There are two artists known as Eddie Kirkland. 1. Eddie Kirkland (born August 16, 1923, Jamaica - February 27, 2011, Tampa, Florida) (although consistently noted as 1928, Kirkland states that the true year of his birth is 1923, and has been wrongly noted since his first interview) was an American blues guitarist, harmonicist, singer, and songwriter. Kirkland was raised in Dothan, Alabama in the United States until 1935, when he stowed away in the Sugar Girls Medicine Show tent truck and left town. Blind Blake was the one who influenced him the most in those early days. He was placed on the chorus line with Diamond Tooth Mary. When the show closed a year later, he was in Dunkirk, Indiana where he briefly returned to school. He joined the United States Army during World War II. It was racism in the military, he said, that led him to seek out the devil. After his discharge Kirkland traveled to Detroit where his mother had relocated. After a days work at the Ford Rouge Plant, Kirkland played his guitar at house parties, and there he met John Lee Hooker. Kirkland, a frequent second guitarist in recordings from 1949-1962. It was difficult playin' behind Hooker but I had a good ear and was able to move in behind him on anything he did. Kirkland fashioned his own style of playing open chords, and transformed the rough, porch style delta blues into the electric age by using his thumb, rather than a guitar pick. Kirkland secured his own series of recordings with Sid Nathan of King ...