Elvin Bishop

This double CD combines Elvin Bishop's first three albums (variously credited to the Elvin Bishop Group and the Elvin Bishop Band) on to two discs. Containing 1969's Elvin Bishop Group, 1970s Feel It!, and 1972's Rock My Soul, it has virtually everything he recorded for Fillmore and Epic in the late 1960s and early 1970s, serving as an overview of his entire early career as a bandleader. Also included are three bonus tracks: one, "Stealin' Watermelons," from a non-LP single, and two other live performances from the various-artists compilation album Last Days of the Fillmore. Although they have their merits, these are erratic albums in which Bishop didn't stick solely to the electric blues-rock he'd made his name with in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Instead, these also dig into soul and R&B, as well as what can only be called (on some of his vocal numbers) comedy. He relinquished most of the lead vocal duties to Jo Baker starting with the second album, and this saw an improvement in the sound and material, though even at its best, it's just okay, early-'70s-period soul-rock. As this includes everything from his first three albums plus bonus material in one neat, two-CD package, one might think that it's a preferable alternative to the Sundazed reissues of the same records, which puts them on three separate CDs, the first two of which offer the same three bonus tracks as this Acadia compilation does. It's not quite so, however, as the Sundazed version of Rock My Soul has a bonus track, the outtake "Sit and Wonder," that isn't on Party Till the Cows Come Home. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide