Born Eddy Harrington on January 10, 1935 in Macon, Mississippi, Eddy moved to Chicago in 1950 and was quickly integrated into the blues community. His cousin is Carey Bell, although he didn't know that until the late 70's. First calling himself Guitar Eddy he played with many of the west side players at that time including Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Luther Allison and Buddy Guy. He has some American Indian blood and considers the headdress, originally given to him by a friend, a good luck charm. Because of Eddy's idolization of Muddy Waters, some of the older musicians in town gave him the nickname "Cool Clear Waters" as an affectionate take-off on Muddy's name. Eddy recorded the song "Cool Water" in 1961, which solidified his new identity.

Ray: Its been a little over a year since you played in Minnesota at the Fine Line and a little over a year and a half since your heat surgery, how are you doing now?

Eddy: Yeah, knock on wood (he raps the table with his knuckles), feeling good.

Ray: When I saw you last time you said your doctors had come out to see one of your shows?

Eddy: Oh, yeah, as a matter of fact his secretary was just out to see me Tuesday at Blue Chicago. They come around quite often.

Ray: They think your performance is good exercise?

Eddy: Yeah as a mater of fact they told me that's good exercise as long as I don't drink. They say I can have a couple of beers or some wine but that's all I do, I drink non-alcoholic beer when I do. Got to take care of yourself, who's going to do it for you..

Ray: Your new CD is already recorded?

Eddy: (To be) released in October on Rounder and Duke Robillard produced it, he did a good job. We had a lot of fun.

Ray: How did you get hooked up with Rounder?

Eddy: My publicist kind of put it together. The last CD that was out is "A Mean Case of the Blues" so my manager and I produced that ourselves then Rounder heard it and they liked it so they leased it from us. Then they said we'd like to produce the next one and they asked us for a contract so we gave them a contract for the next 2 CD's.

Ray: Good, I hear they are a good group of people to work with.

Eddy: Oh yeah we were just out there last Wednesday and had a nice meeting with them, I guess they're really planning on promoting it.

Ray: Is it going to be on Bullseye?

Eddy: On Bullseye right. We had a lot of fun recording it. Rounder seems to have faith in it so I'm glad of that. I'm going to push it as far as I can, with a little luck it will go.

Ray: You moved to Chicago when you were 15?

Eddy: 15 years old, yup

Ray: Where were you born?

Eddy: I was born in Macon Mississippi, but I moved to Birmingham when I was like about 12 years old and two and a half years later I moved to Chicago.

Ray: So you were just a couple of years in Alabama? Had you started playing music prior to moving to Chicago?

Eddy: Yeah, oh yeah, I was playing with some gospel groups in Birmingham, a group called the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. Yeah, I had no idea who they was, I just though I'd be playing with the 5 blind boys. I said well, okay. Later on I come to find out they were very famous. (laughs)

Ray: What prompted you to pick up the guitar in the first place?

Eddy: Well I used to watch my uncle fool around with the acoustic and I thought that was the greatest thing in the world, just the sound that he would make out of it. I said I would really like to do that. I'd like to play that. It really attracted me a lot.

Ray: What type of music did he play?

Eddy: More like gospel, between gospel and folk music, and stuff like that

Ray: So you must have picked it up fairly easily if you were playing that young?

Eddy: Well, yeah, I guess I had an ear for it because I can hear things. Then I had been hearing people like Lightin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker doing their acoustic stuff and to me I thought that was really nice and I said well I want to play like that. (Laughs)

Ray: You play left-handed, are you left-handed? How did you learn that way?

Eddy: I just picked it up, I'm naturally left handed and I said well I got to do it backwards because at that time they were not making a left-handed guitar. I Just reversed the guitar.

Ray: Like Otis Rush with the high strings on the top.

Eddy: Right, exactly. I just talked to him two days ago for a whole while, we talked on the phone. (Laughs)

Ray: I know you just did his song "All Your Love" on stage here.

Eddy: Oh, yeah I love Otis too, he was my hero. I cannot say enough good things about Otis. He's just a standout in my mind.

Ray: After you moved to Chicago what type of music were you playing then?

Eddy: I was still doing some gospel but then I formed a rock and roll band doing 50's rock and roll and a little bit of blues. Doing stuff like Little Richard, Fats Domino, little later on Chuck Berry.

