From the October 1, 2010, Chicago Tribune by Mark Guarino.
These two were self-taught and considered by many to be Chicago's first blues band. They were commercial hit-makers who influenced Louis Prima, Chuck Berry and Led Zeppelin. Their music ranged from country blues to zippier, often bawdy commercial blues that gained them fame back then.
Charlie and Joe McCoy migrated from Memphis to Chicago's South Side in the early 1930s and were penniless when they died in the 1950s. Their final resting places are unmarked in Alsop's Restvale Cemetery.
Back in October, a benefit was held at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music to raise money for markers.
Steve Salter, one of the organizers, runs a website (killerblues.net) that documents the graves of blues musicians. he was one of the first to notice that the McCoy brothers had no markers. Last year he visited Restvale where at least 22 other bluesmen are buried, including: Muddy Waters, J.B. Hutto and Hound Dog Taylor. Numbers were assigned to the brothers, but no markers placed.
More to Come. --DaCoot
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