“We hope you’re having a good time tonight, because we’re having a GREAT time playing!”
So boasted guitarist Elvin Bishop, bringing together over 160 years of musical experience to the century old Lobero Theatre with harmonica-meister Charles Musselwhite as they turned the upscale town of Santa Barbara into a swampy roadside bar off the I-10, playing the type of blues that has influenced every style of American music in its wake.
Accompanied on piano and guitar by Bob Welsh, the gritty and avuncular voices of both Musselwhite and Bishop set the stage for a cozy evening of picking and grinning. The 90 minutes (which absolutely flew by) was more of a night of friends getting together than an actual concert, as between songs both gents shared well spun yarns of times with Albert King, Sonny Boy Williams and John Lee Hooker, setting the stage for earthy Chicago grit such as “Help Be” and ominous “Little Girl Blues”.
For the most part, Musselwhite delivered material from past legends like the barroom stomping “Driving Wheel” as well as his own autobiographical “The Blues Overtook Me” along with the shuffling “Blues Winey Worthy”, adding as a message “when I say I’ve had enough to drink, they think I mean right now, but I mean 30 years ago”.
On the other hand, Bishop painted the blues with a new brush, with messages such as the celebrative “100 Years of The Blues”, the dark and deft “I’m Old School” and the political satire of “What The Hell Is Going On”. The two sometimes created harrowing hues in unison, like a hazy mist over a graveyard, while other times rolling and thundering like a steam engine moving on down the line.
Bishop’s slide work as it accompanied his partner on his own “Everybody’s In The Same Boat” brought up the dark red soil of the delta, while the lyrics were as wise as anything Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes. The two were able to exchange deep rivulets of rhythm between vocals, showing the roots of every branch of American song from gospel to jazz to country and rock.
“This music is my comfort food” beamed Musselwhite between songs. After an evening of filling blue plate specials, no who took in the sounds this evening left hungry.
Upcoming shows at The Lobero include Christopher Cross 08/28, Chubby Checker 09/31, Robert Cray 09/14, Dave Mason 09/24 and Don Was 09/25