You can call Bobby Rush a bluesman, but that’s the narrow view. Rush does whatever it takes to be noticed, and he’s real damn good at it. So good that he’s earned the title of King of the Chitlin Circuit. That’s no easy task. Notoriously tough audiences like those of the legendary Apollo Theatre will let you know in no uncertain terms if you ain’t deliverin’ the goods. For the last 50 years, Rush has not only delivered ’em, he’s wrapped ’em up in a package of soul, blues, funk, r&b, and gospel, tied together with showmanship (and showwomanship too- he’s always surrounded onstage with a bevy of curvacious, booty-shaking beauties) that rivaled flashmasters like James Brown and Ike and Tina Turner.
The message is down home- chicken heads, buttermilk bottoms, reefer and no-count women mingle in Rush’s songs. Rush can be very explicit- if you wanted to hold an audience’s attention in some of the rougher joints Rush played, you had to be bawdy, and he can get down and roll around with the best of em. But it’s his wry sense of humor that’ll get a chuckle out of even the biggest prude. “You just like a dresser,” Rush tells a soon to be gone beloved: “Somebody been ramblin’ in your drawers.”
But Rush is no novelty act, and has no need to rely on gimmicks to get by. He’s got the vocal chops to sell hardcore blues as well as deliver soul as potent as any of the great ones.
The fifty year history starts in ’64 and covers up through ’14 on four CDs. It kicks off with “Someday,” a track Rush delivers with the soul and fervor of Bobby Blue Bland, a mournful sax buzzing mournfully alongside as the guitar slashes up the melody like a back alley knife fighter looking for a blood donor. In his early recordings, Rush’s voice is similar to James Brown’s in the late fifties when he was still a crooner. And, like Brown, Rush brings the funk as well to his ’67 cut, “Sock Boo Ga Loo,” featuring a bit stiffer beat but just as funky as Fantastic Johnny C’s “Boogaloo Down Broadway,” out at the same time.
Rush unlimbered the funk big time with ’69s “Wake Up,” gruntin’ and testifyin’ like the Godfather of Soul, his band sounding like a mashup of Joe Tex and Brown’s JB’s. The flip side was just as powerful, Guitar Slim’s “The Things I Used To Do,” Rush’s vocals smooth and mellow over the frantic lashing he’s taking from the flagellator on guitar for the outing.
But it was ’71’s “Chicken Heads” that got Rush nationwide notice. Although it only reached 34 on the billboard charts, it’s remained in the public eye thanks to its inclusion on the soundtrack from the ’07 movie Blacksnake Moan (starring the unlikely combo of Christina Ricci, JustinTimberlake and Sam Jackson) and courtesy of Buddy Guy, who still performs it as part of his set list. It’s a strange combo, the guitar sounding like early Clarence Carter, with a hoodoo swamp vibe stirred up with a double handful of lowdown funk.
Rush switched up his style somewhat when he met legendary Philly soul producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. But even though Rush was produced and arranged by and shared writing credit with Huff, he still had a rougher edge than most of their trademark cuts like Jerry Butler’s “Only The Strong Survive” or Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” Rush ‘s “I Wanna Do The Do,” written with Huff, is as funky as an Ohio Players cut, taken way over the top with Rush’s spot-on Al Green impersonation. His ’79 cover of “Hey Western Union Man” totally transforms the Jerry Butler version. A B-3 burbling soulfully behind him, Rush stiffens the beat and once again appears as Al Green delivering a funk telegram.
“Talk To your Daughter” was cut in ’54 by J.B. Lenoir and has been covered by a bevy of artists including Robben Ford and Snooks Eaglin. But Rush’s tune is a tad different, again with that early Clarence Carter smooth rolling guitar feel that you can hear wanting to break out into full fledged funk but never quite letting go.
Rush funked and souled his way through the ’80s and early ’90s on various labels, but the blues was always close to the surface. His instrumental “Scoochin” from 2000’s Grammy nominated Hoochie Man album showed off his formidable harp skills in a straight up blues tune even though the title cut was another funk/soul offering in the Joe Tex mode. Rush mixed funk and blues on “Wet Match,” underlining it with some wailing, lonesome blues harp and the rather odd addition of a lush string section leaching in at one point.
But he gets back to the blues with “Ride In Your Automobile.” Although credited to Rush, it’s obviously an offshoot of Big Bill Broonzy’s 1939 composition “Too Many Drivers At The Wheel.” Passed down and transmogrified by a busload of artists including Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lowell Fulson, Smiley Lewis, Roy Buchanan, Paul Butterfield and the Hollywood Fats Band, the tune is a double entendre classic about a lady with too many men who want to pilot her vehicle, or in Rush’s case, go for a ride. Rush called his twist on the genre Folkfunk, putting out an album by that name in ’04 with “Automobile,” a funk-laced take on Percy Mayfields’ “River’s Invitation,” and more big-footed funk on display for Al Green’s “Take Me To the River.” Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Help Me” gets rearranged from blues to funk with some help from a Booker T and the MGs “Green Onions” soundalike bassline.
Rush went acoustic for ’07s Raus, winning BMAs that year for Best Acoustic Artist and Best Soul Blues Artist. His harp work shines on “Howlin’ Wolf” and the stripped down “Uncle Esau.”
His ’14 Grammy nominated release, Decisions, featured a vocal duet with Dr. John backed by the band Blindog Smokin’ on “Another Murder In New Orleans,” decrying the street violence in the Crescent City with an arrangement that recalls the late Allen Toussaint. Rush paid tribute to Rufus Thomas, covering Thomas’ “Push and Pull” on the soundtrack to the documentary Take Me To The River, which paired rappers with r&b and blues artists for an interesting interpretation of redone classics. Rush captures Thomas’ sound perfectly, backing up his claim that “I’m funkier than James Brown,” at least on this cut.
It’ll wear you out, and give you renewed respect for Rush, who at eighty still keeps up a touring schedule that’d bring a younger man to his knees. “I just know what to do, and that’s all that I do,” Rush says. And if your name is Bobby Rush, that’s a-plenty.
