Otis Rush Birthplace — Philadelphia, Mississippi

Otis Rush was born on April 29, 1934, in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and moved to Chicago as a teenager, where he developed a left-handed guitar style of extraordinary power and emotional intensity that made him one of the architects of the West Side Chicago blues sound. His Cobra Records recordings of 1956–58 — 'I Can't Quit You Baby,' 'Double Trouble,' 'All Your Love (I Miss Loving),' and 'My Love Will Never Die' — are among the greatest blues recordings ever made, characterised by a raw, anguished vibrato and a harmonic sophistication that pointed toward soul and rock simultaneously.

Led Zeppelin covered 'I Can't Quit You Baby' on their debut album; John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers covered 'All Your Love' with Eric Clapton on their landmark 1966 album — two of the most important cover versions in the history of British blues-rock, both originating with Rush. Stevie Ray Vaughan cited 'Double Trouble' (named for Rush's band) as the origin of his own band's name. Despite this extraordinary influence, Rush's commercial success was limited by label problems, a debilitating stroke in 2003, and the music industry's indifference to original blues artists.

Philadelphia, Mississippi, is in Neshoba County in central Mississippi — the same town where civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were murdered in 1964. Rush spent his musical life in Chicago and is most associated with the West Side. He died in Chicago in September 2018.