Rating: 
Summary: Why?
Review: After reading the book the question kept popping up in my head:Why? It was an interesting read from the start for me because I was there in S.F. and attended many,many Fillmore shows and was a small part of the scene but about halfway through it just started to go downhill. Maybe like Bloomfield's life. No disrespect to the authors but it still leaves with the nagging question of: Why did you write this?
Rating: 
Summary: Mike Bloomfield - Credit long overdue
Review: Although he is relatively unknown today outside the guitar community, in his time Mike Bloomfield was as huge an influence as Clapton and possibly Hendrix. I remember hearing the first Butterfield album (I borrowed it in return for the first Blues Project album). This was the most stunning guitar player I ever heard (the sentiment of a million or more players and fans). Contrary to popular belief, the 60s blues revival began with Butterfield, not the British blues bands. Bloomfield was the driving force of that band. His importance can not be over stated. Bloomfield's playing was central to the development of horn based rock, raga rock, folf rock (Dylan's gunslinger on Highway 61) and almost every other blues flavored style of the period. San Francisco Acid Rock was even reportedly an attampt in part to copy the improvisational excursions of the Butterfield band. Bloomfield's playing is felt in every important blues rock guitar player up to the advent of Stevie Ray Vaughan. For that reason alone, this book is long overdue and a must read for anyone interested in American music. To boot, Bloomfield was a virtual encyclopedia of the blues form (reflected in his later work).Wolkin and Keenom's book provides a good overview of Bloomfield's work and accurately captures the spirit of the period of music covered. The narrative style, culled from interviews with a host of contemporary musicians, is a feast of more obscure information and frames a clear image of what he may have been like as a person. Carlos Santana's preface is a heartfeld and loving tribute to a mentor and musical colleague. A lengthy discography is provided. Two concerns with the book: more (and better reproduced) pictures would have made it a more enjoyable experience for a book of this type. Also, when is someone going to write a book which delves deeply into his guitar style. After all, that is why he is so important. In fact, Fender should rename the Telecaster after him for all the instruments he sold!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Blues, Great Book
Review: As tough as it would seem to get into the mind of such an enigmatic character as Bloomfield, this book digs deep and does the job. What better way to learn about Bloomfield than from his friends and family? This book is not another fame leads to tragic end cliche. It concentrates more on Bloomfield's contributions to music, but it also delves into how his relationships made everyone around him stronger people. The accompanying CD is a must have for collectors.
Rating:
Summary: Super excellent bio of America's first Guitar Hero........
Review: Extremely well done life & career story of the legendary guitarist. Using various interviews with the people (and friends)
who knew and made music with Michael. Very in depth background info about his early days and bands including the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, solo and landmark sessions
with Bob Dylan and his work with Al Kooper. And insight into the
tough Chicago blues scene he probed into as well as a journey thru the sixties and beyond. Recollections by Nick Gravenites, Al Kooper, Dylan and other lifelong friends give us many sides and insight into the man that would change popular music.
The previous Ed Ward book about Michael was informative but
this volume takes you behind the scenes and we hear of the demons that plagued him most of his too short life. For Michael
to have had so many stuggles and still produce the fantastic guitar music he did is truly amazing. And I thought my insomnia was bad!
Also a great bonus cd of early unreleased recordings is included and shows the fire & blues mojo already in his styles.
Michael Bloomfield (along with Roy Buchanan) are way too under rated in guitar history and deserve far more notice for playing the most soulful & pure blues/rock guitar of the past century.
Check out the music and hear for yourself.......
Boogie Always.......
Rating:
Summary: Super excellent bio of America's first Guitar Hero........
Review: Extremely well done life & career story of the legendary guitarist. Using various interviews with the people (and friends)
who knew and made music with Michael. Very in depth background info about his early days and bands including the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, solo and landmark sessions
with Bob Dylan and his work with Al Kooper. And insight into the
tough Chicago blues scene he probed into as well as a journey thru the sixties and beyond. Recollections by Nick Gravenites, Al Kooper, Dylan and other lifelong friends give us many sides and insight into the man that would change popular music.
