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Born in Chicago: The Blues of Michael Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield, is book signing, film clip viewing and panel discussion on the lives and artistry of guitarist Michael Bloomfield and harmonica player Paul Butterfield. From the late 1950s when, as teenagers, Bloomfield and Butterfield ventured into the black blues clubs on the South Side of Chicago to play with masters like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, both men were dedicated to the blues. With the formation of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band featuring the leader’s brilliant harp work and Bloomfield’s searing guitar sorties in the mid-1960s, the sound of raw, muscular electric blues reached a vast new audience and created a blues-rock revolution in American popular music. The induction of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 recognized the game-changing music of these two Chicago innovators and their bandmates, Sam Lay, Jerome Arnold and Mark Naftalin.
In 2014, Ravin’ Films released an award-winning documentary about Mike Bloomfield called “Sweet Blues: A Film about Michael Bloomfield,” and three years later, Abramorama LLC and Gravitas Ventures released “Horn from the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story,” a feature-film about Paul Butterfield and his life and music. In October of 2019, the University of Texas Press published “Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield’s Life in the Blues,” the definitive story of the legendary guitarist’s musical career.
The event, “Born in Chicago: The Blues of Michael Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield,” will bring together these three productions in a panel discussion that will include clips from both films. Panelists Sandy Warren, co-writer and executive producer of “Horn from the Heart,” and David Dann, author of “Guitar King,” will discuss the impact of Bloomfield and Butterfield’s artistry on pop culture and will share stories of the musicians’ adventures in the heady counterculture music world of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
Today’s episode is sponsored by boulevardcarroll.com.
Special Mentions:
Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield’s Life in the Blues (David Dann), Horn From the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story (Sandra Warren), Sweet Blues: A Film About Michael Bloomfield (Bob Sarles), Super Session – Bloomfield, Kooper, Stills, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, East-West, Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan), A Michael Bloomfield Primer (Larry Milburn), The Hickory Stick Bookshop, The Judy Black Memorial Park & Gardens
