Bob Margolin

‘Steady Rollin’ ‘ Bob Margolin was born May 9,1949 and grew up in Brookline, MA . He started playing guitar in 1964, and his first appearance on a record was with Boston’s psychedelic band The Freeborne, in 1967. Local blues impresario Freddie Taylor introduced Bob to Muddy Waters before a gig at his legendary club Paul’s Mall, and he played in Muddy’s band from 1973-1980. You can see him performing with Waters and The Band in the movie ‘The Last Waltz.’ He has also appeared on Big Joe Duskin’s debut album in 1978, The Nighthawks’ 1979 vinyl with Pinetop Perkins and in 1994 Margolin appeared with legendary blues harpist Jerry Portnoy on John Brim’s album ‘Ice Cream Man,’ which received a Blues Music Award nomination for ‘Best Traditional Blues Album Of The Year.’ He is also a columnist for Blues Revue Mag and several other music publications. In 2013, Margolin was nominated for a Blues Music Award as ‘Best Traditional Blues Male Artist.’ His joint album with Ann Rabson, ‘Not Alone,’ was also nominated in the “Acoustic Album’ category. In January 2016, his solo album ‘My Road’ was released on Vizztone Records and it’s a bit different from his past history. He sings and writes most of the songs and even plays bass on some of the cuts. His superb playing moves beyond the classic Chicago blues he’s known for and his mastery of country blues shows another side of the very talented Bob Margolin. This cat can play!

In 2020, Margolin was presented with a Blues Music Award for ‘Acoustic Album of the Year’ for ‘This Guitar and Tonight.’

(A.J. Wachtel)

Published on June 7, 2016