Artist:Michael Bloomfield w/Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Song: Work Song
Album:Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man
Michael Bloomfield was a very good blues guitarist who seemed very uncomfortable with the spotlight and also had drug problems. He was born July 28, 1943 in Chicago. He received his first guitar at his bar mitzvah and would sneak out to jam at blues clubs. John Hammond signed him to Columbia in 1964. While they tried to figure out how to market a white blues guitarist, Bloomfield joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. This comp features previously unreleased recording from Bloomfield's early days at Columbia. Work Song is actually from the classic Butterfield album East-West. Bloomfield also played on the Bob Dylan album Highway 61 Revisited. His extended solos attracted a following. Bloomfield moved to San Francisco in 1967 and formed the group Electric Flag with Butterfield vocalist Nick Gravenites. The group bickered and was short lived. Bloomfield received his greatest acclaim in the band of organist Al Kooper. The 1969 album Super Session was a best seller. Bloomfield quit because he didn't like the fame and he recorded occasionally during the 70s. He also was addicted to heroin and died of a drug overdose on Feb. 15, 1981 at age 37. Michael Bloomfield's guitar work is worth checking out. Here he is with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Son House at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
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