Elvin Bishop Source: Walla Walla Blues Society Blues News Date: 10/2008 Writer: Kevin ‘Bad Dog’ Shenefield

I have been waiting for quite some time for a new Elvin Bishop CD to roll out again, and so I was pretty damn happy when I came across this CD (thanks for thinkin’ of me Tired Puppy Patty!). I’ve been a fan of Elvin’s for just about as long as I can remember, since way back in the day when he made the jump from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to a successful solo career. I remember listening to the ol’ devil way back when I was a kid when he was doing such Elvin classics as “Struttin’ My Stuff”, “Juke Joint Jump”, “Little Brown Bird”, “Stealin’ Watermelons”, “Let It Flow” and of course, the classic pop tune “Fooled Around and Fell In Love”. It hasn’t always been Blues, but it’s always been good, fun music that’d get your toes a-tappin’ and put a smile on your face. I’ve been lucky enough to see Elvin perform live on several occasions, including this last Fourth of July weekend at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, and he always puts on an extremely entertaining and enjoyable show that sends you away with a big ol’ grin and a good feelin’. And I’m fairly certain that I own just about every Elvin Bishop album that there is, either on CD or on vinyl (my very favorite being the double album from the late 70’s, Elvin Bishop LIVE! Raisin’ Hell… pick up a copy if you can still find it).

So yeah, I’m a huge fan, and I was very excited to see a new offering from him finally. But when I opened the package and saw that Elvin only contributed vocals on 4 out of the 12 songs on the disc, I thought “What the heck? Why even call it an Elvin Bishop CD if he’s only singing on a third of the tunes?” (Although he does contribute his inimitable brand of guitar pickin’ and/or slidin’ on all of the tracks). And then I looked at the album’s guest list and my jaw dropped to the floor. It reads like a list of who’s who in the Blues world, both present and future. Check this out… B.B. King, James Cotton, George Thorogood, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Kim Wilson, Tommy Castro, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Angela Strehli, Homemade Jamz Blues Band, R.C. Carrier, Andre Thierry, and one our favorite ‘local boys’, John Nemeth! Holy Cow!! So yeah, you may not hear much of Elvin’s voice on this disk (some might call that a bonus), but in return you’re getting a CD that is jam packed with some fantastic music. It starts off with the cool title tune that has Elvin singing about blues royalty past and present that had or have ‘the groove’, while trading slide guitar licks with Warren Haynes, along with some tasty third position harp playing by former Fab T-Bird Kim Wilson. “Night Time is the Right Time” is an old nappy Brown tune that was later turned into a hit by Ray Charles, and it feautures two of Elvin’s favorite singers in the world, John Nemeth and Angela Strehli on vocals (Wow!), Nemeth on harp, and Terry Hanck on tenor sax. “Yonder’s Wall” is a song that Elvin recorded with Paul Butterfield over four decades ago and demonstrates the way that the Blues really does roll on… from Big Boy Crudup via Elmore James to Paul Butterfield and now onto Ronnie Baker Brooks and Tommy Castro (the song features Brooks on vocals and guitar, with Elvin and Castro on guitar as well). It was recorded live somewhere off the west coast of Mexico on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise last fall. Elvin then serves up a new version of “Struttin” that, although not my personal favorite version, is still very fun with Elvin and his original 70’s band (including Johnny ‘V’ Vernazza) along with Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. “Keep A Dollar In Your Pocket” is a Roy Milton tune that has Elvin on cocals, along with B.B. King and Lucille, and also features some short but sweet conversation with B.B. before and after the song. The extremely cool “Who’s The Fool” once again features Nemeth on vocals and Elvin on slide guitar, along with Mike Schermer and Kid Anderson on guitar as well. According to Elvin, Paul Butterfield used to sing this song a lot but never did record it. The Clifton Chenier song, “Black Gal,” features R.C. Chenier on vocals and rub board, Andre Thierry (the hottest young Zydeco player on the west coast) on squeezebox, and Elvin on guitar. “Oklahoma” is a typically wry autobiographical tale of Elvin’s roots and his journey to Chicago and eventual stardom done as only Elvin can. Junior Wells’ “Come On In This House” features Tupelo, Mississippi’s Homemade Jamz Blues Band, a band made up of two brothers (Ryan and Kyle Perry) and a sister (Taya) who are all under fourteen years old and well on their way to success. Another Wells tune, “I Found Out”, features Nemeth and Strehli on vocals once more, with none other than harp master James Cotton on harmonica, who Elvin has been good friends with since 1960. This is actually their first recording together since 1963! Hound Dog Taylor’s “Send You Back to Georgia” is redone here by Elvin and George Thorogood, who used to open for Hound Dog a lot when he was first starting out. “Honest I Do” is a Jimmy Reed tune that is done completely instrumental, with Nemeth’s piercing harmonica and Elvin’s slide guitar doing all of the ‘singing’.

“When I first heard the Blues,” Elvin says, “I said ‘This is where the good part of rock and roll is coming from!’ It was like a billion volts shooting through my body, and I went after I like a dog on a bone! And I’ve been doing it now for over 45 years.” Elvin sees “The Blues Rolls On” as “a chance to pass along to the younger generation some of what the older guys gave me. It’s about what a beautiful thing it is how the Blues continues to flow from one generation to the next.”

To quote one of Elvin’s biggest hits, “Let It Flow”, Brother Bishop.