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AND LURRIE BELL: TWO BLUES LEGENDS SHARE THE STAGE AT EVANSTON'S SPACE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE EDDY "THE CHIEF" CLEARWATER AND LURRIE BELL: TWO BLUES LEGENDS SHARE THE STAGE AT EVANSTON'S SPACE EVANSTON, IL Media Contacts: Lynn Orman / (847.452.6469 / lynnietoons@aol.com Gabrielle Weiss (312) 532-0665 / gabisweiss@yahoo.com Where: SPACE - 1245 Chicago Avenue - Evanston, IL 60202 Phone: (847) 836-8820 The Venue: www.EvanstonSpace.com Doors Open: 7:15 pm Individual Ticket Cost: $15. each Reserved Table Seating Cost: $25. / Reserved Table Seating A designated seat at a cabaret table within the first three rows Click here to Buy Tickets Online Artists' Web sites: www.EddyClearwater.com and www.Lurrie.com (Lurrie Bell) During the 1950s, Chicago's West Side was a breeding ground for some of the world's greatest bluesmen. Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Freddie King and others ruled the clubs. With his fierce guitar playing, soulful and emotive vocals and wild stage shows, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater easily belongs on this list. A Chicago legend, Clearwater is an intense, flamboyant blues-rocking showman. He's equally comfortable playing the deepest, most heartfelt blues or rocking, good-time party music. DownBeat said, "Left-hander Eddy Clearwater is a forceful six-stringer...He lays down some gritty West Side shuffles and belly-grinding slow blues that highlight his raw chops, soulful vocals, and earthy, humorous lyrics." Born in 1958 to famed Chicago blues harmonica master Carey Bell, Lurrie Bell was raised in a Chicago household naturally steeped in the blues. "Because of my dad, there was all kinds of music growing up in that house," Bell reminisces. All manner of blues greats would regularly drop by to rehearse: guitarists including Eddie Taylor, Eddie C. Campbell, Jimmy Dawkins and Eddy Clearwater (Bell's cousin); harmonica legends like Big Walter Horton; and equally storied keyboardists including Sunnyland Slim and Muddy Waters sideman Lovie Lee, whom Bell came to regard as his "spiritual grandfather." So it was that at an emphatically young age, Bell taught himself guitar and began playing along during rehearsals. At eight years old, Bell left Chicago to live in Mississippi and Alabama with his grandparents. During this time he played mostly in the church, immersing himself in the passionate expressiveness of the gospel tradition. Soon he was back in Chicago and deep into the blues again. It was Lovie Lee, Bell recalls with a grin, who "sneaked me into" a South Side nightclub when the young prodigy was fourteen, to make his stage debut, "I don't remember the name of the song," says Bell, "but it was a blues shuffle. I got some good applause for it; it really inspired me to keep going." At 15, he formed his first band while attending Crane High School on the city's West Side. In 1977, at the age of 17, Bell was a founding member of The Sons of Bloues with fellow Chicago blues scions Freddie Dixon (son of Willie) and Billy Branch (son of Ben) and perfomred that year at the Berlin Jazz Festival presented as the New Generation of Chicago Blues. Lurrie had already made his first appearances in the recording studio earlier that year with his father on Carey's Delmark album Heartaches and Pains, and on Eddie C. Campbell's Rooster Blues album King of the Jungle. No only was Bell recognized as an exceptionally talented guitarist and musician, his knowledge of different blues styles, his soulfulness and his musical maturity brought write-ups in publications such as Rolling Stone and the New York Times. 847-452-6469 | | |
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