Growing up in wealthy family in north Chicago, Mike Bloomfield felt the blues call to him from across town. Eschewing his family’s lucrative catering equipment business, he began haunting the blues clubs on the south side, observing and learning from genre masters like Muddy Waters and Sleepy John Estes. In a short time, he had built a solid reputation as a guitar prodigy and began to meet other young blues enthusiasts like Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop who shared his passion. Such was his prowess that he was signed by legendary Columbia A&R man John Hammond, who took young Bloomfield straight into the studio. Unbelievably, these seminal 1964 sessions, full of Bloomfield’s signature six-string fire and fury, remained unreleased at the time.

But now, thanks to Sundazed Music, you can hear the very first recorded output of the ultimate “guitarists’ guitarist,” a man almost solely responsible for kick-starting the 1960’s electric blues movement in Chicago. Interestingly, Bloomfield, who is synonymous with the well-worn 1959 Les Paul he played in his later career, was a Telecaster player at the time. The sharp stinging Tele leads he plays on I’m Cutting Out form a fascinating contrast to the fluid Les Paul tones he created in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Electric Flag and beyond. In short, this album is the missing piece of his musical story, sourced from the absolute original analog sessions tapes and proudly presented to you on sonically superior 180-gram vinyl. Getting the blues never felt this good!