Ray: When was that?

Eddy: That was in like '51, '52. Then I heard Little Richard, I heard Elvis, rock and roll (laughs). Then a little later on I met Magic Sam and Otis Rush then I was totally converted. (laughs) Totally converted to the blues, yeah. These cats were young cats and they were playing hard blues and I said this is great stuff. Luther Allison a little later on, Freddie King. I said wow, what a way to go. (laughs)

Ray: Do you know Jimmie Lee Robinson?

Eddy: Yeah, he played with me. He came to see me about a month ago at Blue Chicago. He just walked in one night and said do you remember me? We used to call him Ham, so I said, hey Ham. That was his nickname.

Ray: He will be up here this weekend.

Eddy: If you talk to him tell him I said hello. He's a long time friend of mine.

Ray: Did you play with him back in the 50s' then?

Eddy: Yeah, I played with him, as a matter of fact I played bass on lot of his 45 records. And he played with me for quite a while, I played guitar.

Ray: He played with Little Walter for a while and Elmore James.

Eddy: Yeah, quite a few people, Jimmy Rogers too.

Ray: Did you get to play with Magic Sam?

Eddy: Um hum, yeah, Sam and I were best buddies, very good buddies. Whenever I wasn't working I'd just hang out where he was playing. He'd call me up to jam and we'd have a good time.

Ray: I'm curious about how he pronounced his name? Sam Maghett.

Eddy: Maghett (silent h) They shortened it when he started to record for Cobra Records. They made it shorter where people could understand it when they pronounced his name on the radio or see it on the record. They just named it M A G I C, Magic Sam.

Ray: I understand you didn't realize that Carey Bell was your cousin?

Eddy: Not tell later on, as a matter of fact Jim O'Neal was the one who did research on the family thing and found out that we were definitely related. His last name was Harrington.

Ray: A few years ago I was in Chicago and saw Johnny B. Moore and he had a left-handed guitar player with him, named Harrington.

Eddy: Yeah, my cousin, Vernon.

Ray: Two lefty's in your family.

Eddy: (Laughs) Yup.

Ray: When Jimmie Lee Robinson was here last year he was talking about how the song Hideaway came about, do you have any insight into that?

Eddy: Yeah, to my knowledge that was a Hound Dog Taylor song originally. Then Magic Sam started doing it in clubs. As a matter of fact there was club named Mel's Hideaway and that's how it got the name, from Mel's Hideaway. Then Freddie King heard it and he took it too Sonny Thompson at King Records and then Freddie recorded.

Ray: Where did that Peter Gunn theme in the song come from?

Eddy: That was done by Syl Johnson. That's how it came (about). I first heard Hound Dog Taylor doing it, then Magic Sam started doing it, then the next thing you know Freddie King recorded it. It was a big hit, the rest is history.

Ray: So after your rock and roll band you heard Chuck Berry, was he an influence on your playing?

Eddy: Yeah, a big influence.

Ray: Did you play with him?

Eddy: Yeah we did a couple of concerts together, he was fun to play with. Very wild, but fun to work with. He just walked in with his guitar, no band, has the band there to back him. Got up and played. (laughs)

Ray: Your playing incorporates a lot of different styles of music, country, rock and roll, hard core Chicago blues, gospel. You have a unique sound, is there anything you try to do with your music to make it sound any one way?

Eddy: Not really it's just the way I feel it. The way I feel it and the way I hear it in my head. I just get out and play. However it comes out, it's what I feel.

Ray: When did you start playing blues on a full time basis?

Eddy: During the 60's I started playing full time, basically just around the Chicago area. I wasn't traveling at that time. I really started traveling back in the late 70's. That's when I first went to Europe, '76.

Ray: I read somewhere that the name Clearwater came about as a play on words on Muddy's name? Could you tell me how the name Clearwater came about?

Eddy: My onetime manager/agent, gave me that name, Armon Jackson, from the musicians union. He was a manager and agent at the time and he wanted to do some bookings on me so he said, well I'd like to change your name to Eddy Clearwater. So I said okay.

Ray: You were going by Guitar Eddy at that time?

