Bloomfield, Mike

The searing lead guitarist of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the Electric Flag, Chicago-born Mike Bloomfield was easily one of the finest blues players--of any race--America has produced. Bloomfield'spent his teenage years in the gritty Southside blues clubs, where he learned his chops firsthand from the masters and eventually developed his own incendiary style; a slashing sound marked by razor-sharp lines.

Bob Dylan certainly knows a good thing when he hears it - so It's no coincidence that in 1965 he tapped Bloomfield for the "wild mercury sound" of his visionary Highway 61 Revisited LP and groundbreaking "electric" set at the Newport Folk Festival. A monumentally influential guitarist, Mike Bloomfield changed the sound of rock 'n' roll for an entire generation of players.