On this 21st day of October in 1942 Blues guitarist Elvin Bishop was born in Glendale, CA. Bishop has had a long career beginning with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the sixties. Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when Bishop was ten. There he attended Will Rogers High School, winning a full scholarship to the University of Chicago as a National Merit Scholar finalist. He moved to Chicago in 1960 to attend the university, where he majored in physics. In 1963, he met harmonica player Paul Butterfield in the neighborhood of Hyde Park and joined Butterfields blues band, with whom he remained for five years. Their third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, takes its name from Bishops nickname.[1] During his time with the Butterfield Blues Band, Bishop met blues guitarist Louis Meyers at a show. Bishop convinced Meyers to trade his Gibson ES-345 for Bishops Telecaster. Bishop liked the Gibson so much he never gave it back and has used it throughout his career.[2] Bishop has nicknamed his Gibson ES-345 Red Dog, a name he got from a roadie that worked for the Allman Brothers Band.[3] In 1968 he went solo and formed the Elvin Bishop Group, also performing with Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper on their album titled The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. The group signed with Fillmore Records, which was owned by Bill Graham, who also owned the Fillmore music venues.[4] In March 1971, The Elvin Bishop Group and The Allman Brothers Band co-billed a series of concerts at the Fillmore East. Bishop joined The Allman Brothers Band onstage for a rendition of his own song, Drunken Hearted Boy. Over the years, Bishop has recorded with many other blues artists including Clifton Chenier and John Lee Hooker. In late 1975, he played guitar for a couple of tracks on Bo Diddleys The 20th Anniversary of Rock n Roll album, and in 1995, he toured with B.B. King.[1] Bishop made an impression on album-oriented rock FM radio stations with Travelin Shoes in 1975,[5] but a year later, in 1976, Bishop released his most memorable single, Fooled Around and Fell in Love, which peaked at #3 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart (and #34 in the UK charts). The recording featured vocalist Mickey Thomas and drummer Donny Baldwin who both later joined Jefferson Starship. Bishop feels that the limitations of his voice have helped his songwriting.[6] Bishop performing at the Riverwalk Blues Festival, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in February 2006 Bishop appeared at the 1984 Long Beach Blues Festival. In 1988, he signed with Alligator Records and released Big Fun featuring Whit Lehnberg & The Carptones, 1991s Dont Let the Bossman Get You Down, 1995s Ace in the Hole, 1998s The Skin Im In and Thats My Partner (2000), on which he paired with an early Chicago blues teacher, Little Smokey Smothers. He later revisited Smothers in the studio, where the two recorded another album in 2009; Little Smokey Smothers & Elvin Bishop: Chicago Blues Buddies. In 2005, Bishop released his first new CD in five years, Gettin My Groove Back.[7] In 2008, Bishop released The Blues Roles On, on September 23, 2008, switching labels to Delta Groove Music. He was supported by Tommy Castro, James Cotton, Warren Haynes, B.B. King, Derek Trucks, George Thorogood, Kim Wilson, John Németh and Angela Strehli. The album was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. In 2010, Bishop released Red Dog Speaks. Bishop sat in with the Grateful Dead on June 8, 1969 at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. He opened the second set with the lengthy blues jam, Turn on Your Lovelight without Pigpen or Jerry. He played two more songs with the Dead, The Things I Used to Do and Whos Lovin You Tonight.[8] Bishop was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998. His first live concert DVD, Thats My Thing: Elvin Bishop Live in Concert, was recorded live at the Club Fox in Redwood City, CA on December 17, 2011. It was released on the Delta Groove label in October, 2012. The DVD was nominated for Best Blues DVD of 2012 by The Blues Foundation. Personal life Bishops daughter Selina and ex-wife Jennifer Villarin were murdered in August 2000[9] by Glenn Taylor Helzer, his brother Justin Helzer, and accomplice Dawn Godman. According to The Point Reyes Light, Bishop, her mother Jenny Villarin, and a friend of Villarin, James Gamble, were murdered as part of an elaborate scheme to extort $100,000 from elderly Concord, California residents Ivan and Annette Stineman.[10][11] Both killers were sentenced to death for the murders; Justin Helzer committed suicide in San Quentin prison. In popular culture Charlie Daniels mentions Bishop in his 1975 song The Souths Gonna Do It, with the lyric, Elvin Bishop sittin on a bale of hay; he aint good lookin, but he sure can play. Molly Hatchet also references Bishop in their 1978 song Gator Country, with the lyrics, Elvin Bishop out struttin his stuff with little Miss Slick Titty Boom, Im goin back to the Gator Country and get me some elbow room. Fooled Around and Fell In Love was included in the soundtrack album for Guardians of the Galaxy titled Awesome Mix Vol. 1. youtu.be/nn43E7GXHwY
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 13:02:09 +0000
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