About Michael Erlewine
The All-Music Guide / All-Movie Guide
Michael Erlewine's devotion to studying and playing the
music of Black Americans, in particular blues, led him to
travel to the small blues clubs of Chicago, to hear—
live—blues greats such as Little Walter, Magic Sam, Big
Walter Horton and many others. He went on to interview
dozens of performers. Many of these interviews took
place in 1969 and 1970, at the original Ann Arbor Blues
Festivals—the first electric blues festivals of any size
ever held in North America—later interviews took place
at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festivals.
With their extensive knowledge of blues music, Michael
Erlewine and his brother Daniel were asked to play host,
during these early festivals, to a score or so of
professional blues musicians and their bands. They
were in charge of serving them food and (of course)
drink. Michael went on to interview most of these
performers with an audio recorder, and, in later
interviews, he used video as well.