Hall of Fame Inductee
Elvin Bishop
- Class of 1960
- Arts & Culture
- Inducted 2012
Chose the University of Chicago for its blues clubs, co-founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and charted in 1976.
In the early 1950s, Elvin Bishop used to listen late at night to a radio station from Nashville that played rhythm and blues, between rock n’ roll and country-western.
Elvin was obsessed with the blues, and when he won a National Merit Scholarship in physics, he chose the University of Chicago, not because it was one of the most prestigious universities in America, but because it was on the south side of Chicago, which was ground zero for the clubs in which much of this music was being played.
Elvin was a founding member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1963, the beginning of a long and successful career in music. His first smash hit was Fooled Around and Fell in Love from his 1976 album Struttin’ My Stuff. Elvin’s music includes smoky tavern, gut-bucket blues, raucous roadhouse rhythm and blues, and rollicking goodtime rock and roll.
His first live-concert DVD, That’s My Thing: Elvin Bishop Live in Concert, was recorded live at the Club Fox in Redwood City, California on December 17, 2011. It was released on the Delta Groove label in October 2012. The DVD was nominated for Best Blues DVD of 2012 by The Blues Foundation.
Elvin lives in northern California and currently works with Delta Groove Productions, which produced his most recent release, the Grammy-nominated The Blues Rolls On, featuring Red Dog Speaks, an affectionate nod to his 1959 red Gibson ES-345 guitar.
He was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998.
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