Nick Gravenites

Unless you're familiar with Chicago blues of the 1960s, or from the San Francisco Bay area, the name Nick Gravenites may not be a familiar one. That's because Gravenites has been an important and unfortunately sparsely recorded behind-the-scenes blues player for many years. More people are likely to know Gravenites for the dozens of great songs he wrote: "Born in Chicago" (Paul Butterfield), "Buried Alive in the Blues" (Janis Joplin), "East-West," "Work Me Lord," "Groovin' Is Easy," "Bad Talkin' Bluesman," and literally hundreds of others. Gravenites' compositions have been recorded by Butterfield, Joplin, the Electric Flag, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Big Brother and the Holding Company, James Cotton, Otis Rush, Jimmy Witherspoon, David Crosby, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Tracy Nelson, Blue Gravy, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Buchanan, Pure Prairie League, and others. He's also made quite a name for himself as a producer, working on albums by Otis Rush, James Cotton, Michael Bloomfield, Janis Joplin and others. Gravenites' sessionography is extensive; he's performed on more than 45 albums as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, or bandleader. Gravenites, the son of first-generation Greek immigrants, grew up on Chicago's South Side and entered the University of Chicago in 1956. He began to play guitar in college, was immediately drawn to the university's large folk music club, and shortly thereafter began hanging out in the blues clubs. He met Paul Butterfield, who was still in high school, through the university's folk music club, though Butterfield never attended the University of Chicago. They began playing acoustic blues and folk songs together at campus-area coffeehouses. Also in the late 1950s, he became friends with other black and white blues players then hanging...