Eddy: Guitar Eddy, right. So he said I want to change your name to Eddy Clearwater. I said fine with me (laughs). Kind of how it got started I guess.

Ray: How did he come up with that name?

Eddy: It was sort of like a play on Muddy Waters. When you said Muddy Waters there should be a clear water. That was his idea.

Ray: So this was kind of a promotional idea?

Eddy: Yes, right. So that's how it came about.

Ray: You then recorded a song called Cool Clear Water that helped reinforce the name.

Eddy: Right, yeah.

Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater Bayfront Blues Festival, 8/14/98 Photo © 1998 by Tom Asp All rights reserved

Ray: How about the American Indian headdress, how did that come about?

Eddy: Yeah, well that was just an idea I dreamed up. I saw this one headdress a lady had hanging on her wall. It was a lady named Pat Sweet, she was just a friend. We got to meet at a party and I seen it hanging on the wall and I said this looks like a pretty outstanding idea and I'd like to use this for my stage appearance. I finally talked her out of it. She said I won't sell it to you but I will give it to you for a good luck charm providing you never part with it. I said you have my word. I still have it in my office. Not this one. I got the original one at home in my office. And then when I did "The Chief" album I told Jim O'Neal (founder or Living Blues Magazine) that I'd like to ride a horse wearing my headdress. He said good and then we'll call the album "The Chief". That's how that name came about.

Ray: That was a good album too.

Eddy: Thanks. I had a lot of fun recording that album because of the people on it, Lafayette Leek, Carey Bell. We had a lot of fun.

Ray: Has the headdress been a good luck charm for you?

Eddy: Well it seems that way, because everything in the music industry seems to have increased quite a bit. Wherever I go people always ask me about the headdress.

Ray: You have some Indian blood in you?

Eddy: Yes, my grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee.

Ray: So that was one of the reasons the headdress attracted your attention:

Eddy: Absolutely. I kind of applied it to a way of life with the American Indian and then with the blacks. They have a lot in common, a lot of similar things that happened to them from the past. So it was my way a giving honor to the American Indian.

Ray: When you were up at Bayfront the wind was pretty strong…

Eddy: Oh yeah, (laughs) it took me away, almost flew away, it was pretty windy.

Ray: When did you first tour Europe?

Eddy: My first tour of Europe was in 1976 with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, myself, Jimmy Johnson, Hubert Sumlin, Voice Odom, he's dead now and Dave Myers.

Ray: How was that experience?

Eddy: It was a great, great experience. It was a great tour, it was 21 days and I had such a good time. We went to Sweden, Switzerland, France, we just had a wonderful time. Buddy and Junior kept me laughing the whole tour, because they were so funny. They were more like a comical team than they were a blues duo. They were always saying something funny, they'd make everyone laugh and they was just funny, traveling, through the airport, on the bus, wherever we were they just kept a lot of humor going. It was so much fun, a very good time.

Ray: What was your relationship with Muddy Waters and how did he influence your career?

Eddy: He influenced me a whole lot, I got to meet him in the 50's at the 708 club. I just walked in. I was not old enough to be in there but I somehow or another managed to get in and from that time, wherever he was if I had the time to go there I was there just to watch him. I got to know him and we were very close. As a matter of fact when I first went to Europe I consulted Muddy Waters as of how I should conduct myself in front of a European audience since he had been there many times. The thing that he told me to do, he said (here Eddy changes his voice to try and sound like Muddy talking) when you go to Europe just be yourself. Don't try and play fancy or anything, just sing and play the way you normally feel. Don't try to make it fancy, where it comes off as fake, he said, just be yourself and they will accept you and you will be just fine. And I followed that, I said I'm going to do exactly what you said. And I did that, so the result is I've been going back ever since. (laughs)

Ray: Have there been any others that have been inspirational or helpful to you?

Eddy: Yes, Otis Rush and Magic Sam were big influences in my career, very helpful. Also Willie Dixon, he told me a lot about the business side of the business, such as having your own publishing company, writing your own songs and how to protect your work that you create. So he taught me how to go about it and he showed me as a matter of fact. So I give him a lot of credit for that and I am very thankful for it.

[Eddy will be coming back to the Twin Cities for a show around the first of December at Famous Dave's.]

E-mail Ray Stiles at: mnblues@aol.com

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