Eddie Kirkland | Blues musician, 87

Eddie Kirkland, 87, who performed with some of the greatest names in blues and soul, but remained somewhat in their shadow, has died.

He died Feb. 27 in a Tampa, Fla., hospital, from injuries sustained in an accident as he drove between gigs that morning. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, he turned into the path of a Greyhound bus on a highway in Homosassa, Fla. No one aboard the bus was injured.

For more than half a century Mr. Kirkland played the blues, and for much of that time he seemed to have known the blues firsthand.

As a child, he was poor in the Jim Crow South. As an adult, he lived through the deaths of several children, including the murder of a niece he had raised as a daughter. By his own account, he also survived two shootings and spent time on a chain gang.

A guitarist, singer, songwriter, and harmonica player, Mr. Kirkland performed with John Lee Hooker, Otis Redding, and other stars, but he was not as widely known as they and not remotely as well off.

A longtime resident of Macon, Ga., he had known a life of struggle but also, in his vibrant telling, picaresque adventure. Some adventures can be confirmed. Others may have been part of the mythology that swirled around him - he was known as a charismatic teller of tall tales.

What is certain is that in the course of a career that began in the 1930s, Mr. Kirkland became known for his impassioned singing; wailing guitar lines (he was among the first to bring blues guitar into the electric age); vibrant stage presence (he favored bravura headgear like turbans and huge bandannas); and boundless energy, expressed not only musically but also acrobatically.

His many albums include It's the Blues Man!, Have Mercy, and Democrat Blues. - N.Y. Times News Service