The days of pondering and studying and vacillation are over! It’s voting time!

Many of you have already voted. Some of you will vote tomorrow, at the deadline. Some of you forgot that you’re supposed to vote and are being reminded of the fact that polls close 27.5 hours from now. (NOTE: Looking to figure out how to cast your ballot? Check this link.)

In any case, you have made up your mind. Or you will have, by the time this poll closes, contemporaneously with the official polls themselves closing. 

So tell us: Who did you end up choosing in the following hot-button races on the Humboldt County ballot?

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On June 1, 2026, at approximately 1:00 p.m., Officers with the Eureka Police Department (EPD) responded to the area of Wabash Avenue and Lowell Street following reports of two vehicles driving at a high rate of speed and possible gunfire.

Upon arrival, officers secured the scene and conducted an area canvass, during which multiple spent shell casings were located in the roadway. Detectives with EPD’s Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU) responded and assumed responsibility for the investigation.

Based on witness statements and video surveillance obtained by investigators, it appears a white Porsche SUV was stopped at a stop sign when an occupant of a black Mercedes-Benz or BMW SUV fired approximately six to eight rounds toward the Porsche. Following the shooting, the driver of the white Porsche fled the area at a high rate of speed, with the black SUV appearing to pursue the vehicle.

At this time, investigators have not located either vehicle involved in the incident, and it is unknown if anyone was injured as a result of the shooting. The investigation remains active and ongoing. Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the EPD Criminal Investigations Unit at 707-441-4300.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• THE TUNNEL IT IS! Caltrans Chooses Mile-Long Underground Option For Last Chance Grade Bypass
• Major Funding Secured for the Mile-Long Highway 101 Tunnel That Will One Day Bypass Last Chance Grade

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Press release from Caltrans District 1:

We’ve reached another major milestone in efforts to remedy a vulnerable stretch of U.S. 101 south of Crescent City which has been plagued by landslides, closures, and costly emergency repairs. Caltrans has completed the Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement and Final Section 4(f) Evaluation for the Last Chance Grade Permanent Restoration Project.

Last Chance Grade is a lifeline for Del Norte County that connects residents, businesses, emergency services, visitors, and goods to the rest of California and beyond.

This milestone brings us closer to a long-term tunnel bypass that will move the highway away from unstable landslide zones and provide long-term safety and stability.

The completion of the Final Environmental Document reflects years of collaboration with tribal governments, environmental organizations, local and regional partners, lawmakers, community members, and technical experts. Together, we’re shaping a safer, more resilient future for the North Coast.

There’s still work ahead such as final design, permitting, right-of-way, technical studies, and construction planning, but clearing this environmental hurdle keeps construction on track for 2031-2038.

You can review the full Final Environmental Document, including responses to public comments, here: https://lastchancegrade.com/app_pages/view/845

Press release from the Yurok Tribe:

Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) condor B9 recently completed a monumental journey from Orick in Northern California to an area near Medford, Oregon, becoming the first condor to fly free in the state since 1904.

“We have always known that at least one of our condors would eventually travel into Oregon because the state is well within their flight range. We are thrilled it finally happened,” said Yurok Wildlife Department Director Tiana Williams-Claussen.

“We are very excited to see our condors begin exploration of the greater Northern California and Southern Oregon region,” said Leonel Arguello, National Park Service superintendent for Redwood National & State Parks. “Their progress reflects the dedication and hard work of everyone involved in their reintroduction and care, and marks an important milestone for the condor recovery effort.”

In Oregon, the last wild condor was observed in the city of Drain between Eugene and Roseburg in 1904. Before the NCCRP reintroduction effort, the last free-flying condor in Northern California was documented during the early 1900s in Humboldt County.

“It’s been a dream for many Oregonians to see a California condor soar over our state again, and B9’s journey has made that dream real,” said Oregon Zoo director Heidi Rahn. “Historic moments like this show the power of Tribal leadership in wildlife recovery. We’re deeply honored to partner with the Yurok Tribe to help bring this iconic species back to its ancestral range and to support a future for condors in the Pacific Northwest.”

“This is incredible news that we’ve been waiting to hear since the Yurok Tribe began releasing condors in northern California a few years ago. Condors will travel long distances to find new habitat and we knew they would make it into Oregon eventually,” added Oregon Department of Fish Wildlife Director Debbie Colbert. “While this was just a brief visit from B9, we look forward to the day when California condors again call Oregon home.”

