The world lost another blues legend last weekend with the passing of Otis Rush on Saturday 29th September.
Born in Philadelphia on 29th April 1935, Rush developed a distinctive guitar style with his sound becoming known as West Side Chicago Blues.
As a left-handed guitarist, Otis mostly played a right-handed guitar which was flipped over, resulting in the low E string being at the bottom of the fingerboard and the high E string at the top. Rush felt that this contributed to his sound and highlighted this in a 1998 interview in Vintage Guitar (an excerpt is in the linked article below).
Rush was a contemporary of BB and Albert King and although he may not have achieved the same level of public recognition he was an inspiration to generations of blues/ rock guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Gary Moore.
The link below to Guitar Player provides more details as well as some examples of Otis Rush’s unique style.
https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/otis-rush-legendary-blues-guitarist-dies-at-84
