How’s this for blues
pedigree: born to sharecroppers in Duncan, Mississippi, in
1939, Eddie C Campbell was raised on Chicago’s West
Side, alongside the likes of Magic Sam, Willie Dixon,
Little Walter and others.
Shortly after moving to the windy city, his mother brought him to the 1125 Club on Madison Avenue to meet legendary bluesman Muddy Waters, who told Eddie he could sit in with the band if he learned to play. Four years later and with guitar in hand, Eddie returned to the club, played a scorching rendition of “Still a Fool” and earned a spot on the bandstand. He was twelve years old. The rest, you could say, is blues history: his teen’s years on the nightclub circuit honing his chops with such top-players as Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Big Monroe, Willie Buckner and Pee Wee Madison.
Eddie soon became one of the west side’s most popular and flamboyant musicians, riding around on a purple motorcycle, sporting a red Fender Jazzmaster guitar, learning karate and – all music aside – wining sixteen knockouts as an amateur boxer.
Campbell toured with Otis Rush and Mighty Joe Young before becoming band director for Jimmy Reed. He visited Europe in 1979 with the Amercian Blues Legends Tour; the audiences proved so warm to his music that he moved overseas in 1984, living first in England and then later in Holland. Campbell ended up in Germany, where he accompanied a travelling theatre production of William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun for three years, writing songs and playing acoustic guitar.
By the time he returned to Chicago in 1992, Eddie C Campbell had established a playing style all his own: jaunty, irresistibly danceable rhythms overlaid with lithe guitar lines, often placed so tightly in the pocked of the beat that his lead guitar almost double as a rhythm instrument.
Shortly after moving to the windy city, his mother brought him to the 1125 Club on Madison Avenue to meet legendary bluesman Muddy Waters, who told Eddie he could sit in with the band if he learned to play. Four years later and with guitar in hand, Eddie returned to the club, played a scorching rendition of “Still a Fool” and earned a spot on the bandstand. He was twelve years old. The rest, you could say, is blues history: his teen’s years on the nightclub circuit honing his chops with such top-players as Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Big Monroe, Willie Buckner and Pee Wee Madison.
Eddie soon became one of the west side’s most popular and flamboyant musicians, riding around on a purple motorcycle, sporting a red Fender Jazzmaster guitar, learning karate and – all music aside – wining sixteen knockouts as an amateur boxer.
Campbell toured with Otis Rush and Mighty Joe Young before becoming band director for Jimmy Reed. He visited Europe in 1979 with the Amercian Blues Legends Tour; the audiences proved so warm to his music that he moved overseas in 1984, living first in England and then later in Holland. Campbell ended up in Germany, where he accompanied a travelling theatre production of William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun for three years, writing songs and playing acoustic guitar.
By the time he returned to Chicago in 1992, Eddie C Campbell had established a playing style all his own: jaunty, irresistibly danceable rhythms overlaid with lithe guitar lines, often placed so tightly in the pocked of the beat that his lead guitar almost double as a rhythm instrument.
Eddie Campbell’s discography
1977 King of the Jungle Eddie C. Campbell Guitar, Vocals1984 Let's Pick It Eddie C. Campbell Guitar, Vocals
1984 Think Twice Before You Speak Lowell Fulson Guitar
1985 Baddest Cat on the Block Eddie C. Campbell Guitar, Vocals
1988 Mind Trouble Eddie C. Campbell Guitar, Vocals
1994 That's When I Know Eddie C. Campbell Guitar, Harmonica, Guitar, Vocals, Producer
1995 Blind Pig Sampler: Prime Chops, Vol. 3 Various Artists Performer
1995 This Is Blues, Vol. 1 Various Artists Guitar
1997 Blind Pig Records: 20th Anniversary Collection Various Artists Performer
1997 Chicago Blues [JSP] Various Artists Performer
1997 Hopes and Dreams Eddie C. Campbell Guitar (Acoustic), Bass, Harmonica, Guitar, Vocals, Producer
1997 House of Blues: Essential Chicago Blues Various Artists Performer
1997 Texas Blues [JSP 2 Disc] Various Artists Guitar
1998 Blues Guitar Masters [Easydisc] Various Artists Guitar
1998 From West Helena to Chicago Various Artists Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals, Performer
1998 Jingle Blues Various Artists Performer
1998 Who's Been Talking Lil Ed Williams & Willie Kent Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm)
1999 Earwig 20th Anniversary Collection Various Artists Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm)
1999 Gonna Be Alright Eddie C. Campbell Guitar, Vocals
1999 Live in Chicago Luther Allison Guitar
2001 Blues Chicago Style: Chicago Blues Away from Home Various Artists Performer
2003 20th Century Masters - The Christmas Collection: Blue Various Artists Guitar, Vocals
2004 Think Twice Before You Speak [SACD] Lowell Fulson Guitar
2009 Tear This World Up - Delmark
2012 Spider Eating Preacher - Delmark
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"Chicago blues singer and
guitarist Eddie C. Campbell claims a West Side sound as his own.
