About Michael Erlewine
Music Career
Michael Erlewine’s career in music started early on,
when he dropped out of high school and hitchhiked to
Venice West, in Santa Monica, California, in an attempt
to catch a ride on the tail end of the Beatnik era. This
was 1960, and he was a little late for that, but right on
time for the folk music revival that was just beginning to
bloom. Like many other people his age, Erlewine
traveled from college center to college center across the
nation—from Ann Arbor to Berkeley to Cambridge to
Greenwich Village—for there was a well-beaten track
upon which traveled the young folk musicians of the
future.
Erlewine, who also played folk guitar, hitchhiked for a
stint with a young Bob Dylan, and then more extensively
with guitar virtuoso and instrumentalist, Perry Lederman.
Erlewine helped Dylan put on his first concert in Ann
Arbor. He hung out with people like Ramblin’ Jack Elliot,
Joan Baez, The New Lost City Ramblers, and The
County Gentlemen.