Guitarist Elvin Bishop is best known in pop music circles as the Southern rocker behind mid-1970s hits like "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" and "Struttin' My Stuff." Long before the Oklahoma-born musician ever made a trip to Macon, Georgia and Capricorn Records, he was rockin' the blues as an original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in Chicago. Truth is, Bishop's bluesy roots-rock sound never faltered much from its origins even when the artist was palling around with folks like the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Bishop jumped right back into his trademark juke-joint blues once his brief flirtation with Southern rock had run its course, and in the three decades since, the talented guitarist has recorded around a dozen albums for notable blues music labels like Alligator Records and Blind Pig. The Blues Rolls On is Bishop's first album for the relatively new Delta Groove Music label, and it represents his first studio effort in three years. To celebrate his renewed appreciation for the blues, Bishop has enlisted the help of buddies like B.B. King, Derek Trucks, George Thorogood, Tommy Castro, and others.
Elvin Bishop's The Blues Rolls On
Bishop kicks off The Blues Rolls On with the rollicking title track. Accompanied by Govt. Mule guitarist Warren Haynes and Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman Kim Wilson, Bishop delivers a rocking ode to the music we all know and love. Bishop and Haynes swap lightning-style slide-guitar licks and Wilson blows some of the meanest harp that you'll ever hear.
Tackling the blues standard "Night Time Is The Right Time," Bishop enlists the help of guest vocalists John Nemeth and Angela Strehli. With tenor sax player Terry Hanck puncturing the song's shuffling rhythms with blasts of horn, the two singers trade off on verses as Bishop keeps a steady stream of guitar-picking rolling low in the mix. Although it's not listed as such, I seem to hear some of Nemeth's incredible harpwork laying deep in the grooves, as well.
Struttin' My Stuff
Revisiting an old Paul Butterfield Band standby, Bishop shares the stage on "Yonder's Wall" with guitarists Tommy Castro and Ronnie Baker Brooks, who pulls double-duty on vocals. Recorded live in 2007 on the Legendary Blues Cruise, the performance of these three skilled blues pickers is a treat. Bishop dips back into his back catalog again to revive his mid-1970s rocker "Struttin' My Stuff," delivered here as a stripped-down and swaggering blues-rock stomp, guitarists Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes helping provide 110% more struttin' for your dollar....
Blues legend B.B. King drops by for some conversation and some music on the Roy Milton gem "Keep A Dollar In Your Pocket." The song is curiously bookended with a discussion between King and Bishop, the latter keeping a strong rhythm while the former provides his usual graceful notes with plenty of space and tone. The arrangement is jazzier than anything else here, but rocks just as hard.
Blues, Roots-Rock, and Zydeco
Although The Blues Rolls On is comprised mostly of blues and blues-rock material, Bishop isn't afraid to venture out of his safety zone into the unexpected, and his cover of the Clifton Chenier zydeco treasure "Black Gal" certainly qualifies. Bishop's strong, swaying guitar solos provide a counterpoint to the spirited accordion play of up-n-coming Cajun musician Andre Thierry, the two creating a wonderful, joyous noise together.
Bishop's autobiographical "Oklahoma" is a buoyant tribute to the guitarist's blues influences, Bishop tracing his career from his arrival in Chicago to late-1960s San Francisco to today, name-checking greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, the Allman Brothers, and others with no little humor, his vocals rising above a raw, dirty, buzzing, blues-rock riff that thunders larger than life and rolls out of your speakers like the sound from a Delta juke-joint on Saturday night.
Bishop also isn't afraid to pay respect where due, and he takes on Junior Wells' "Come On In This House" with the help of Mississippi's Homemade Jamz band. Accompanied by the youthful blues prodigies, Bishop cranks out a heady brew of swampy blues that reminds of cypress vines and smoke on the bayou.
Guitarist George Thorogood comes in for a little roadhouse rockin' on Hound Dog Taylor's "Send You Back To Georgia," the Delaware Destroyer and Oklahoma's finest turnin' up the amps and playing tug-o-war with scorching solos behind Thorogood's vocals on this live recording from the Voodoo Lounge in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Reverends Bottom Line
Elvin Bishop has long suffered from the seeming dichotomy of being both one of the best-known, yet underrated artists in the blues. The Blues Rolls On should help remove this distinction, firmly placing Bishop in the front ranks of contemporary blues guitarists. A strong set of songs that mixes up inspired covers with a handful of solid originals, the album should delight any fan of blues-rock guitar, and would certainly appeal to the Americana/roots-rock crowd as well. (Delta Groove Music)
