Elvin Bishop

ELVIN BISHOP & CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

By Kevin Wildman So what happens when you put together two of the most famous bluesmen around, such as Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite. Well, you wind up with one helluva Blues album, that’s what you get. That’s what happened when longtime friends Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite recorded their new and first collaboration together, 100 Years Of Blues, which is out now on Alligator Records. The two of them had known each for years and Charlie had even guested on a few of Elvin’s songs, but they had never recorded a complete album together. For this album, the two of them brought to the table about nine songs that they had written between the two of them plus another three by some great Blues legends, such as Roosevelt Sykes, Leroy Carr and Sonny Boy Williamson. Together the two of them, along with the seasoned band of professionals that the brought in, managed to create a great Blues album that truly takes us back to the authentic sound of Blues Roots. There’s no frills here, no layers of overdubs, just plain Blues, with most of it done in just one take or two. And quite honestly, with musicians of this caliber, you really don’t need more than one take as the band performs everything together in the studio at one time. It leads to a more honest recording, which this one certainly does. Accompanying Elvin and Charlie on this album is Bob Welsh (keyboards and guitar), and Kid Anderson (bass). The album was recorded both at Elvin’s home studio, Hog Heaven in Marin County, and at Kid Anderson’s studio, Greaseland in San Jose, California. The recording sessions were laid back and very casual, and they really made for a fun time between the two of them. “It all fell together so quickly and easily,” says Elvin. “We each brought about half the songs and recorded them in one or two takes.” Elvin speaks of Charlie with great admiration and praise. Charlie is one of those guys that always improves with age and Elvin has wanted to do something with him for quite a while. “Charlie’s played on a few of my records. A tune here, a tune there, and just whatever we could squeeze in. But this is the first time we really decided we’d try and do something together. You know, something that really represented the both of us, and it turned out to be a

Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite Present 100 Years Of Blues

really pleasant thing and kind of easy to agent together and they booked us a do. It just rolled right out. I always bunch of gigs together, like Performing admired Charlie. He’s not one of those Arts Centers, and those size of places guys who at our age. in our 70s, that and people really, really went for it. It have stopped trying to improve a long didn’t make sense to not do a record if time ago. They’re kind of riding on the it’s going this well. So we just got past and Charlie doesn’t do that. He’s together and just sat down and basically always sharpening his stuff up and played with not much in the way of improving and I found that very impresoverdubs. We just let it come out sive and I kind of admire him for that.” naturally and it was one of the most So how did the two of them finally painless experience in my life. It’s kind get together and record this album, of like we both have sort of down home they’ve known each other since the 60s. experience in this kind of thing. We go “Well,” says Elvin, “We did a couple of back to the days of Blues before they had little benefits around here. It wasn’t bass and drums and everything. It takes worth putting the band together for, so a certain depth of knowledge to be able just me and Charlie would do it together to pull that off. I think that we both sort and we said ‘hey, this ain’t bad. This of had it, so that worked out okay.” works out pretty good.’ Then we finally continued on next page got his booking agent and my booking October 2020 • Rock and Blues International 7

Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite continued from previous page

When it came time to pick out the songs for this project, the two of them pretty much split the load down the center and each of them brought a few songs to the table that they felt comfortable with. “I just felt it was kind of nice to get back to the really pure Roots as much as possible on the songs here,” explains Elvin. “Charlie just picked out a half a dozen or so tunes that he liked to do and I did the same and we tried to back each other up just as good as we could. Basically that’s all it amounted to. These are mostly songs, I’d say maybe two-thirds, that we do on the live show and we knew they’d work pretty good. On the other ones we said, let’s try this and let’s try that, you know. Most of them worked and a few of them didn’t, so we just left them off.” Some of the songs that Elvin brought to the session were “What The Hell,” “Birds Of A Feather,” “South Side

photo by Steve Jennings

Slide,” and “Midnight Hour Blues.” A lot of the rest came from Charlie’s side. Without a doubt, this album is going to be one album that belongs in your record collection. It is just packed with great moments from the two of them. When you listen to their renditions of these songs, you can’t help but notice the honesty in the music and the recordings. There’s no over-done production here. It’s just a couple of guys having fun doing just what they like to do…. play music. Elvin tells us that the one thing that he wants people to come away with after hearing this album is “this is the real deal blues. This is all stuff that that they don’t get to hear so much of these days. There wasn’t none of that technological stuff on this. There were damn few overdubs and it’s just guys sitting down and playing. I just love Charlie’s singing. There’s no great technique to it, but when he opens up his mouth, it’s real and that’s the main thing about this album. There’s no BS to it.” That’s right people, there’s no BS to this album. 100 Years Of Blues is one of the most honest Blues albums you’re going to hear this year. It’s a return back to the roots of blues, when men where men and they just sat down and did a great job without a lot of technical wizardry about them. They would just sit down and do their job in one take or two. After talking to Elvin about this project, I think that I would have really loved to be a fly on the wall in this session. How wonderful it would have been to be able to watch two masters of their profession record such a spectacular album. Really folks, if you only add one Blues Roots album to your collection, this should be the one. Our congratulations goes out to Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Bruce Iglauer and the whole team at Alligator Records for blessing us with this great Blues recording. Thank you so much, folks.