Elvin Bishop

Although Elvin Bishop's good-humored blues rock was well received live, the ex–Paul Butterfield guitarist didn't establish his solo recording career until his 1976 smash hit single "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" - sung by Mickey Thomas, who went on to join Jefferson Starship.

Bishop met Paul Butterfield at the University of Chicago. Though Bishop had just started playing guitar, he and Butterfield began jamming together at parties; Bishop also played the Chicago folk circuit by himself. Eventually he and Butterfield jammed with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and other leading South Side bluesmen. One winter, when times were especially hard, Bishop was jailed for stealing a preacher’s coat from a restaurant. He moved to New York, where he worked breaking toys (for manufacturers’ discounts) at a department store but returned to Chicago to join Butterfield’s first Blues Band [see entry]. After 1967’s The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, Bishop left the Blues Band to form his own group, settling in Mill Valley, California. He brought with him a Boston folk trio: Jo, Janice and Mary. Jo Baker was the only one to remain with the group. Bishop also jammed with Al Kooper at the Fillmore when Mike Bloomfield was ill. Bishop signed with Bill Graham’s Fillmore Records and made several albums.

Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band then persuaded Capricorn’s Phil Walden to sign Bishop. His first few Capricorn LPs sold fairly well, yielding near-hits in “Travelin’ Shoes” and “Sure Feels Good.” His breakthrough finally came with Struttin’ My Stuff and its #3 single, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” Bishop hasn’t had a real hit since, but he continues to tour the West Coast and record every so often. Nineteen-eighty-eight’s Big Fun was his first U.S. release in nearly 10 years (a 1981 LP, Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby, came out in Germany); Don’t Let the Bossman Get You Down!, a mix of Bishop originals and old blues, was hailed as a delightful return to form. For That’s My Partner!, Bishop teamed up with one of his mentors, guitarist Little Smokey Smothers.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)