Elvin Bishop was just inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on April 18, 2015 as a founding member of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. This was the second Hall of Fame induction for Elvin in just a matter of months. On November 1, 2014, Elvin was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame as well, along with JJ Cale and Lowell Fulson.
Elvin’s classic megahit, “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” was featured in the 2014 worldwide blockbuster movie (grossing over $600 million worldwide) and the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy which reached #1 on the Billboard Pop charts while also earning a Grammy nomination.
Elvin was also the only artist to win three awards at the 2015 Blues Music Awards, making him the top winner this year. This included Elvin and his band being named Best Band, while his Alligator Records release, Can’t Even Do Wrong Right, was named Best Album of the Year with the title track, written by Elvin and recorded with his band, also winning the award for Best Song of the Year. Can’t Even Do Wrong Right also won 2015’s Living Blues Reader’s Poll for Best Blues Album.
On May 11, 2015 Elvin appeared on the Conan O’Brien show and this summer Elvin was welcomed back as the special guest on Garrison Keilor’s Prairie Home Companion where, counting re-airings, he has been appearing at least once a year going back to 2008.
Elvin’s historic career started with his time in Chicago first studying and then collaborating with revered legends of the Blues including Little Walter, Otis Rush, Junior Wells, Hound Dog Taylor and Magic Sam prior to co-founding The Paul Butterfield Blues Band which was a major driving force in turning the predominantly young white rock audience of the 1960s on to one of America’s most important musical genres.
Upon leaving The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1968, after the group’s fourth release In My Own Dream, Elvin launched a solo career and relocated to the San Francisco area, where he made frequent appearances at the Fillmore with artists like Eric Clapton, B. B. King, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. In March 1971, The Elvin Bishop Group and the Allman Brothers Band co-billed a series of concerts at the Fillmore East where Bishop joined the Allman Brothers Band onstage for a rendition of his own song, “Drunken Hearted Boy”. Elvin released four well-received albums on Epic Records in the early ’70s, before joining Capricorn Records in 1974. His recording of “Travelin’ Shoes” in 1975 (from the album Let It Flow) was a hit on the pop charts, but the single “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” in 1976 (from the album Struttin’ My Stuff) made a bigger splash when it peaked at number 3 on the Billboard charts.
Over the years some of Elvin’s favorite memories include several tours each with his heroes / good friends John Lee Hooker and BB King. Bishop also paired with his early Chicago blues mentor, Little Smokey Smothers, for 2000’s That’s My Partner and in 2009 Bishop revisited Smothers in the studio where the two recorded another album, Little Smokey Smothers & Elvin Bishop: Chicago Blues Buddies.
In recent years Elvin brought his focus back to the blues that launched his career. His 2008 album, The Blues Roll On, was a 2009 Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Blues Album. An all-star cast made it clear the sort of respect Elvin commands among his peers with B.B. King, James Cotton, Derek Trucks, George Thorogood, Warren Haynes, Kim Wilson, Tommy Castro, John Németh, and more joining in for the project.
Over a 50 plus year touring career, Elvin has earned a reputation as a world-class guitarist and crowd-pleasing entertainer. Elvin has just signed on with The Kurland Agency for worldwide bookings.
