The back cover of “My Labors and More” shows a black and white photo of Bill Graham’s old Filmore West auditorium, located on the corner of Market and Van Ness streets in San Francisco. That same building is now a Honda dealership, and the legendary concert promoter Bill Graham left us a long time ago. The photo is a wistful reminder of a bygone era, and in many ways the same can be said for the music on this disc. Nowadays, blues acts tend to fit into neat, easy-to-recognize categories. You’ve got your Chicago revivalists, with their slide guitars, harps and Elmore James covers. And of course there are the guitar slingers, whose endless solos never seem to stray too far from Hendrix/Stevie Ray territory. While there are blues artists out there today that genuinely push the envelope, they often seem to be overshadowed by the acts that deliver more predictable crowd-pleasing music.
Nick Gravenites and his running buddy Mike Bloomfield (the guitarist on this disc) are two sorely overlooked figures in the history of blues and rock and roll. Mike Bloomfield was one of the original sixties “guitar gods”, best remembered for his work with the Butterfield Blues Band and the “Super Session” album he recorded with Al Kooper. He also played lead guitar for Bob Dylan when he first “went electric”; he was onstage at the notorious Newport Folk Festival when Dylan was booed by folk-purists. Bloomfield died in the early eighties, but remains an idol for blues and rock guitarists to this day. Nick Gravenites remains an even more obscure figure than Bloomfield. In the early 60’s Chicago, Nick was part of the small clique of “white blues kids” who pushed racial barriers by hanging out in Chicago’s south side blues joints and jamming with the musicians. He was a close friend of Paul Butterfield, writing the song “Born in Chicago” for the Butterfield Blues band. In the late sixties, Nick and Bloomfield formed the short-lived rock and soul band Electric Flag. After The Flag broke up, Nick and Mike still performed together regularly; Nick’s gruff voice and wry lyrics can be heard on Mike’s “Live at the Old Waldorf.”
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Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Jon, nice retrospective.
There are a few typos that I corrected as I put this one up on Advance.net.
You might want to correct them here.
One link to where the review also now sits is this one you'll have to scroll down some, but it's there.
You might already, but go ahead and e-mail the band / PR the link here.
- thanks. Temple
2 - Fred Walk
Great article- both these guys could have been big stars had they CHOSEN!! Not after fame & fortune like their counterparts, but in it for and about the music.
3 - Tim Gravenites
If you're REALLY a fan of Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites, don't buy this album. They ripped us off, Nick doesn't see a single penny from that album. I'd rather you downloaded it and played it for friends and family than give more money to those thieving record label execs.