Condor B9 (studbook 1268), two years and one month old, was hatched on April 3, 2024, at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho and released into the redwood region last fall. On May 12, 2026, she began the four-day, 380-mile flight from Orick, CA, traveling west east to within 12 miles of Redding, CA before crossing both the northern Trinity Alps and Marble Mountain Wildernesses prior to reaching her northernmost point on this voyage within 8 miles of Medford, OR. On the return trip, she spent one night near Cave Junction before heading down the Smith River corridor, making a detour to Brookings, OR on the coast and arriving back at the facility on May 16. She flew for a total of 80 miles in Oregon and expanded the NCCRP flock’s range by 25 miles north and 35 miles east.

Condors can soar up to 250 miles per day. B9 covered nearly 100 miles each day on her foray into Oregon.

“Young birds, like B9, explore more extensively than adults, which typically remain within a home range established during their juvenile stage. Most likely, B9’s excursion was an exploratory flight to see what’s around her,” said Chris West, the NCCRP Manager and Yurok Wildlife Department Senior Biologist, who has worked with condors for more than two decades. “After they fledge, wild-born juvenile condors join up with other young condors and they teach each other their parents’ territories before settling on a home range. By that time, a young bird will have covered a large geographic area. I imagine B9 will explore more and take other birds with her.”

This is the NCCRP’s second major milestone in 2026. Earlier this year, condors A0 (Ney-gem’ ‘Ne- chween-kah) and A1 (Hlow Hoo-let) established the flock’s first nest and deposited an egg in a hollowed-out cavity near the top of a redwood tree. As is often the case with new condor parents, the egg failed. While the cause is unknown, the failure may have been the result of an infertile egg, inadequate incubation, or a hatching issue. There is a small chance the pair may produce another egg this year, but it is unlikely. However, condor egg incubation success rates increase significantly from the first to the second breeding season. It is possible that the NCCRP will have its first chick next year.

The California Condor Recovery Program is an international multi-entity effort, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to recover the endangered California condor by establishing robust self-sustaining populations of condors within their historical distribution. The NCCRP is a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks. To support the Yurok Tribe’s condor restoration work, please visit this link.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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In the latest battle over the future of gambling in California, privately run cardrooms notched a temporary victory over tribal casinos when a judge blocked state regulators from banning blackjack at the gambling halls.

The regulations from Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Bureau of Gambling Control threaten to wipe out taxes on table games on which many local governments across California rely.

But whether the state’s 80 or so private poker rooms can keep their lucrative business model — and keep pulling gamblers away from tribal casinos — was hardly settled by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Darwin’s preliminary injunction last month.

At least one former lawmaker says that’s cynically good news for the state’s politicians.

Democrats and Republicans have accepted millions of dollars in campaign donations from the rival gaming factions, as tribes have sought to use the state’s political system to put cardrooms out of the blackjack business.

“It keeps the fight going; it keeps the two very powerful interests caring about what goes on at the Legislature, and therefore it keeps the campaign contributions moving as well,” said Mike Gatto, a former Democratic lawmaker from Los Angeles.

Twenty-seven of the state’s casino-owning tribes have donated at least $15.8 million to current members of state Legislature, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database.

Twenty-six of the cardrooms and affiliated companies have given them at least $2.8 million, according to Digital Democracy. Cardrooms are private businesses that host poker and other card games.

Bonta, too, has benefited from the dispute. He is up for reelection this year. Cardrooms have donated at least $244,000 to Bonta since 2012, according to Digital Democracy, compared to $531,000 from tribes.

The lopsided donations from the tribes did not affect the attorney general’s decision to pursue the regulations that were set to take effect this week, said Bonta’s campaign spokesperson, Jonathan Underland. The Attorney General’s Office referred an interview request about the campaign donations to Underland.

Bonta stopped accepting campaign donations from the gambling factions before he began implementing the regulations, Underland said.

“Contributions have never impacted the Attorney General’s decision-making process,” Underland said in a text message.

Dispute over ‘house-banked’ games

Underland cited ballot initiatives that gave tribes the right to negotiate compacts with the state to host Las Vegas-style casino games. The tribes have fiercely defended their exclusive gambling rights ever since. They argue gaming is a lifeline that has helped their historically disenfranchised communities out of poverty.

“California voters made their decision on tribal gaming in 1998, and reaffirmed it two years later,” Underland said. “The constitution is a hard line, and Rob Bonta is committed to enforcing it.”

The tribes contend cardrooms have unscrupulously violated the rules prohibiting anyone but tribes from offering “house-banked” table games including blackjack, the most lucrative.

The card clubs get around the prohibition by contracting with third-party companies that serve the role as the “house” or the “bank.”

These third-party employees typically sit at tables next to the cardroom dealers. The third-party employee plays no part in the game except to collect players’ bets and pay out winnings. The dealers must periodically offer the opportunity for the players to act as the bank. Almost every customer declines. The card clubs collect fees from each game.