The previous Ed Ward book about Michael was informative but
this volume takes you behind the scenes and we hear of the demons that plagued him most of his too short life. For Michael
to have had so many stuggles and still produce the fantastic guitar music he did is truly amazing. And I thought my insomnia was bad!
Also a great bonus cd of early unreleased recordings is included and shows the fire & blues mojo already in his styles.
Michael Bloomfield (along with Roy Buchanan) are way too under rated in guitar history and deserve far more notice for playing the most soulful & pure blues/rock guitar of the past century.
Check out the music and hear for yourself.......
Boogie Always.......
Rating:
Summary: Great book about the guitar hero Michael Bloomfield
Review: Finally we got a new book on the influental US guitar hero Michael Bloomfield. It takes us inside the story of this great musicians life. It's not glitter for sure, but it's real. A must for every guitar afficionado. A highly recommended buy for blues and guitar lovers.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Great book on the life of a unique person, and virtuoso musician (and musicologist) who sadly does not get his due today. Check out the cd "Essential Blues 1964-1969"
Rating:
Summary: JUNKIE GENIUS
Review: I am so old, I actually bought the Super Session album when it first came out. Since then, I gave up on any type of rock and roll, except for G.G. Allin. So one day, I'm killing time in a record store, and I see the Super Session CD, and I think I remember that. And I pass it a few more times in the following weeks, then one day I bought the CD. Wow! There are two kinds of people in this world: those who know Bloomfield is the best guitar player in rock (and define "rock" as broadly as possible), and those who never heard him play. So I pick up this book. Very informative, and absolutely recommended. I always thought B.B. King and Muddy Waters were popular. But that's not the case, and Bloomfield was really the bridge between the old blues players, and the large audience they now enjoy. Everybody has a good puke story, and on page 66, Bloomfield tells his, and it is a classic! Me hunched out of a Nova, heaving after winning a wine guzzling contest, doesn't compare. But let me ask you something? If you could play like Bloomfield, would you shoot heroin? And what a lonely, miserable death he suffered! So sad! His whole life, as recounted in this book, was one of pain. Couple of examples. On page 185, it states that Bloomfield for years "never brushed his teeth, and then he woke up one morning with blood all over the pillow and rushed to the dentist." Another example. He would rip out a page of a book he was reading, and stuff it in his mouth. Bloomfield, you are the best!
Rating:
Summary: JUNKIE GENIUS
Review: I am so old, I actually bought the Super Session album when it first came out. Since then, I gave up on any type of rock and roll, except for G.G. Allin. So one day, I'm killing time in a record store, and I see the Super Session CD, and I think I remember that. And I pass it a few more times in the following weeks, then one day I bought the CD. Wow! There are two kinds of people in this world: those who know Bloomfield is the best guitar player in rock (and define "rock" as broadly as possible), and those who never heard him play. So I pick up this book. Very informative, and absolutely recommended. I always thought B.B. King and Muddy Waters were popular. But that's not the case, and Bloomfield was really the bridge between the old blues players, and the large audience they now enjoy. Everybody has a good puke story, and on page 66, Bloomfield tells his, and it is a classic! Me hunched out of a Nova, heaving after winning a wine guzzling contest, doesn't compare. But let me ask you something? If you could play like Bloomfield, would you shoot heroin? And what a lonely, miserable death he suffered! So sad! His whole life, as recounted in this book, was one of pain. Couple of examples. On page 185, it states that Bloomfield for years "never brushed his teeth, and then he woke up one morning with blood all over the pillow and rushed to the dentist." Another example. He would rip out a page of a book he was reading, and stuff it in his mouth. Bloomfield, you are the best!
Rating:
Summary: A "must" for all Michael Bloomfield fans!
Review: If you love blues music and Michael Bloomfield's creations in particular you won't want to be without Jan Mark Wolkin & Bill Keenom superb biography -- the first in-depth oral history to probe Bloomfield's life and times. Michael Bloomfield includes a cd of unreleased tracks and provides an inside look based on interviews with family, friends and colleagues.
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