Elvin Bishop

	Born
	October 21, 1942 in Glendale, CA
	Active Decades
	19001020304050607080902000

by Michael Erlewine

Elvin Bishop was born in Glendale, CA, on October 21, 1942. He grew up on a farm in Iowa with no electricity and no running water. His family moved to Oklahoma when he was ten. Raised in an all-White community, he had no exposure to Blacks or their music except though the radio where he would listen to sounds from far away Mexico and blues stations in Shreveport, LA, in particular, the piercing sound of Jimmy Reed's harmonica got his attention. Bishop says it was like a crossword puzzle that he had to figure out. What is this musicNULL Who makes itNULL Where and how do Black people liveNULL What is this music all aboutNULL He put the pieces together.

But it was not until he won a National Merit Scholarship to the University of Chicago in 1959 that he found the real answers to his questions. Suddenly, there he was right in the heart of the Chicago blues scene. Live. It was a dream come true. "The first thing I did when I got there was to make friends with the black guys working in the cafeteria. They took me to all the clubs. I sunk myself totally in the blues life as quick as I could," says Bishop.

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