Chicago blues club legend Eddy Clearwater died Friday.

[Ike Bana]

One Friday night in the mid-70's we were at the original Kingston Mines on Lincoln Ave., to see Eddy Clearwater. We loved Eddy. The old, beat up building is packed, and halfway through the first set, it starts raining like crazy. And as usual, the rain start pouring through the roof. Eddy is rocking his heart out, everybody's getting soaking wet and nobody cared.

Eddy taught himself to play the guitar, left handed and upside down. He was often dismissed by asshole (white) blues purists as a "Chuck Berry Imitator." He played Chuck Berry as good if not better than Chuck Berry. For a short time he had this young white kid playing rhythm for the band and one night the kid started riffing ZZ Top's "La Grange" with that great John Lee Hooker/Slim Harpo blues riff. It was one of the best nights of live music in my life. He played his last show, an 11 PM to 2 AM set at Buddy Guy's just two weeks ago. We saw Eddy play many times...feels like I lost a friend.

It's a great loss for the blues and rock and roll music scene in Chicago.

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