Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018)[1] was an American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter who's been long revered as one of the creators of modern Chicago blues and though he was respected and praised, the success he sought eluded him while others profited from what he created and his career never reached the heights that he deserved.

He had an intense and powerful tenor voice that grabbed your attention and he had big hands so he could make unusual chord inversions on the guitar which he said he got from Charles Brown, the jazz blues piano player, an acknowledged influence.

While Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, his predecessors on Chicago's South Side, popularized an amplified update of the bare bones, down home sound of the Mississippi Delta where the sound of the band was the focus, Otis listened to piano and horn players which gave him his unique phrasing.

He and his modern variations, along with Magic Sam 's and Buddy Guy's, were more lyrical and more rhythmically complex and are credited with bringing the guitar out front in what came to be known as the West Side sound because it was prevalent in nightclubs on that side of town, influencing a generation of blues and rock musicians including Carlos Santana, Michael Bloomfield, John Mayall, Peter Green, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, who named his band after Otis' 1958 hit "Double Trouble."

[4] His mother regularly took him out of school so that he could add to the family income when the cotton was high and white landowners wanted extra labor.

Determined not to spend his life in the cotton fields, he moved north to Chicago at the age of 14, working in stockyards and steel mills and driving a horse drawn coal wagon, hanging out in the city's blues clubs at night.

[2] Cobra's and Otis' first single, "I Can't Quit You Baby", was a national hit in 1956, reaching number six on the Billboard R&B chart.

[6][2] [7] Now, as a big drawing, hot act in Chicago's clubs with his fiery guitar work and passionate vocals, he toured nationally as part of r&b and rock and roll package shows with Little Richard, Buddy Holly, The Crickets, Carl Perkins and The Drifters playing at top venues like the Apollo in New York City.

He got tired of touring and went back to Chicago, playing clubs again and drawing good crowds though, for the most part, his Cobra sides didn't chart nationally despite their excellence.

[2] He recorded eight tracks for the label, though they only released four, two singles, including the blistering, emotion drenched classic, "So Many Roads".

Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites, then with the band Electric Flag, recorded and produced the album at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

[14][15] The Chicago based Delmark label released two albums including his inspired So Many Roads - Live in Concert recorded in Japan where he has a huge following.

Despite that, he was able to tour overseas and make some recordings for European labels most of which are now available stateside though he was unable to release any new material in America for a number of years.

[2] He made a comeback in 1985 with a U.S. tour and the release of a live album, Tops, recorded with a tight West Coast band at the San Francisco Blues Festival to favorable reviews.

In 1994, Mercury released Ain't Enough Comin' In using the same production team and core musicians featured on Buddy Guy's Feels Like Rain album.

In the 2005 movie, Devil's Rejects, he performs "I Can't Quit You Baby" from the 1962 American Folk Blues Festival.

[17] In June 2016, Otis made a rare appearance at the Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park.

[18] A video of him belting out his 1956 breakthrough hit “I Can't Quit You Baby” was interspersed with recorded testaments from Carlos Santana, Steve Miller and Buddy Guy.

A tribute concert followed in which Lurie Bell sang “My Love Will Never Die', Jimmy Johnson sang “So Many Roads” and “Three Times A Fool," Ronnie Earl fronting his band, The Broadcasters, gave a heartfelt and captivating set that included a respectful performance of “Double Trouble,” and Eddy Clearwater, “The Chief”, gave a razor sharp performance of “All Your Love (I Miss Loving),” Blues and soul great Otis Clay was scheduled to perform, too, but passed away before the festival began.

[20] Writing in The New York Times, Bill Friskics-Warren acknowledged that Otis was "A richly emotive singer and a guitarist of great skill and imagination, Mr.

Rush was in the vanguard of a small circle of late 1950s innovators, including Buddy Guy and Magic Sam, whose music, steeped in R&B, heralded a new era of Chicago blues.