Elvin Bishop – Can’t Even Do Wrong Right
Forty years after leaving the farm for Chicago, Elvin Bishop’s country roots still cling to him, embedded in his bib overalls and Okie drawl. Except for the color of his hair, Bishop hasn’t changed much since his debut with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1965. The fire is still there in his hands, thanks in part to his big red ’59 ES- 345 Gibson, that he calls Red Dog.
On his latest release for Alligator, Can’t Even Do Wrong Right, he pays homage to that guitar and his style on “Old School,” a cut that pretty much sums up his career. “I wear old fashioned clothes, old fashioned shoes, old Gibson geetar/ play the old fashioned blues,” he proclaims over a Bo Diddley beat, Charlie Musselwhite punctuating his comments with old fashioned tweets-on harp. “Call me on the phone if you want to talk to me,” Bishop says, stubbornly clinging to his old school methods. “Don’t send me no email- send me a female.”
On “Love Honor and Obey,” Bishop reunites with Mickey Thomas for the first time since the two collaborated on Bishop’s biggest hit, “Fooled Around and Fell In Love,” for ’75’s Struttin‘ My Stuff. The two sound as as good on this reunion as they did on their first outing, Thomas’ soaring, celestial vocals rivaling the best of the classic soul shouters, Bishop backing him with churchy, blues drenched licks that sound like they were ripped from his flayed and battered old love pump.
Bishop’s instrumental cover of Jimmy Reed’s ’57 hit “Honest I Do” is outstanding. Without taking anything away from the original, Bishop puts his own stamp on it, laying it back even farther than Reed, slipping and sliding nastily along a Duane Allman highway. He shovels out a barnfull of country git-down on his own composition, “Dancin,” mixing Bakersfield honky-tonk with tasty, twangy funk.
“Blues Ain’t football,” Bishop said on the Gibson guitars website a few years back. “You don’t have to retire at 30. You can grow and play all your life.” Here’s the living proof. Thanks again, Elvin.
Grant Britt