Guitar King

A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of 2019, this biography of blues-rock legend Mike Bloomfield “draws you in the way a novel does” (The Wall Street Journal).

Named one of the world’s great blues-rock guitarists by Rolling Stone, Mike Bloomfield remains beloved by fans forty years after his untimely death. Taking readers backstage, onstage, and into the recording studio with this legendary virtuoso, David Dann tells the riveting stories behind Bloomfield’s work in the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the mesmerizing Electric Flag, as well as on the Super Session album with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and soundtrack work with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.

Drawing from meticulous research, including more than seventy interviews with the musician’s friends, relatives, and band members, music historian David Dann brings to life Bloomfield’s worlds, from his struggles to fit in on Chicago’s wealthy North Shore with his Jewish family to the gritty taverns and raucous nightclubs where this self-taught guitarist helped transform the sound of contemporary blues and rock music. With scenes that are as electrifying as Bloomfield’s solos, this is the story of a life lived at full volume.

“Feels like one of the last great untold classic-rock tales, right up through Bloomfield’s mysterious passing.” ―Rolling Stone

“Reveals the depths of Bloomfield's musical passions, genius and personal despair . . . Guitar King establishes his pivotal role in American music history.” ―Pittsburgh Post-Gazette