songs like “What's Good For the Goose is Good for the Gander Too.”
His live shows with his band are legendary, replete with costume changes and comedic sketches acted out with the assistance of his lovely female dancers. In addressing a broad range of matters of the heart, Rush adopts various onstage persona—the adoring lover, the cuckold, the boastful stud—delivering all with a knowing wink that assures the audience that he's in on the joke.
In the last decade Rush has gained new audiences through touring that’s taken him to Europe, Japan, and venues including the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. In 2003 he was featured prominently in Richard Pearce's documentary film The Road To Memphis, broadcast on PBS as part of Martin Scorsese's film series The Blues.
In the wake of that series Rush formed his own label (Deep Rush), recorded a live DVD at Ground Zero blues club in Clarksdale, and cut a “roots” album, Folk Funk, together with guitarist Alvin “Youngblood” Hart. Although he’s continued to release modern soul-blues CDs for his dedicated chitlin circuit audience, he’s also recently begun touring as a solo act and as with small units, such as when he played at the Long Shot earlier this year with Cary Hudson, Cedric Burnside, and Kenny Brown. On his latest CD, Raw, he performs mostly solo, mixing songs he remembers from his childhood with covers by old friends including Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson.
On Thursday fans have the unprecedented opportunity to see both sides of Bobby Rush.
For more info visit www.BobbyRush.net
