Eddie Burks (blues musician)
Encyclopedia
Eddie Burks was an American blues
harmonica
player and singer, well known for playing in Maxwell Street
Market, Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s, whose later career included a number of album releases, frequent touring, and work on the festival circuit.
, the 14th and youngest child in a family of sharecroppers. When he was a child one of his brothers was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan
.
After moving to Chicago
in 1946 he worked in a steel mill. While he did not perform blues because of his religious beliefs, he often attended clubs on the West Side of Chicago. In addition to his steel mill job, Burks was a minister in the Apostolic faith and had a storefront church, but he switched to playing blues full-time after the riots precipitated by the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968.
He played so often on Maxwell Street Market in the late 1960s and 1970s that he became known as "Jewtown Eddie" after the local name for the area. During this period he also worked as a sideman with the likes of Eddie Shaw
and Jimmy Dawkins
. He released his first single, "Lowdown Dog", in 1977, and this was followed up by two further releases. However, Burks remained largely unknown outside Chicago until 1990 when he released his debut album Vampire Woman on Rising Son Records (later renamed Rising Son Blues), a label he founded with his wife Maureen Walker. Following this his solo career took off, and he released further albums, toured frequently, and gained steady work on the festival circuit. In 1994 he appeared in the Academy Award nominated documentary Blues Highway
.
After his 70th birthday his health declined as a result of diabetes, but he continued to play in the Chicago clubs until his death in a car accident near Miller, Indiana
on January 27, 2005.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
player and singer, well known for playing in Maxwell Street
Maxwell Street
Maxwell Street is an east-west street in Chicago, Illinois that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West. The Maxwell Street neighborhood is considered part of the Near West Side and is one of the...
Market, Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s, whose later career included a number of album releases, frequent touring, and work on the festival circuit.
Life and career
Burks was born on September 17, 1931, near Greenwood, MississippiGreenwood, Mississippi
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi, and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. The population was 15,205 at the 2010 census. It is the...
, the 14th and youngest child in a family of sharecroppers. When he was a child one of his brothers was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
.
After moving to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1946 he worked in a steel mill. While he did not perform blues because of his religious beliefs, he often attended clubs on the West Side of Chicago. In addition to his steel mill job, Burks was a minister in the Apostolic faith and had a storefront church, but he switched to playing blues full-time after the riots precipitated by the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968.
He played so often on Maxwell Street Market in the late 1960s and 1970s that he became known as "Jewtown Eddie" after the local name for the area. During this period he also worked as a sideman with the likes of Eddie Shaw
Eddie Shaw
Eddie Shaw is an African American, Chicago blues tenor saxophonist.-Biography:In his teenage years, Shaw played tenor saxophone with local blues musicians such as Little Milton and Willie Love. At the age of 14, he was involved in a jam session in Greenville, Mississippi with Ike Turner's band...
and Jimmy Dawkins
Jimmy Dawkins
James Henry "Jimmy" Dawkins is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He is generally considered a part of the "West Side Sound" of Chicago blues.-Career:...
. He released his first single, "Lowdown Dog", in 1977, and this was followed up by two further releases. However, Burks remained largely unknown outside Chicago until 1990 when he released his debut album Vampire Woman on Rising Son Records (later renamed Rising Son Blues), a label he founded with his wife Maureen Walker. Following this his solo career took off, and he released further albums, toured frequently, and gained steady work on the festival circuit. In 1994 he appeared in the Academy Award nominated documentary Blues Highway
Blues Highway (film)
Blues Highway is a 1994 short documentary film directed by Bill Guttentag and Vince DiPersio. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short....
.
After his 70th birthday his health declined as a result of diabetes, but he continued to play in the Chicago clubs until his death in a car accident near Miller, Indiana
Miller, Indiana
The name Miller, Indiana can refer to two very different Indiana communities. The unincorporated community of Miller is in Madison Township, Morgan County, Indiana....
on January 27, 2005.