Theodis Ealey, the Bluesman Lover, dies at 79
The Natchez-born singer and guitarist behind "Stand Up In It" died November 4. Services are set for November 20 and 21 in metro Atlanta.
Theodis Ealey, the singer and guitarist whose "Stand Up In It" became one of the best-known southern soul records of the 2000s, died on November 4, 2026. He was 79.
Ealey was born in Natchez, Mississippi, on March 19, 1947, and grew up in a musical family. He was playing in his brothers' band as a teenager. After serving in the Air Force he worked his way through the West Coast blues scene and eventually settled in the Atlanta area, where he lived for decades and recorded for the Atlanta blues label Ichiban in the 1990s. Along the way he shared stages with Little Milton and Charles Brown.
He called himself the Bluesman Lover, and in 2004 the name stuck for good. "Stand Up In It" went to No. 1 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales chart, a rare feat for an independent blues record, and it has stayed in DJ crates and on show setlists ever since. Daddy B. Nice of SouthernSoulRnB.com, reporting the news the day Ealey died, credited the song with setting the template for the modern genre.
Services
According to Gregory B. Levett & Sons Funeral Homes, a visitation is scheduled for Friday, November 20, from noon to 8 p.m., and a celebration of life for Saturday, November 21, in the Decatur area. Check the funeral home's page for the exact location and time of each before you go.