Eddie Kirkland

Eddie Kirkland (August 16, 1923 – February 27, 2011) guitarist, harmonicist, singer, and songwriter.

Kirkland, known as the "Gypsy of the Blues" for his rigorous touring schedules, played and toured with John Lee Hooker from 1949 to 1962. After his period of working in tandem with Hooker he pursued a successful solo career, recording for RPM Records, Fortune Records, Volt Records, and King Records, sometimes under the stage name Eddie Kirk. Kirkland continued to tour, write and record albums until his death in February 2011. His last performance, the night before his death, was at Dunedin Brewery, Florida.

Biography Kirkland was born in Kingston, Jamaica to a mother, aged 11 (Kirkland was raised believing his mother was his sister and he was in his early twenties when the truth was revealed to him by his mother), and first heard the blues from "field hollers", and raised in Dothan, Alabama until 1935, when he stowed away in the Sugar Girls Medicine Show tent truck and left town. Blind Blake influenced him the most in those early days. He was placed on the chorus line with "Diamond Tooth Mary" McLean. 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. Racism in the military, he said, led him to seek out the devil. After his discharge, Kirkland traveled to Detroit, where his mother had relocated. After a day's work at the Ford Rouge Center, Kirkland played his guitar at house parties, where he met John Lee Hooker. Kirkland was a frequent second guitarist in recordings from 1949 to 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. He 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 and is most well known for a 1971 interpretation by The Allman Brothers Band. Kirkland remained aggrieved about the matter, saying in 1984, "[I wrote] 'Must Have Done Somebody Wrong,' which Elmore James stole from me and the Allman Brothers performed."

Kirkland became Hooker's road manager and the two traveled from Detroit to the Deep South on many tours, the last in 1962, when Hooker abandoned Kirkland to go overseas. Kirkland found his way to Macon, Georgia and began performing with Otis Redding as his guitarist and band leader. 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, one of the revivals of the blues was taking place. Peter B. Lowry found Kirkland in Macon 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 Devil and Other Blues Demons. Both were released on Lowry's Trix Records label. During the mid-1970s, Kirkland befriended the British blues-rock band Foghat. Kirkland remained with Lowry and Trix, and was based in the Hudson Valley for twelve years. During this period, Kirkland appeared on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert with Muddy Waters, Honeyboy Edwards, and Foghat. "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."

In 1973, Kirkland performed at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. John Sinclair decided that they should salute Detroit blues musicians and had them play on the Saturday afternoon; these included Bobo Jenkins, Baby Boy Warren, One String Sam, Little Junior Cannaday, and Boogie Woogie Red. alt=Eddie Kirkland, National Downhome Blues Festival, Atlanta, Georgia, 1984. Photo by Jeff Titon. The 1990s brought Randy Labbe as manager and booking agent; his own record label, Deluge, recorded Kirkland. Three albums were produced during this Maine period, which included Gregg Hoover on guitar, James Thacker on bass, and Darren Thiboutot on drums. One album was live, one had a guest appearance from Hooker and one contained a duet with Christine Ohlman. Darren Thiboutot Jr., son of Darren Thiboutot, sat in with the band at The Venue in Portland, Maine. By 2000, Kirkland was on his own again, always doing his own driving to concerts in his Ford Country Squire, crossing the country several times a year. He was labeled 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 contributed two songs to longtime friends Foghat's album Last Train Home in 2010.

Well into his eighties, Kirkland continued to drive himself to gigs along the coast and in Europe, frequently playing with the from Finland.

A documentary short entitled Pick Up the Pieces was made about a year in Kirkland's life (2010).

Death Kirkland's last performance, the night before his death, was at Dunedin Brewery.

He died in a car accident on February 27, 2011, in Crystal River, Florida. At approximately 8:30 a.m. a bus hit Kirkland's car, a 1998 Ford Taurus wagon. Reportedly Kirkland attempted to make a U-turn on U.S. 98 and Oak Park Boulevard, putting him directly in the path of a Greyhound bus. The bus struck the vehicle on the right side and pushed it approximately 200 feet from the point of impact. Kirkland suffered serious injuries and was transported by helicopter to Tampa General Hospital, where he died a short time later. The bus driver and 13 passengers on the bus were not hurt.

In 2015 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Eddie Kirkland at Cherry Blossom Cemetery in Lizella, Georgia.

Family Eddie Kirkland is the great-grandfather of TV personality Elie Kirkland and grandfather of Eddie Kirkland Jr., Nancy Pleas, Tiren Pleas Jr. and Tirese Pleas. Kirkland was survived by his wife, Mary, and nine children.

Albums Year Title Record label Notes 1962 It's the Blues Man! Tru-Sound Records 1965 Dem Bones Volt Records 1965 I Found a New Love Volt Records 1972 Front and Center Trix Records 1974 The Devil and Other Blues Demons Trix Records 1981 Pick Up The Pieces JSP Records 1988 Have Mercy Pulsar Records Reissued by Evidence Records 1992 All Around the World Deluge Records 1993 Some Like It Raw Deluge Records 1995 Where You Get Your Sugar? Deluge Records 1997 Lonely Street Telarc Records 1999 Movin' On JSP Records with the Nutmeg Horns 1998 Hastings Street Grease, Vol 1 Blue Suit Records 1999 The Complete Trix Recordings 32 Records 1999 Hastings Street Grease, Vol 2 Blue Suit Records 2004 Democrat Blues Blue Suit Records 2005 Way It Was Red Lightnin' Records 2006 Booty Blues Hedda Records 2010 Last Train Home Foghat Records with Foghat 2017 Long Gone Gypsy Backyard Records With John Lee Hooker House of the Blues (Chess, 1951–52, ) John Lee Hooker Plays & Sings the Blues (Chess, 1961, ) Don't Turn Me from Your Door (Atco, 1953, ) Folk Blues (Crown, 1951–54, ) Goin' Down Highway 51 (Specialty, 1948–51, )