Eddie "Little Buster" Forehand RIP

Little Buster at Blues Estafette, Utrecht in late 90's

I found out this weekend that another of my heroes died last week - Little Buster. I was fortunate enough to see perform an exceptional set at the Blues Estafette in Utrecht in the late 90's and his music has given me so much pleasure over the years.

Below is the obiturary written by Collin Nash for Newsday

Measured by his heart and his musical talents, "Little Buster" was a quiet giant, family and friends said.

Edward James Spivey-Forehand, a self-taught blind blues singer and guitarist who was a key player in helping the blues flourish on Long Island, died Thursday in a Nassau County nursing home. He was 63.

Up until his death, Forehand - whose dexterity was increasingly ravaged from the effects of numerous strokes caused by acute diabetes and high blood pressure - refused to put down his guitar, said his wife Mary Forehand of Hempstead."He was an extraordinary man who never considered himself handicapped,"

Mary Forehand said of her husband, who also played bass, drums, keyboards and saxophone.Forehand was born in Hertford, N.C. His father, Edmund J. Spivey, was a barber and his mother, Martha Lee Forehand, was a stay-at-home mom. He was the fourth of 11 children.

He started losing his sight to cataracts when he was about 9. He joined his father in Philadelphia for unsuccessful surgeries but, homesick, he returned home and later went to a state school for the blind and deaf in Raleigh, N.C.Though he was a pianist at school, in the summer he watched - he could see all right in the daylight - captivated by street-corner guitarists. He practiced daily on a three-string guitar, trying to emulate his early idols .

Forehand left for New York in 1959 with his childhood friend, drummer Melvin Taylor, and 25 cents in his pocket, his wife said. The Greyhound bus driver let him ride for free, she said. Earl Phillips, his brother-in-law by his first marriage to Geraldine Lewis, housed him at his Westbury home.

He was playing at the Show Place Club in Roosevelt in the 1960s with his band, Little Buster and the Soul Brothers, when a recent high school graduate from Tennessee who was at the club with friends found herself caught up by the blues man's charisma.She, like a lot of people, didn't know until they got to know him that he was blind, his wife said. "He pulled up a chair and started telling me what I looked like. He was a smooth talker."The couple dated for a while, and had two children together before marrying in 1968.

But Forehand became a staple on the Long Island blues scene, playing five nights a week from the Steer Inn in Freeport to Hansom House in Southampton during the '70s. He later toured in Europe, Japan and Canada. Forehand made a name covering such standards as "I Got You," "Knock on Wood" and "The Thrill Is Gone."But at 52, after 30 years atop the Long Island bar band circuit, Little Buster released his first album of his own songs, "Right on Time."His wife said, "He never let the blindness stop him."

There will be a viewing May 18 from 6-9 p.m. at the Hempstead Funeral Home on Peninsula Boulevard. The memorial service will be on May 19 at the Massapequa Full Gospel Tabernacle on Jerusalem Avenue, to be followed by burial at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughters Alison Paris of Hempstead, Alicia Johnson of Oakland, Calif., and Cassondra Forehand of Hempstead; sons Timothy Forehand of Hempstead, and Gary Forehand of Covington, Ga.; stepmother Gladys Preston of Philadelphia; two brothers, Antonio Spivey of Las Vegas, and David Spivey of Philadelphia; sisters Arsena Tyree of Philadelphia, Martha Phillips of Hempstead, Audrey Jenkins of Westbury, and Unice Brown of Newport News, Va.

I will dig out a few Little Buster sides to share with you this week.