Bobby Rush
3x-GRAMMY® Award-Winner, 7x-GRAMMY® Nominee, Blues Hall of Famer, 14x-Blues Music Award Winner & 56x-Blues Music Award Nominated Singer & Songwriter BOBBY RUSH and his Band perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market on Thursday September 24 at 7:30 P.M. “Rush is one of the greats, a legendary bluesman…” raves ROCK & BLUES MUSE. Rush was Nominated for a 2024 GRAMMY® Award for ‘Best Traditional Blues Album” (‘All My Love For You’)!!
“A living legend”
— GLIDE MAGAZINE
“He’s one of a kind… All hail the king!”
— NO DEPRESSION
“I just loved his style…He was the first one I heard that brought the funk to the blues.”
— CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM
“Entertaining” may not be the first word associated with the blues. But you couldn’t find a more entertaining blues show than long-timer Bobby Rush.”
— MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
“In his 80s, blues singer Bobby Rush is in the prime of his career.”
— DALLAS MORNING NEWS
“A gifted and talented artist who continues to bridge the past with the present.”
— BLUES BLAST MAGAZINE
“The musician has been nominated for six Grammy Awards during the 21st century and won two (in 2017 and 2021) for Best Traditional Blues Album. The general excellence of his latest release, All My Love For You, suggests he is in line to win another.”
— POPMATTERS (2023 Album Review of ‘All My Love for You’ – Nominated for a 2024 GRAMMY® Award)
Tickets for the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market Shows can be found at: https://jazzandbluesmarket.com/music-schedule/
New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market offers World-Renowned & Award-Winning Musicians, New Premium Sound & Lighting Technologies, Signature Cocktails & Drinks, Private Valet Parking, as well as Legendary Live Performances, and Outstanding Memorable Experiences!
3x-GRAMMY® Award-Winner, 7x-GRAMMY® Nominee, Blues Hall of Famer, 14x-Blues Music Award Winner & 56x-Blues Music Award Nominated Singer & Songwriter BOBBY RUSH is a Living Legend. Rush has been making records for over 70 years and has more than 400 recordings, 77 career releases, and now 28 studio albums to his name.
During his renowned stage shows, Rush frequently jumps high into the air, arms spread and legs tucked, only to land gracefully and return without a hitch to his dazzling routine. It’s a move you might expect at a contemporary R&B show, but it’s downright shocking when you realize that Rush is in his late 80s!
“I never thought I would be here this long,” says Rush. “I was 83 years old before I won a GRAMMY®, but it’s better late than never. I laugh about it, but I’m so blessed and I surely never thought I’d be making a living doing what I’m doing. I’m not just an old guy on my way out.”
Most recently, Rush won the 2021 Blues Music Award for “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year” (‘Rawer Than Raw’), while the album also won the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Traditional Blues Album”. In 2020, Rush won the Blues Music Award for “Soul Blues Album of the Year” (‘Sitting on Top of the Blues’). Prior to this Bobby Rush won the 2017 Blues Music Award for “Blues Album of the Year” (‘Porcupine Meat’), which also won the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Traditional Blues Album.”
At the Blues Music Awards, Rush has been Nominated 17 times for the “BB King Entertainer of the Year”, which is the highly prestigious and coveted Blues Music Award given every year to the most outstanding live performer. He won the award in 2015. Rush has also been Nominated 16 times for “Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year” (winning the award 5 times).
Bobby Rush’s story began in rural Homer/Haynesville, Louisiana, where Rush—born Emmett Ellis, Jr. —grew up on his family’s farm picking cotton, tending to mules and chickens, and living in a home without electricity nor indoor plumbing. He built his first guitar on the side of the family’s house out of broom wire, nails, bottles and bricks.
Rush left behind farm work to perform on the road with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and as “Bobby Rush”—a name he took on out of respect to his father, a minister—he toured the jukes and clubs of Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi before settling in Chicago in the 1950s. Through singles on labels including Chess, ABC and Philadelphia International and relentless touring Rush established an unparalleled reputation as an entertainer, which later led to him being crowned by Rolling Stone magazine as “King of the Chitlin’ Circuit”, the network of African American clubs that arose during the segregation era.
In 1971, Rush broke through on the national charts with the lowdown funk grinder ‘Chicken Heads’ for Galaxy Records. ‘Rush Hour’, a 1979 album for Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International Records, should have made Bobby a huge star but didn’t receive its proper due until the 2000s, when Rolling Stone recognized it as one of the best blues albums of the ’70s.
In 1983, Rush’s lascivious album ‘Sue’ sold over a million records despite little mainstream airplay. During this period Rush established his reputation as King of the Chitlin’ Circuit, playing a minimum of 200 shows a year.
In the new millennium, Rush made a late-career grab for mainstream recognition. He earned his first GRAMMY® Award Nomination for his 2000 album ‘Hoochie Man’. He was Nominated for a GRAMMY® Award in 2014 for the album ‘Down in Louisiana’ and again in 2015 for the album ‘Decisions’. In 2017, Rush won his first GRAMMY® Award for his 25th studio album, ‘Porcupine Meat’ (2017), with guest artists Dave Alvin, Joe Bonamassa, Vasti Jackson, and Keb’ Mo’ and his second GRAMMY® Award for ‘Rawer Than Raw’ (2021).
Based in Jackson, Mississippi since the early ‘80s, Rush began “crossing over” to new audiences several decades ago, featured in the Martin Scorsese-produced documentary “The Road to Memphis”, and also appearing alongside Terrence Howard, Snoop Dogg and Mavis Staples in the documentary “Take Me to the River”, as well as performing on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon along with Dan Aykroyd. And the eternally youthful Rush was even able to play himself in the 1970s in Netflix’s 2019 hit biopic “Dolemite is My Name” in a scene with Eddie Murphy.
Today, Rush’s busy schedule includes headlining European festivals with his band and solo programs at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, and he just recorded an album of brand-new material, ‘All My Love For You’, via his own label Deep Rush Records in collaboration with Nashville-based Thirty Tigers. It was Nominated for a 2024 GRAMMY® Award for ‘Best Traditional Blues Album’. Over the last several years re-recorded his 1971 hit “Chicken Heads” together with his old friend Buddy Guy and young blues star Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and wrote a critically acclaimed autobiography, “I Ain’t Studdin’ You: My American Blues Story”.
Rush has become one of the most prominent advocates for the blues tradition, and says “it’s the root of all music, it’s the mother of all music.” And he has no plans to slow down. “I’m still in decent health and my mind is pretty keen, and the most blessed thing is that I still have people around me who love what I do. And even if you don’t like me, you’re still going to say, “I don’t like Bobby Rush, but, damn, he’s good.’
Tickets for 3x-GRAMMY® Award-Winner, 7x-GRAMMY® Nominee, Blues Hall of Famer, 14x-Blues Music Award Winner & 56x-Blues Music Award Nominated Singer & Songwriter BOBBY RUSH at the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market on Thursday September 24 at 7:30 P.M. are NOW On-Sale on Ticketmaster, Facebook Events at: https://www.facebook.com/share/19QZxFmooa/ and the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market Website at: https://jazzandbluesmarket.com/event/bobby-rush/ – Doors Open 2 Hours before the Show!!
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