Michael Bloomfield: S/D

Also, that photo of Bloomfield from the box where he's sitting down in the studio in intense conversation with someone to the left of the photographer, while Dylan turns and looks over his shoulder, is really remarkable as a visual. Just a perfect example of a frozen moment.

when I'd argue that's precisely the kind of things deeply valorized by younger fans/musicians these days in general, across the creative board

I think Bloomfield was a precursor to Americana--he covered quite a bit of country music in his later career and took pride in playing guitar in an orchestral style that owed a lot to Ry Cooder's. Heard to good effect on the box' "D Flat Blues," or whatever it's titled; it's actually Randy Newman's "Uncle Bob's Midnight Blues." Had he lived to be 60, Bloomfield would've probably showed up in Nashville making albums with Buddy Miller.

Yeah, come to think of it, I guess "Tombstone Blues" and the Newport "Maggie's Farm" bring out his looser, scruffier, country blues, all cranked-up, of course, charging out of the barn----some of the more formal, urban blues homage of Super Sessions, for instance, hasn't aged as well, judging by the last time I listened (not recently). Reminds me of a Mike and Friends thing at one of the Fillmores, I think; the reviewer said the solo interludes of country blues were magical (group jams not so much).
Liked him best with Butterfield, Dylan, and the Electric Flag, also some of his playing on Muddy Waters' Fathers and Sons. It's Not Killing Me was more of a singer-songwriter set, with very mixed results, I thought (haven't heard it in a long, long time). Did like the title track, about lying awake" "Lord I itch and I bitch, about some small mental mistake...It's not killing me, but it sure is hard to take." Also more of a shaggy dog story, "The story of a good old guy!....he was cool, and pretty funny, stayed a while an' then he left."

I keep going back to stuff like the Butterfield Blues Band and Super Session to try to give it another chance, but something about his blues playing always sounds off to me, awkward phrasing. I like him on Dylan records but I can do without his blues.

Did you listen to East-West?

Just now saw Electric Flag's The Trip soundtrack on 1967 Rock Bands Debuts poll thread: knew they'd done it, but not that it was the first. Now I see some promising descriptions online---this Wiki lists several others I hadn't heard of, also looks like soundtrack was never on CD, apparently. I've still got A Long Time Comin' on CD, still holds up. I always thought of it as a more electric, hipster cousin to Big Pink: that same syncretic urge to merge different kinds of American music---"eclectic" was thee groovy term then, though some attempts just came off like resumé rock or more trend-chasing, a la Spinal Tap. Didn't hear any other EF---this article also reminds, as does the xpost Ed/Edd Bloomfield chronicle, just how precarious and hectic this band could be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Flag

DId we even discuss how that was a really early, pre-Monterey use of the Moog on that thread? No, I don't think we did.

the trip soundtrack did get a truncated cd release like 20 years ago, not sure what the logic was in cutting an already short album even more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxpuE-yMtZc

#OneThread

Ha, exactly! Was wondering when we would get to that and even checked earlier today whether it had been posted recently.