Between the Hard Place & the Ground/Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

by Michael Bloomfield

Overview

While most guitarists of his generation learned the elements of blues guitar playing from records, Michael Bloomfield, who grew up in North Chicago, learned them firsthand by playing with the likes of B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Big Joe Williams, and others in Chicago's gritty blues clubs. His first bands, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Electric Flag, were racially mixed blues powerhouses, fusing the blues with jazz, R&B, psychedelia, and seemingly everything else under the sun, and like Bloomfield, both of those bands are woefully underappreciated. His four solo albums, the last two of which, 1979's Between the Hard Place & the Ground and the darker Cruisin' for a Bruisin' from 1981, are combined here, were strange, eccentric, occasionally brilliant, and never sold well. An erratic, manic, and groundbreaking guitarist, Bloomfield may well have been at his best as a session player or as a member of a touring band, but even as uneven as these two albums are with him front and center, Bloomfield is never less than fascinating. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	05/06/2008
Label:	Ace / Takoma
UPC:	0029667032728
Rank:	90130

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Michael Bloomfield   Primary Artist,Organ,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Slide Guitar,Guitar (Rhythm),Piano (Electric),Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Doug Kilmer   Bass
Bob "Congo" Jones   Drums
Mark Adams   Harmonica
Jonathan Cramer   Piano
Tom Rizzo   Drums
Ira Kamin   Drums,Piano
Mark Naftalin   Piano
Barry Thomas Goldberg   Organ,Piano
Roger Troy   Bass
Henry Oden   Bass
Derrick Walker   Harmonica,Sax (Tenor)
Hart McNee   Vocals,Sax (Baritone)
King Perkoff   Sax (Tenor)

Technical Credits

John Van Hamersveld   Design
Jools DeVere   Package Design
Jeanne Vikki   Composer
Neil Dell   Cover Design
Jonathan Cramer   Composer
Jack Clement   Composer
Champion Jack Dupree   Composer
Deadric Malone   Composer
Mac Rebennack   Arranger,Composer
Nick Gravenites   Composer
Roy Byrd   Composer
Ray Sharpe   Composer
Norman Dayron   Mixing,Composer,Engineer,Producer,Mastering,Photography
George Khoury   Composer
Rob Shread   Mastering
Mark Wallner   Engineer
Seth David   Composer
Huey Thierry   Composer