A new biography, Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield’s Life in the Blues, written by David Dann, will be published Oct. 15 by the University of Texas Press. The bio of the late guitar great, says a press release, “brings to life the dazzling electric guitar virtuoso who transformed rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s and made a lasting impact on the blues genre.”
Says Kirkus, “Those with a passion for the music will enjoy revisiting a time when Bloomfield’s influence exceeded even Stevie Ray Vaughan’s.”
Named one of the world’s great blues-rock guitarists by Rolling Stone, Bloomfield (1943-1981), says the announcement, “remains beloved by fans nearly forty years after his untimely death. Taking readers backstage, onstage, and into the recording studio with this legendary virtuoso, music historian and writer David Dann tells the riveting stories behind Bloomfield’s work in the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the mesmerizing Electric Flag, as well as on the Super Session album with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and soundtrack work with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.”
Related: Our look back at Bloomfield and the Electric Flag
The book includes more than 70 interviews with the musician’s friends, relatives and band members. “Dann brings to life Bloomfield’s worlds, from his comfortable upbringing in a Jewish family on Chicago’s North Shore to the gritty taverns and raucous nightclubs where this self-taught guitarist helped transform the sound of contemporary blues and rock music. With scenes that are as electrifying as Bloomfield’s solos, this is the story of a life lived at full volume.”
According to Library Journal’s starred pre-publication review, “This monumental book illuminates the legacy of a musician who has been overshadowed by other Sixties luminaries but who helped bring the vernacular of the blues to rock and whose playing influenced the course of rock and roll.”
More information about the book can be found here.
Watch Michael Bloomfield wail with the Electric Flag at the Monterey Pop Festival
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