Though in conversation, he'll say this area also gave the world
Jimmy Reed and Albert King, he doesn't need to add that, at 70,
he's not just one of the neighborhood's inheritors, but also one
of its few survivors. Campbell's hometown is finally catching on
to his significance . . .When Campbell, Magic Sam and Otis Rush
were coming up in the 50s and 60s, their generation was old enough
to have caught the last of the original blues artists but young
enough to be influenced by R&B. Between the modernized
influences and the local geography, this is what came to be known
as West Side soul. That sound is all over the new CD." - Down
Beat
"Storyteller. Poet. Philosopher. Humorist. No bluesman since Sonny Boy Williamson II has inhabited ail these roles as fully and consistently as Eddie C. Campbell. His history includes stints on the bandstand with Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, Koko Taylor, and Willie Dixon. His deep friendship with Magic Sam is manifest in the unadulterated blues and funk Campbell continues to perform 40 years after Sam's untimely passing. And Campbell's full-bodied vocals and brilliant Fender jazz master tones, awash in reverb, make him the bearer of an unmistakable signature sound. So his first US release in nearly a decade is a major event. "Tear This World Up" delivers on all these expectations." - Blues Revue
"Campbell's sound is characterized by deep-pocket shuffles, sparse but emotionally powerful leads, and an impish sense of humor that manifests itself both is his fretboard work and his Iyrics ... Eddie C. Campbell sounds as if he is still at the top of his game; let's hope this disc can represent a resurrection of his career as a performer, as well as a recording artist." - Living Blues
"It's been a few years since Eddie C. Campbell, one of the few remaining masters of the West Side Chicago blues style, has had a new recording out. Not that he hasn't merited it, but his understated guitar and laid-back witty vocals lack the immediate appeal to those more rock-oriented listeners of the blues. His latest album "Tear This World Up," on Delmark, will be welcome to those of us that have been fans of his for decades, as well as those that want the real deal blues." - Jazz & Blues
"Eddie C. Campbell might have been born in Mississippi, but it's his mastery of Chicago blues, and more particularly the west side variant of the form, that he's known for. He's a guitar slinger of the first order too, one of the few who can still get sufficient life out of the blues form, as opposed to resorting to overplaying and histrionics for spurious effect. He was also Magic Sam's best friend, but that wouldn't amount to much if it wasn't for the fact that he mines the seam with a similar depth of feeling as his sadly departed colleague ... In solo he veritably stings, making for one of those indefinable thrills." - All About Jazz
"Storyteller. Poet. Philosopher. Humorist. No bluesman since Sonny Boy Williamson II has inhabited ail these roles as fully and consistently as Eddie C. Campbell. His history includes stints on the bandstand with Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, Koko Taylor, and Willie Dixon. His deep friendship with Magic Sam is manifest in the unadulterated blues and funk Campbell continues to perform 40 years after Sam's untimely passing. And Campbell's full-bodied vocals and brilliant Fender jazz master tones, awash in reverb, make him the bearer of an unmistakable signature sound. So his first US release in nearly a decade is a major event. "Tear This World Up" delivers on all these expectations." - Blues Revue
"Campbell's sound is characterized by deep-pocket shuffles, sparse but emotionally powerful leads, and an impish sense of humor that manifests itself both is his fretboard work and his Iyrics ... Eddie C. Campbell sounds as if he is still at the top of his game; let's hope this disc can represent a resurrection of his career as a performer, as well as a recording artist." - Living Blues
"It's been a few years since Eddie C. Campbell, one of the few remaining masters of the West Side Chicago blues style, has had a new recording out. Not that he hasn't merited it, but his understated guitar and laid-back witty vocals lack the immediate appeal to those more rock-oriented listeners of the blues. His latest album "Tear This World Up," on Delmark, will be welcome to those of us that have been fans of his for decades, as well as those that want the real deal blues." - Jazz & Blues
"Eddie C. Campbell might have been born in Mississippi, but it's his mastery of Chicago blues, and more particularly the west side variant of the form, that he's known for. He's a guitar slinger of the first order too, one of the few who can still get sufficient life out of the blues form, as opposed to resorting to overplaying and histrionics for spurious effect. He was also Magic Sam's best friend, but that wouldn't amount to much if it wasn't for the fact that he mines the seam with a similar depth of feeling as his sadly departed colleague ... In solo he veritably stings, making for one of those indefinable thrills." - All About Jazz