Music
Eddie Kirkland
1923–2011 · blues guitarist, harmonica player, singer
Jamaica-born, Alabama-raised bluesman who met John Lee Hooker at Detroit house parties while working at Ford's Rouge plant and toured with him from 1949 to 1962.
- Born
Kingston, Jamaica- Died
Crystal River, Florida
aged 87- Also known as
- Gypsy of the Blues · Eddie Kirk
- Detroit years
- 1940s–early 1960s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Kirkland came to Detroit after his Army service because his mother had moved there, and he took a job at the Ford River Rouge complex in Dearborn. After his shifts he played guitar at house parties, and at one of them he met John Lee Hooker. From 1949 to 1962 he was Hooker's second guitarist and road manager, driving the two of them from Detroit to the Deep South on tour after tour, and his rough, rhythmic guitar is part of Hooker's early sound. He also recorded under his own name for RPM, Detroit's Fortune label, King and Stax's Volt imprint, sometimes as Eddie Kirk. After the partnership ended he settled in Georgia and worked with Otis Redding's circle, but he never stopped touring, earning the nickname Gypsy of the Blues. He played the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1973 and was still on the road, at 87, when he died after a car crash in Florida in 2011.
Highlights
- Second guitarist and road manager for John Lee Hooker, 1949–1962
- Worked at the Ford River Rouge complex in Dearborn
- Recorded for RPM, Fortune, King and Volt
- Nicknamed the Gypsy of the Blues for his endless touring
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1940s
Ford River Rouge Complex
Ford's giant Dearborn plant, where Kirkland worked by day before playing house parties at night.
Recorded here · late 1950s–1960s
Fortune Records (Third Avenue shop and studio)
Demolished · 1956–1995
Detroit's rough-and-ready independent label, one of several that issued Kirkland's solo records.