Featured Band Profiles

Eddie Kirkland, Gypsy of the Blues at The Green Parrot

 Ah, the life of Eddie Kirkland.
Although his name may not sound as familiar as B.B. King or Robert
Johnson, Eddie Kirkland’s life with the blues matches, at the very
least, any other blues artist. Don’t miss your chance to see this
living blues legend when he hits the Parrot stage
Eddie was born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Alabama.   At the
age of twelve when the Sugar Girls Medicine show came through his town
he ran away from home by hiding in one of the tent trucks and was soon
playing the harmonica in their show and dancing in their chorus line.
By the age of nineteen he had landed in Detroit and it was there that
he began touring and recording with seminal bluesman John Lee Hooker.
“We were like brothers” recalls Kirkland. The two made a solid team
until parting in the 60’s
Kirkland then moved to Macon, Georgia where he began a three year
stint as bandleader for perhaps the greatest Soul Man ever, Otis
Reading. Continuous road tours followed with Ruth Brown, Little
Richard, Ben King and Little Johnnie Taylor and many more greats.
Then in 1962 Eddie recorded what is considered by many to be one of
the most powerful records in blues history “It’s The Blues Man” with
King Curtis’s band.
Now 80-plus years old and with 68 years of touring behind him,
Kirkland continues to tour forty two weeks a year, earning him the
title “Gypsy of the Blues. Respected as one of the very best of two
genres: blues and soul, Kirkland has such a refined way of performing
that it captures everyone in the room and forces them to listen.
When gypsy bluesman Eddie Kirkland, head draped in trademark bandanna,
fills the Parrot dance floor with dancers working out to his farmyard
grunt ‘n’ grind groove “The Hawg”,  the night will be deemed a
success.. As always, there’s never a cover charge, so don’t miss this
rare
opportunity witness two days of unforgettable classic blues at The
Green Parrot, your Southernmost Center for Blues Culture at the corner
of Southard and Whitehead Streets. For more information call The Green
Parrot at 294-6133.