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Otis Rush would be 88 today, unfortunately he died in September, 2018. His sound became known as West Side Chicago blues and was an influence on many musicians, including Michael Bloomfield, Peter Green and Eric Clapton. Rush was left-handed, his guitars were strung upside-down from typical guitarists. Rush had also a wide-ranging, powerful tenor voice.
In 1984 Rush was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Rush number 53 on its 100 Greatest Guitarists list. Otis Rush wasn't as widely known as B.B. King or Buddy Guy, but to blues fans and scores of musicians, Rush was powerful, unique and hugely influential.
Clapton said: “He got the sound that nobody else got.” He went further: “You can’t make the guitar do the things that they were able to do. And Otis had that voice, too. I mean, just a powerful voice.”
