Eddie Burks (blues musician)

Eddie Burks (September 17, 1931 – January 27, 2005) 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.

Eddie Burks
Also known asJewtown Eddie
Born(1931-09-17)September 17, 1931
Greenwood, Mississippi
DiedJanuary 27, 2005(2005-01-27) (aged 73)
Miller, Indiana
GenresBlues
Instrumentssinging, harmonica
Years active1960s–2000s

Life and career

Burks was born on September 17, 1931, near Greenwood, Mississippi, the 14th and youngest child in a family of sharecroppers.[1] When he was a child one of his brothers was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan.[2]

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.[3] 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 Jr. in April 1968.[2]

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.[1] During this period he also worked as a sideman with the likes of Eddie Shaw and Jimmy Dawkins.[2] He released his first single, "Lowdown Dog", in 1977, and this was followed up by two further releases.[3] 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[3]), a label he founded with his wife Maureen Walker.[1] Following this, his solo career took off, and he released further albums, toured frequently, and gained steady work on the festival circuit.[2] In 1994 he appeared in the Academy Award nominated documentary Blues Highway.[1]

After his 70th birthday his health declined as a result of diabetes,[2] but he continued to play in the Chicago clubs until his death in a car accident near Miller, Indiana on January 27, 2005.[1]

References
  1. "allmusic ((( Eddie Burks > Biography )))". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
  2. Johnson, J. "Eddie Burks, 73, longtime Chicago blues musician: Vocalist-harpist noted for playing on Maxwell Street", Chicago Sun-Times, February 2, 2005.
  3. "Eddie Burks Biography". www.music.us. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
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