Tribal Member Inducted into Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame

Comanche Nation tribal member, Cameron University music major and drummer Edward “Eddie” Clark will be inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame on Saturday, May 25, in Rentiesville, Oklahoma.

He said it was unexpected and that a friend brought it up with Selby Minner, who puts on the event. Clark was then asked to send a promo package.

“It's something that I've been doing all my life, playing blues and jazz, playing the drums,” he said. “It's nice to be recognized by the state of Oklahoma in this regard.”

Clark said his love of music began early when he grew up in Lawton, Oklahoma, and music was always playing.

“I'm the youngest out of 11, so we had all kinds of music happening from all my older brothers and sisters, even my parents,” he said. “We had great radio stations here. We had KOMA from Oklahoma City, and late at night, back in the 60s, we were able to get up radio stations all the way from Chicago, WLS in Chicago, and they played a lot of blues and a lot of rhythm and blues. And I just remember hearing the music from so far away and it just, it sounded spooky and kind of scary, but I liked it.”
 

Clark said he’s been playing music since the age of 16 and was in a band from southern California with William Clarke in the 80s.

“He was blues harmonica, just steeped into the blues,” he said. “You couldn't find any more steeped into the blues bluesman than William Clarke. And we played together, Steve, his name is Steve Killman, we played together in the William Clarke band. Steve was on guitar, of course myself on the drums, and things were going great.”

Clark said landing on a record label was one of his big highlights with the William Clarke Band.

“We toured all over the nation, back and forth across the United States and into Europe, and the highlight of all that work with William Clarke, recording hours and hours in the studio with him, we landed on Alligator Records in Chicago, Illinois,” he said. “It's the largest blues label that I know of in Los Angeles. They have the great Chris Stone Kingfish, who won a Grammy, and they also have Bobby Rush, who also won a Grammy, so Alligator is known for Grammy Award-winning music.”

The band would win W.C. Handy Awards for the first albums that appeared on Alligator Records.

“In the span of time, I also worked with the great late Floyd Dixon, Texas blues piano,” Clark said. “He wrote a hit song called ‘Hey Bartender,’ which was picked up by even country artists like Johnny Lee and many other blues artists. So, I was fortunate enough to record with Floyd Dixon, that also landed on Alligator Records.”

After the death of William Clarke, Clark would work with harmonica player Lester Butler.

“And he had a group called 13, it was called 13 Featuring Lester Butler,” he said. “And unfortunately, he also passed away in May of ‘98. But in ’97, is when he called me around July, and we worked non-stop from July up to right up to when he passed. I went to Europe so many times, I filled up two passports. We spent about six to seven weeks in Europe on our first European tour, and we visited Moscow, Russia, for two weeks. So that was an interesting experience being in Moscow, Russia, for two weeks and playing to some very, very diehard fans.They love music, American music and the blues and the roots type sound. We had great, great audiences.”

He is currently a junior in music performance. Clark hopes younger generations and Native Americans will get into music.