Elvin Bishop | Central Iowa Blues Society

2009 INDUCTEE

Elvin Bishop was born in Glendale, California but his family moved to a farm in Iowa when he was still a baby. He lived in Iowa until he was ten, when his family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Smitten with the Blues, he made a pilgrimage to Chicago where he attended the University of Chicago. He dropped out of college after two years and befriended Little Smokey Smothers, who taught him how to play Blues guitar.

He met legendary harp player, Paul Butterfield, and they formed one of the most influential bands of the ‘60s, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (with Mike Bloomfield, Mark Naftalin, plus Sam Lay and Jerome Arnold, who had been the rhythm section for Howlin’ Wolf.)

After his stint with Butterfield, which ended in 1968, he formed his own band in San Francisco where he was a regular performer at Fillmore West, sharing bills and jamming with the likes of B.B. King, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

He has since released over 20 albums, including 1975’s Struttin’ My Stuff, that included the big hit, “Fooled Around And Fell In Love.”