Eddie 'The Chief' Clearwater Is No Flimdoozie

Eddy ‘The Chief’ Clearwater is a favorite among blues fans. The following review appeared in the DC Blues Calendar in 2001 at the time Rooster Blues reissued one of his 1980’s albums on compact disc. I likely received my review copy from the label.

A reissue on Rooster Blue is Eddy Clearwater’s Flimdoozie, a mid 1980’s session with Sugar Blue on harmonica, Abb Locke on saxophone and Otis Rush sharing guitar leads with Clearwater. Its not a bad album, particularly with the all-star sidemen, and some of the tracks like the rocking Sugar Baby with a great Sugar Blue harp solo and Clearwater belting out the vocal like Carey Bell are pretty good. Some of the material is pretty lightweight including the title track and Do This Town Tonight, but played well.

Clearwater’s mushy diction undercuts the long slow blues, a medley of Black Night with Clearwater’s Fallin’ Down Heavy. Rush is in terrific form on the five tracks on which he is heard, but despite his presence, this is a secondary work in Clearwater’s discography.

Here is Eddy performing at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1991.

North Atlantic Blues Festival Has Stellar Line Up

While I will not be attending it, this year’s North Atlantic Blues Festival has among the finest line-ups of blues festivals I have seen. Like the Pennsylvania Blues Festival, the focus of who is booked is on “blues,” not on blues rockers than might be at some over-hyped festival that books a few real deal blues acts. In any event, the 18th edition of the Festival takes place in Rockland, Maine on July 16 and July 17.


Saturday, July 16 the line-up include the soul-blues of Nellie Tiger Travis and then some of the leading names of Chicago blues today. Eddy “the Chief” Clearwater; Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials; Billy Branch & the Sons of the Blues; Magic Slim and the Teardrops and the Brooks Family Reunion with Lonnie, Ronnie and Wayne Baker. I wonder when a non-Chicago based festival had all these acts on the same day. This is a fairly heavyweight day of blues.


Sunday, July 17 has the family band Trampled Under Foot followed by James Armstrong,Tony Lynn Washington, Eric Bibb and Robert Cray. There will be performances by Gina Sicilia & Dave Gross between sets and they have a Saturday Night Pub Crawl that has become a tradition at this festival.

James Armstrong

The Festival is located at Rockland’s Public Landing, so you sit in a City Park with a terrific view of the harbor as your listen to blues from this truly sterling line-up. Paul Benjamin and company may have out-done themselves with this year’s Festival. Particularly to folks from New York up through New England, this is a must see Festival.  


The festivals' website is http://www.northatlanticbluesfestival.com/ and their facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Atlantic-Blues-Festival/182157101315.