BoozeBrothers Blues MusicLiving the Blues

Elvin Bishop dropped out of his second year at the University of Chicago to dive head first in the local blues scene. Fascinated by what he was hearing around him, he met up with Paul Butterfield and joined the Butterfield Blues band. He split from the outfit in 1968 to experience the crazy musical melting pot that once was San Francisco, where the sonic diversity crept into his sound in the form of a gospel, country, and blues hybrid. On the famous Fillmore stage, Bishop often sat in with the likes of B.B. King, Eric Clapton, and even the late, great Jimi Hendrix. He soon formed the Elvin Bishop Group and recorded the notorious "Fooled Around and Fell in Love." Bishop currently resides in San Francisco where he enjoys gardening and the occasional gig. - Eric Shea

Luther Allison
Many people in various music circles consider Luther Allison (1939-1997) to be the Jimi Hendrix of the blues. Allison took a Chicago Blues skeletal frame and added his own interpretive embellishments of soul, reggae, jazz, funk and rock. Like Hendrix, Allison would lose himself in guitar mantras and often jam his shows out for up to four hours. In his youth, he was the second youngest of fifteen kids living in a house on the cotton fields of Widener, Arkansas. Allison played the organ in church and sang Gospel as a child. He grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and B.B. King on his father's radio, which inspired him to hang out in blues clubs during his teenage years. He befriended Charles Waters (son of Muddy) when he was eighteen. Before long, this friendship lead to a priceless musical education; Allison was soon sitting in with Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and Howlin' Wolf. - Eric Shea

Dinah Washington
A great jazz and pop vocalist who excelled at the blues, Dinah Washington had a sharp, powerful voice that she wielded with knife-like precision. Washington's open and direct (yet smartly controlled) style was extremely popular throughout the 1950s with black audiences, and by the late-'50s she had crossed over to the white pop market with big hits such as "What A Diff'rence A Day Makes," which combined a jazz and blues feel with Nashville-style arrangements. Washington loved after hour jam sessions, and also released a stellar series of jazz albums on Mercury (now Verve Records) that included many of the greatest musicians of the day. Known for her full figure, strong personality, hard-living lifestyle, and multiple marriages, Washington was something of an Elisabeth Taylor/Marilyn Monroe for the African-American community: always in the news, she was almost as famous for newspaper headlines, funny quips, and her fun fashion sense as she was for her music. She died of an accidental overdose while going on a crash diet in December 1963. Washington rightly remains extremely popular in jazz and vocal circles, and she's a major influence on R&B in general and artists such as Ray Charles, Etta James and Aretha Franklin in particular. - Nick Dedina