Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

STEVE JENNINGS legendary impresario Bill Graham put blues musicians on with the rock guys. That was a big attraction. Plus, the weather was better, and the girls were friendly.” The Elvin Bishop Band released five albums in the mid-1970s. His 1975 album, Struttin’ My Stuff , featured his biggest hit, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” featuring a pre-Jefferson Starship Mickey Thomas on vocals. He has recorded prolifically since, earning four Grammy nominations in all. Which brings Bishop and Mussel- white to Ravinia on the heels of their Grammy-nominated collaboration, 100 Years of Blues . The project exudes labor of love. The two met in the early 1960s, but their paths, Bishop said, “didn’t cross as much as you would think.” In 2017, Bishop prevailed upon Musselwhite to play on his album Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio . “It worked out well and we got along,” Bishop said. “We did a couple of jam sessions and just started doing gigs together. I just like the guy. Most musicians our age are either dead or rehash old stuff. I’m impressed with him because he is always trying to improve. We play pretty good together.” 100 Years of Blues comprises origi- nals, standards out of the Great Amer- ican Blues Songbook, and updates of previously recorded songs, including Bishop’s “Old School,” whose lyrics re- flect the strain of the blues that Bishop learned from Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Wells, among many others: “I wear old-fashioned clothes / Old-fashioned shoes / Old Gibson gui- tar playing / Old-fashioned blues.” “He came up with a list of songs he wanted, and I came up with a list of songs I wanted,” Bishop said of how the album came together. “We kept the ones that turned out good.” At the age of 80, Bishop still gets around quite a bit, he said. “I really don’t enjoy the traveling like I used to. The romance has worn off. I like get- ting in front of the people and playing.” He lives in Marin County, CA, where he avidly pursues another of his passions, gardening. Planting and the blues; it’s all about putting down roots. “I grew up on a farm,” he said. “Most of the blues guys had a rural background. The main thing I like is, you get out there and get to digging in the dirt and humping manure around, and sometimes ideas for the music pop up in your head.” Bishop is in the enshrinement phase of his career. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2014, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his Paul Butterfield bandmates in 2015, and the Blues Hall of Fame the next year. “I survived to be old enough to get those kinds of things,” he drily joked. “It’s better to get those honors than not to.” Were he so inclined, he could log on to YouTube and watch vintage clips of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. But he is not. “I lived it,” he said. Asked what he would tell that 20-something guitarist, he replies without missing a beat, “You couldn’t tell him anything.” Donald Liebenson is a Chicago-based entertainment writer. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune , Chicago Sun-Times , Los Angeles Times , and on RogerEbert.com. The first Ravinia concert he attended without his parents was Procol Harum in 1970. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 31 – AUGUST 14, 2023 82