Eddie Kirkland

Eddie Kirkland - Booty Blues - 2005 - Hedda Records

Kirkland's newest album has it all! He speaks, he croons, he wails! His guitar grooves are tight, funky, and soulful! Bluesy, edgy songs as only Kirkland can master. Includes an acoustic tribute to longtime Detroit Blues Brother, John Lee Hooker. Cutting edge material from a powerful musician! Be it your first Kirkland CD or the newest in your Kirkland collection, it is a must have! George P. Seedorff of Detroit writes, To really understand this artist is to see him in actiion. Short of that this CD is recommended. Kirkland is still producing significant new, cutting-edge material that is often great, as evidenced by Booty Blues. "Beautiful Song" (track 4), "Small Town Girl" (track 6) and "I Cried" (track 9) are among this CD's highlights. What you get here are 12 new Kirkland originals that ought to supply top blues artists with excellent new cover tunes for years to come. [from Album notes]

Great primal soul blues/R&B by the relatively unknown Eddie Kirkland. This is a blend of vintage blues and primitive funk. Uncomplicated music, but 12 good songs. Eddie has been called "The Energy Man" and "Gypsy Of The Blues". He has a sound all his own. Listen to Eddie's "All Around The World" and "Democrat Blues" albums

TRACKS

Good, Good Day
How Sweet It Is
Miss You
Beautiful Song
Make Love to Your Brain
Small Town Girl
Big T.V. Screen
Meet Me On The Boardwalk
I Cried
No Insurance
Johnny's Gone
I Got A Problem With The Devil

All songs penned by Eddie Kirkland

MUSICIANS

Eddie Kirkland - Guitar, Vocals
Alby Balgochian - Electric Guitar, Bass
Chris McDermott - Bass (Electric, Acoustic, Baritone), Organ, Trumpet, Percussion, Backing Vocals, Samples
George Donchev - Upright Bass, Drums, Percussion
Mark Greenberg, Andy Plaisted - Drums

SHORT BIO

How many Jamaican-born bluesmen have recorded with John Lee Hooker and toured with Otis Redding? It's a safe bet there's only one: Eddie Kirkland, who's engaged in some astonishing onstage acrobatics over the decades (like standing on his head while playing guitar on TV's Don Kirshner's Rock Concert). But you won't find any ersatz reggae grooves cluttering Kirkland's work. He was brought up around Dothan, AL, before heading north to Detroit in 1943. There he hooked up with Hooker five years later, recording with him for several firms as well as under his own name for RPM in 1952, King in 1953, and Fortune in 1959. Tru-Sound Records, a Prestige subsidiary, invited Kirkland to Englewood Cliffs, NJ, in 1961-62 to wax his first album, It's the Blues Man! The polished R&B band of saxist King Curtis crashed head on into Kirkland's intense vocals, raucous guitar and harmonica throughout the exciting set. Exiting the Motor City for Macon, GA, in 1962, Kirkland signed on with Otis Redding as a sideman and show opener not long thereafter. Redding introduced Kirkland to Stax/Volt co-owner Jim Stewart, who flipped over Eddie's primal dance workout "The Hawg." It was issued on Volt in 1963, billed to Eddie Kirk. By the dawn of the 1970s, Kirkland was recording for Pete Lowry's Trix label; he also waxed several CDs for Deluge in the '90s. © Bill Dahl © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/eddie-kirkland-p410/biography

BIO (WIKI)

Kirkland was raised in Dothan, Alabama in the United States until 1935, when he stowed away in the Sugar Girls Medicine Show tent truck and left town. Blind Blake was the one who influenced him the most in those early days. He was placed on the chorus line with Diamond Tooth Mary. When the show closed a year later, he was in Dunkirk, Indiana where he briefly returned to school. He joined the United States Army during World War II. It was racism in the military, he said, that led him to seek out the devil. After his discharge Kirkland traveled to Detroit where his mother had relocated. After a days work at the Ford Rouge Plant, Kirkland played his guitar at house parties, and there he met John Lee Hooker. Kirkland, a frequent second guitarist in recordings from 1949-1962. "It was difficult playin' behind Hooker but I had a good ear and was able to move in behind him on anything he did." Kirkland fashioned his own style of playing open chords, and transformed the rough, porch style delta blues into the electric age by using his thumb, rather than a guitar pick. Kirkland secured his own series of recordings with Sid Nathan of King Records in 1953, at Fortune Records in 1958 and, by 1961, on his own album It's the Blues Man, with the King Curtis Band. Kirkland became Hooker's road manager and the two traveled from Detroit to the Deep South on many tours, the last being in 1962 when Hooker abandoned Kirkland to go overseas. Kirkland found his way to Macon, Georgia and began performing with Otis Redding. As Eddie Kirk, he released "The Hawg" as a single on Stax Records in 1963. The record was overshadowed by Rufus Thomas's recordings, and Kirkland, discouraged by the music industry and his own lack of education to change the situation, turned to his other skill and sought work as an auto mechanic to earn a living for his growing family. In 1970, a revival of the blues was taking place. Peter B. Lowry found Kirkland in Macon, GA and convinced him to record again. His first sessions were done in a motel room, resulting in the acoustic, solo LP Front and Center; his second was a studio-recorded band album, the funky The Devil... and other blues demons. Both were released on Lowry's Trix Records label. It was during the mid 1970s that Kirkland befriended the British blues-rock band, Foghat. Kirkland remained with Lowry, Trix, and in the Hudson Valley for twelve years. It was during this period that Kirkland appeared on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert with Muddy Waters, Honeyboy Edwards, and Foghat. These were also the years that Kirkland again energized his sound. "Eddie's thumb pick and fingers style give him freedom to play powerful chord riffs rich in rhythms and harmonic tension. He plays like a funky pianist, simultaneously covering bass lines, chord kick, and counterpoint." The 1990s brought Randy Labbe as manager, booking agent and on his own record label, Deluge, recorded Kirkland. Three albums were produced during this Maine period, one live, one with a guest appearance from Hooker and one containing a duet with Christine Ohlman. By 2000, Kirkland was on his own again, always doing his own driving to concerts in his Ford County Squires, crossing the country several times a year. Labeled now as the Road Warrior, "A thickset, powerful man in the waistcoat and pants of a pin strip suit; red shirt, medallion, shades and a black leather cap over a bandanna, his heavy leather overcoat slung over his arm,.... he's already a Road Warrior par excellence." Kirkland, now well into his eighties, is still driving himself to gigs along the coast and in Europe, frequently playing with the Wentus Blues Band from Finland.