Elvin Bishop Source: Music City Blues Date: 09/2008 Writer: Don Crow

Elvin Bishop has been a mainstay in the blues dating back to the Sixties and his work as guitarist for The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  He's met a lotta folks in his travels, and, on his latest CD (and first for Delta Groove), "The Blues Rolls On," Elvin has assembled an all-star cast of players that have inspired him as well as helped him get his career started.  Elvin's slide guitar and good-time vocals are well-represented, and he humbly steps aside on several cuts to allow some of the blues' "new blood" to step up to the plate. 

There are highlights aplenty, too.  A smokin' live cut from the Legendary Rhythm And Blues Cruise finds Ronnie Baker Brooks on vocals, backed by Elvin and Tommy Castro on "Yonder's Wall."  "Black Gal" is a Creole-flavored number, with Elvin's guitar the perfect hot sauce for R. C. Carrier's vocal and Andre Thierry's button-accordion.  One of Elvin's Seventies hits, "Struttin' My Stuff," is transferred into a slide guitar free-for-all thanks to Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, and an original member from back in those Capricorn days, Johnny Vernazza.  Up-and-coming harp man John Nemeth's vocals spice up "Night Time Is The Right Time," and "Who's The Fool," and he accompanies Elvin on the set-closing instrumental, "Honest I Do." 

Two cuts stood out, tho, showing the blues' appeal to all ages.  Eighty-two year old icon B. B. King and Elvin share a spoken-word intro and outro regarding Roy Milton before launching into one of Milton's best-known numbers, (and a Bishop favorite) "Keep A Dollar In Your Pocket."  And, The Homemade Jamz Blues Band with nine-year-old drummer Taya Perry give an outstanding read of Jr. Wells' "Come On In This House," with Ryan Perry hitting the upper-register vocals with ease.

Elvin wrote the autobiographical "Oklahoma" for this set, noting that he always seemed to "be in the right place at the right time," be it at the center of the blues-rock explosion of the Butterfield days, or, later on, as a Chicago bluesman hanging with the likes of Muddy and Wolf.  He also states that it's a natch'l fact that "The Blues Rolls On," and, with this crew of players, it rolls on in very capable hands!!!