Otis Rush was born near Neshoba, Mississippi on April 29, 1935. He became steeped in the country & western and down home blues he heard on the radio and sang and played some rudimentary guitar in a local Baptist church. In 1948 he went to Chicago to visit his sister Elizabeth. Once she took him to see the definitive Muddy Waters Band with Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers at the Zanzibar, Otis knew what he wanted to do, and he's been a Chicagoan ever since. He bought a Kay guitar and began practicing, and around 1953 the owner of the nearby Club Alibi at 27th and South Wentworth heard the racket and hired him to fill in, solo. He formed a band, eventually quit his day job and became known as Little Otis, primarily a Muddy Waters interpreter playing guitar and harmonica but chiefly a vocalist, especially once he hooked up with the Myers bothers' Four Aces. Working with them at the popular 708 Club on East 47th Street, he was spotted by musician/songwriter/A & R man Willie Dixon and label owner Eli Toscano. He soon waxed the wrenching "I Can't Quit You Baby" as the first release on Cobra Records, asserting himself to re-claim the lead guitarist's role from Wayne Bennett as the song evolved. It was an immediate hit, and at age 20 Otis found himself staring ambivalently at stardom for the first time. The 1956-58 collaboration produced eight singles which remain central to modern blues history, and his own evolving writing, singing and playing skills blossomed memorably. Magic Sam and Buddy Guy followed him to Toscano's roster on his recommendation; he played on Buddy's first Chicago session.

After Toscano's commercial demise, Otis followed Dixon back to Chess in 1960; though half of his limited output was held back for a decade or more, "So Many Roads" became one of his deservedly best-known tunes, with his trademark groans and wails and slicing fret work. Two years later he cut a Chicago session for Duke; the two issued songs among the four recorded included "Homework," later revived by Fleetwood Mac and J. Geils. Though this was a fallow period discographically, it was hardly a void. The phrase "Castle Rock Days" still evokes reverie from the many musicians who recall Otis's long tenure at that West Roosevelt Road venue when he and his band brought post-B.B. King Chicago blues to a peak, and a number of careers were nurtured or inspired. He also excelled regularly at Curley's Twist City at Madison & Homan, sometimes while the likes of Albert King would play on the club's other floor. Albert's influence and that of Kenny Burrell were becoming increasingly ascendant for Otis and the concise nature of the Cobra recordings was giving way to prolonged explorations; as Otis once said, "I'm determined to make my point!"

A 1965 studio date for Vanguard yielded five songs for Vol. 2 of the "CHICAGO/THE BLUES/TODAY!" series. Locally, young aspirants like Butterfield, Gravenites, Bloomfield et al were taking due notice. In 1966 Otis went to Europe for the first time with the American Folk Blues Festival, and college, ballroom and festival work punctuated his club engagements as the word and his world spread. With their virtual pick of major labels open to them, Bloomfield and Gravenites took him to Atlantic's Cotillion subsidiary in 1968 and produced "MOURNING IN THE MORNING," with rhythm guitar by Duane Allman. In 1970 Otis signed a five album deal with Capitol, and went to San Francisco to collaborate with Gravenites on the highly regarded LP "RIGHT PLACE WRONG TIME." He was a fixture at the Ann Arbor Blues Festivals (appearing on the live album from '72) and remained near the forefront of the Chicago scene as he cut a studio LP ("COLD DAY IN HELL") for Delmark in '75, toured Japan (meeting Masaki) and cut a live LP there, and was a regular on the mostly north side club circuit.

During a 1977 European tour, a studio reunion in Stockholm with former Vanguard Producer Sam Charters led to the Sonet studio LP "TROUBLES TROUBLES," with a rehashed repertoire of songs by his peers but some finely wrought performances. It was later doctored by Alligator and released in the 1990s to some controversy as "LOST IN THE BLUES." Little did anyone know when it was waxed that it would be his last studio album for sixteen years. The following year, he commenced a regular series of trips to New York City. But a couple years later, his personal difficulties peaked and he even retired briefly in the early '80s. The ensuing years are documented spottily via a selection of live recordings of widely varying quality and legitimacy, perhaps most prominently "TOPS" from the 1985 San Francisco Blues Festival which he ranks among his favorite recordings, and sundry bootlegs of his 1986 Montreux Jazz Festival radio broadcast for which he was joined by Clapton, Allison and Robert Cray, whose first hit "I'm In A Phone Booth, Baby" was conceived by the lyricist as a slow blues, but was grafted onto a Rush-based musical motif. In 1993 he went to Los Angeles, where John Porter produced his attempt to follow Buddy Guy's success for the Silvertone combine via "AIN'T ENOUGH COMIN' IN." He began piling up an ever-expanding list of studio guest cameos and contributions to tribute CDs, and went to Memphis to work with Willie Mitchell and record "ANY PLACE I'M GOING," which won a 1998 Grammy. In 1999 he had his 65th birthday feted lavishly at a festival in Scotland, and late that year ability and opportunity coincided happily in the form of this new DVD.