Elvin Bishop

Biography

Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015, and in the Blues Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2016.

Early life and education

Bishop was born in Glendale, California, the son of Mylda (nee Kleege) and Elvin Bishop Sr. He grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was 10. There, he attended Will Rogers High School, winning a full scholarship to the University of Chicago as a National Merit Scholar. He moved to Chicago in 1960 to attend the university, where he majored in physics.

Career

In 1963, Bishop met harmonica player Paul Butterfield in the neighborhood of Hyde Park, joined Butterfield's blues band, and remained with them for five years. Bishop was originally Butterfield's only guitarist, but was later joined by Mike Bloomfield, who largely assumed the lead guitar role for the band's first two albums. After Bloomfield departed, the Butterfield Band's third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, took its name from Bishop's nickname and his renewed role as lead guitarist. Bishop recorded a fourth album, In My Own Dream, with Butterfield, his last with the band, in 1968.
During his time with the Butterfield Blues Band, Bishop met blues guitarist Louis Myers at a show. Bishop persuaded Myers to trade his Gibson ES-345 for Bishop's Telecaster. Bishop liked the Gibson so much, he never gave it back and has used it throughout his career. Bishop has nicknamed his Gibson ES-345 "Red Dog", a name he got from a roadie for the Allman Brothers Band.
In 1968, he went solo and formed the Elvin Bishop Group, also performing with 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.
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 "Who's Lovin' You Tonight."

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, such as John Lee Hooker, and with Zydeco artist Clifton Chenier. In late 1975, he played guitar for a few tracks on Bo Diddley's The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll album and, in 1995, he toured with B.B. King.
Bishop made an impression on album-oriented rock FM radio stations with "Travelin' Shoes" in 1975. In 1976, he released his most memorable single, "Fooled Around and Fell in Love×Fooled Around and Fell in Love1978 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Fooled Around and Fell in Love2:572Travelin' Shoes3:00", which peaked at number three in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (and number 34 in the UK Singles Chart). The recording featured vocalist Mickey Thomas and drummer Donny Baldwin, who both later joined Jefferson Starship.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he recorded for the Fillmore, Epic, and Capricorn labels.

Bishop appeared at the 1984 Long Beach Blues Festival. In 1988, he signed with Alligator Records and released Big Fun featuring Whit Lehnberg and the Carptones, 1991's Don't Let the Bossman Get You Down!, 1995's Ace in the Hole, 1998's The Skin I'm In, and That's 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 and Elvin Bishop: Chicago Blues Buddies.
Bishop was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998.
In 2005, Bishop released his first new solo CD in seven years, Gettin' My Groove Back. In 2008, Bishop released The Blues Rolls 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.
His first live concert DVD, That's My Thing: Elvin Bishop Live in Concert, was recorded live at the Club Fox in Redwood City, California, 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. The same organization announced that Bishop had six nominations for the 36th Blues Music Awards held in May 2015. He triumphed in three of them.
In April 2015, Bishop was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
In November 2017, his album Elvin Bishop's Big Fun×Big Fun21 October 1988 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Don't You Lie to Me3:082Beer Drinking Woman4:143Oklahoma Country Girl2:514My Dog3:345Midnight Hour Blues3:346No Broken Hearts2:507The Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo2:378She Puts Me in the Mood3:359Country Boy3:0410Honest I Do3:0411Fishin' Again3:27 Trio received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The Grammy was won by the Rolling Stones for Blue and Lonesome.
In November 2021, his album with Charlie Musselwhite, 100 Years of Blues×100 Years of Blues25 September 2020 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Birds of a Feather3:252Est Helena Blues4:533What the Hell?3:094Good Times3:485Old School5:016If I Should Have Bad Luck4:037Midnight Hour Blues4:148Blues Why Do You Worry Me4:059South Side Slide3:1610Blues for Yesterday5:5511Help Me5:1712100 Years of Blues5:14, received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Bishop lost to Cedric Burnside for his album I Be Trying.

Personal life

Bishop's daughter Selina and ex-wife Jennifer Villarin were murdered along with three other victims in an August 2000 crime spree. The perpetrators were later identified as Selina's then-boyfriend Glen Helzer, Helzer's brother Justin Helzer, and accomplice Dawn Godman. The murders reportedly occurred as part of a scheme to extort money from an elderly couple from Concord, California. Both killers were sentenced to death for the murders; Justin Helzer, blind and partially paralyzed from an attempt on his own life while incarcerated, subsequently committed suicide in San Quentin prison.

Compilation albums

The Best of Elvin Bishop: Crabshaw Rising (Epic, 1975)
Sure Feels Good: The Best of Elvin Bishop (Polydor, 1992) Capricorn material
The Best of Elvin Bishop: Tulsa Shuffle (Epic/Legacy, 1994)
The Best of Elvin Bishop (20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection) (Mercury, 2002) Capricorn material
Party Till the Cows Come Home (Arcadia, 2004)
She Puts Me in the Mood (Blues Boulevard, 2012) Alligator material