Two more down

It's only a couple of days since my last post, but there have been two more significant music deaths already - both of them artists who I saw perform in fine form only three years ago.

Eddy 'The Chief' Clearwater. aged 83,was among the most colourful of bluesmen, frequently wearing a Native American head dress in his act. Influenced very much by Chuck Berry, he was a popular blues artist around Chicago for many years, playing left handed guitar and appearing at the Kingston Mines club. His first record, Hill Billy Blues in 1958, was recorded under the name of Clear Waters, a play on Muddy Waters. He became better known in the eighties with albums on the Rooster Blues label and later recorded for Alligator. A regular at blues and rock and roll festivals, I saw him in 2015 at the Rockin' Race Jamboree in Spain. I wrote at the time that he made a stunning visual impression and was one of the stars of the festival. His set included the early recording Boogie Woogie Baby, a couple of tracks from his 2014 album Soul Funky, and two Chuck Berry tunes, ending with You're Humbugging Me and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On. The photos show Eddy at the Spanish festival.

The second death in the last couple of days is that of Texas born Royce Porter at the age of 79. Based in Houston, he recorded rockabilly for the Spade label before achieving success with Starday. After a spell in the Navy he returned to recording, cutting some sides for Huey Meaux's Tear Drop label, before relocating to Nashville, where he achieved enormous success as a song writer in the country field. He wrote a string of hits for, among others, George Strait, which made him a wealthy man. I saw Royce perform at the Ponderosa Stomp in 2015 (pictured below), where his set included Yes I Do and Looking. There's an excellent in depth write up of Royce's career here:    http://blog.ponderosastomp.com/2015/09/royce-porter-lone-star-rockabilly-legend-hits-paydirt-as-straight-up-country-smash-purveyor/