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Elvin Bishop
 Elvin Bishop was just plain born to be a blues musician, even if it did take him a few years to know such a thing as blues music even existed. Or, to even hear much in the way of music at all.
Growing up in the 1940s on a farm in Iowa with a loving but non-musical family, Elvin seldom heard music as a kid. "This was before TV," Elvin says, "and on the radio you got a lot of Frank Sinatra and 'How Much Is That Doggie In the Window' type of stuff."
The family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when Elvin was 10, in 1952. Tulsa was "totally segregated," says Elvin, "I mean, hard core. Oklahoma was not that far ahead of the rest of the South, I'd say." Elvin remembers seeing Ray Charles in the Big Ten Ballroom with a rope stretched the length of the room to separate blacks and whites. "The one thing they couldn't segregate was the airwaves," says Bishop. "When rock and roll started up, in the mid-'50s, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard showed up on white radio."
And then, late one night when Elvin was 14 or 15, the atmospheric conditions a little rough, Jimmy Reed's harmonica came cutting through the static from WLAC in Nashville, and Elvin Bishop's life was changed. The song was "Honest I Do." "That piercing harp came through, cutting in like a knife, and I said, 'Oh, man, that's it.' I found out that blues was where the good part of rock and roll was coming from."
After moving to Chicago in the early 60’s and learning the blues from local legends Smokey Smothers and others while absorbing the clubs filled with the likes Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf Elvin became a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Going out on his own in the late 60’s Elvin had several hit singles including “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” and “Struttin My Stuff” that made him a FM radio favorite and a touring ticket seller. The 80’s found Elvin on the road across the world and in the 90’s Elvin released several blues albums for the infamous Alligator Records label including a live release which featured old friend Smokey Smother called “That’s My Partner”.
Gettin' My Groove Backon on
Blind Pig Records is Elvin's first new studio album in seven years. I love it. It has a generous serving of Elvin's signature fun-time tunes, such as "Party Till the Cows Come Home," "That's My Thing," "He's a Dog," the downright funky "Got To Be New Orleans," and a really tasty slice of slide instrumental, "Sweet Dreams." And a whole bunch of wonderful musicians including Bishop band members trombone player Ed Earley, Steve Willis on keys, Ian Lamson on guitar and drummer Bobby Cochran (who also contributes some strong lead vocals on a few tunes) and guest artists including the estimable Henry Butler on piano and excellent Bay Area musicians Roy Rogers, Norton Buffalo and Terry Hanck.
But the song I played the most is "Come On Blues." It's part of what Blind Pig calls "a darker side to the album, reflective of a period of personal misfortune for the artist." "Well," says Elvin, "A lot of times a situation will come up and life will kind of give you a choice -- you can either laugh or cry about it -- and I'll always try to see the humor. But sometimes things get so rough that you just can't grin about it. And that's when I'm glad I'm a songwriter, because I can at least write a song about it and try to get it out of my system a little bit and start trying to get back on the good foot."
Some call it "the redemptive power of music." I call it the blues, and on this album it's heard in the way the outrage of "What the Hell Is Going On?" is balanced with the optimism of "I'll Be Glad."
"Come On Blues" reminds me a little of Charles Brown's "Dark Night." The guitar licks remind me a little of John Lee Hooker's signature hard-ass twang. But it's all Elvin Bishop, it's straight from the heart. It hit me like a piledriver and immediately jumped into my personal list of all-time great blues tunes.
"Come on blues, help me make it through. Come on blues, I'm countin' on you."
And this album is the only place anyone will ever hear it. "I only did that song once in my life and that's all I'm ever going to do it," says Elvin Bishop. "I thought about doing it over -- maybe the singing could have been better - but it's real. So I just left it."
"Most of my stuff is for entertainment, but that song and 'What the Hell is Going On' were written for me, more for therapy than anything."
"My show is one thing. I know what it is that I do for a living. I'm there to show people a good time. The other stuff, I can sit on my front porch and play any time I want."
John Orr, staff writer, San Jose Mercury News
Edited for this site by HDS
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MP3 Sample Tracks:
Party Till The Cows Come Home
What the Hell is Going On
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