Nick Gravenites – It Takes Time
Taj Mahal – One More Mile To Go
Nick Gravenites – Blues On A Westside
As a lover of invented tradition, seems I’ve started another one, posting up the final reocrd that I dug up in 2012. I first ran into this album when I was very young and working at Album 88 in Atlanta. I’d started working on the blues show there “Crossroads,” and was always looking for music that I hadn’t heard before. At the time, and still, one of my favorite bands was the Butterfield Blues Band, which featured one of the first American guitar gods of the 1960s, Michael Bloomfield. Bloomfield was kind of a tragic figure. Immense talent, showcased on albums with Butterfield and sessions work with Al Kooper and Bob Dylan (it’s Bloomfield’s guitar that gives Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited so much of it’s legendary sound, especially on “Like A Rolling Stone”), but because of problems with insomnia and heroine addiction, it’s likely we were robbed of some of his best work.
This album was recorded in the midst of a pretty robust period of recording for Bloomfield and was more or less a loosely organized jam session with a whole bunch of folk, including Mark Naftlin, Bob Jones, John Kahn, Snooky Flowers plus vocalists Nick Gravenites and Taj Mahal. At Album 88 I’d found the album tucked away forgotten in stacks of vinyl that were haphazardly stored around the station. As a show that ran from 10-12midnight, the longer and slower tracks, “One More Mile To Go” and “Blues On A Westside” were particular favorites of mine and listeners. I remember once playing “Westside” and realizing about 3/4’s in that I was digging on the song so much I hadn’t taken the prior record off the turntable and cued up something next to play. I was so zoned out that I actually picked up the needle on “Westside” mid-solo, only to drop it back down, more or less in the same spot almost instantaneously. I might have been able to forget that lapse, but I seem to remember getting a couple of good-natured calls from listeners and friends chastizing me for wrecking the groove. The song remains one of my favorites from this period and one my favorite solos from Bloomfield.
For some reason I hadn’t really run into a copy of this record in years. Perhaps because it doesn’t actually list an artist. Though the more recent reissue is rightfully under Bloomfield’s name, the original release has not artist listed. It should be filed in the blues section, but this copy was in the various Rock section at Atomic in Burbank. Where you can find it is less important that making sure you do find it, which I’m very glad I did. In truth, all that really matters is the music and getting lost in that sound from Bloomfield and his friends.
Cheers,
Michael