Elvin Bishop is true blue. Film fans will recognize him for his dusky mellow gold hit “Fooled Around And Fell In Love,” which appeared in Boogie Nights before getting dubbed onto Star-Lord’s “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” in Guardians of the Galaxy. But Mr. Bishop’s career is far more storied than one song. An inductee to both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of Chicago blues group Paul Butterfield Blues Band) and the Blues Hall of Fame, he’s sat in with the Grateful Dead, played guitar on a Bo Diddley record, and a whole lot more. True blue.

Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio
Sun, 4pm, $55+
Poor House Bistro, San Jose

While its shiftless younger cousins, rock and hip-hop, rely on the impulsive tendencies of youth, blues is a genre that rewards mastery. From B.B. to John Lee, the best bluesmen only improve with age. Case in point: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Elvin Bishop. His 1976 single “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” recently found younger audiences on the first Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, and he proves he’s still got it on his 2018 LP, Something Smells Funky ‘Round Here. He comes to Club Fox with his Big Fun Trio, featuring Redwood City resident Bob Welsh and Willy Jordan.

Elvin Bishop
Sat, 8pm, $28+
Club Fox, Redwood City

While its shiftless younger cousins, rock and hip-hop, rely on the impulsive tendencies of youth, blues is a genre that rewards mastery. From B.B. to John Lee, the best bluesmen only improve with age. Case in point: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inductee Elvin Bishop. His 1976 single “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” recently found younger audiences on the first Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, and he proves he’s still got it on his 2014 LP Can’t Even Do Wrong Right, with its knee-slapping title track. Bishop headlines the Fountain Blues Festival.

Elvin Bishop
Sat, 6:30pm, $20
Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose

If there’s an unofficial theme that dominates this year’s Metro Fountain Blues Festival, it’s the power of the Chicago blues sound. And indeed, the Chicago sound did literally bring power to the blues, turning the acoustic Delta tradition up to 11 with amps and electric guitars.

But to headliner Fountain Blues headliner Elvin Bishop, Chicago blues represents an even greater power. It’s an electrical force of nature, and he remembers the first time it struck.

“I heard some by accident one night, driving from Memphis, Tennessee,” says the Oklahoma-raised Bishop. “I heard it on the radio, and it went through me like lightning. I don’t know, I just went crazy for it.”

The man he heard on the radio that night was Jimmy Reed, who released his first album in 1958, when Bishop was 16 years old. Though less well known than fellow Chicago bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, Reed had as much lasting influence as any of them, influencing Elvis, Van Morrison, the Yardbirds, and many more. He was practically an obsession to the Rolling Stones, who have covered many of his songs.

He hooked Bishop, too, and after that, Chicago was like a beacon. He was a National Merit Scholar finalist in high school, and went to the University of Chicago on a full scholarship to study physics. Now, however, the truth can be told.

“It was kind of my cover story,” admits Bishop of his esteemed academic career. “It was my ticket to Chicago. Gradually the music just crowded it out.”

How could it not, considering that within three years Bishop had met up with fellow student Paul Butterfield, and begun meeting blues heavyweights like Waters and Wolf. For five years, Bishop played guitar in the Butterfield Blues Band, whose 1965 debut record would decades later be named one of the 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone. He released two more albums—and played the Monterey International Pop Festival—with the band, before beginning a legendary solo career that has lasted almost half a century.