Bonta agreed with the tribes that the cardrooms were violating the rules and issued regulations his attorney general predecessors, Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra, started to implement, but never finished.

Darwin’s preliminary injunction found that Bonta’s office likely exceeded its authority by banning the cardrooms’ most popular table games. The ruling is in effect for 45 days. The Attorney General’s Office will argue its case in court on June 30.

A spokesperson for the California Nations Indian Gaming Association didn’t return an interview request.Kyle Kirkland, a Fresno cardroom owner and president of the California Gaming Association, applauded the temporary ruling and believes his industry will prevail.“We are a legitimate industry, we have had decades of lawful operation,” Kirkland said. “We operate legally; we provide incredible support to our employees and our host communities.”

Should the cardrooms win, it would be the tribes’ second legal defeat in less than a year.

Political cash flows in

In October, a Sacramento judge threw out a lawsuit the tribes had filed against cardrooms. It was a test of a 2024 law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed that empowered tribes to sue their rivals. To that point, the tribes had been unable to sue the private cardroom companies for unfair business practices. The tribes are sovereign governments so they lacked legal standing in state courts.

Senate Bill 549 gave the tribes one shot to resolve their dispute in Sacramento County Superior Court. The judge found federal law superseded the one Newsom signed.

The stakes are high outside of casinos since some cities receive nearly half their budgets from cardroom taxes, so a tribal victory would jeopardize money for police, firefighters and other local services.

San Jose officials say that city alone receives $30 million each year from cardrooms, enough to fund 150 police officers or 133 firefighters.

The fight over SB 549 was one of the most costly political battles of the two-year legislative session that concluded in 2024, and gambling entities poured cash into legislative campaigns.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, many of them with large tribal casinos in their districts, pushed for the gambling measure, while a smaller group of lawmakers with cardrooms in their districts opposed it.

The opposing gambling interests donated at least $4.3 million to the Legislature during that two-year session, according to the Digital Democracy database.

The tribes pushed for the bill after spending millions on a failed 2022 sports betting initiative that similarly would have let the tribes sue cardrooms.

Facing what they saw as an existential threat, cardrooms responded to the bill’s introduction with a massive lobbying blitz. In 2023, Hawaiian Gardens Casino spent $9.1 million on lobbying, the second most any company reported to state regulators. Only the international oil giant, Chevron Corp., spent more that year.

After Newsom signed the law, the cardroom industry spent more than $3 million that fall in retaliation against four lawmakers who played key roles in passing the bill.

Three of the targeted candidates lost their re-election, including the bill’s author, Democratic Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton.

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Digital Democracy engineer Alexis Ramirez contributed to this story.

Danny “Dan” Gene Shields
June 11, 1957 – May 17, 2026

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the passing of Dan “The Man” Shields. He passed suddenly and far too soon on Sunday, May 17, 2026. He was a beloved son, husband, father, brother, uncle, cousin and friend to so many.

Dan was born June 11, 1957, at Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna. He was the eldest of three siblings — his brother Cody Lewis, and his sister Sandy Shields, who preceded him in death.

A true jack of all trades, Dan lived a life full of adventure and purpose — from guiding rafting trips across Northern California and Oregon, with the Rogue and Trinity Rivers holding a special place in his heart, to opening the Pizza Factory in Arcata and McKinleyville, along with The Coffee Break in Sunny Brae, to his years as a contractor for College of the Redwoods.

Dan was never one to sit still for long. That restless spirit eventually led him to his dream job as Property Manager of Sugar Bowl Ranch in Willow Creek, where he spent 26 beautiful years tending the land and animals he loved, alongside his wife, Jennifer Shields, his daughter, Dani Shields and his son, Jared Foster, who also preceded him in death.

Dan had a heart of gold and never met a stranger. If you had a problem, there was a good chance he had a solution. No challenge was ever too big. He was a natural connector, the kind of man who could strike up a conversation with anyone and leave them laughing before it was over. He had a rare gift for drawing people out of their shells and making them feel seen. If you were lucky enough to call him your friend, you were lucky enough. He lived life to the fullest and was so proud of everything he built for his family. He was without a doubt one of the hardest working people with a true passion for what he did.

Dan leaves behind a legacy of a life genuinely well lived. The world won’t be the same without him, but it is better for having had him. His spirit will live on through the land he loved and all those who knew and loved him.

 He is survived by his wife, Jennifer Shields; his daughter, Dani Shields (Jake Zimmerman); his grandson, Emmett Foster (Caitlin Madsen/Mark); his mother, Colleen Lewis (John Lewis); his brother, Cody Lewis (Heather Lewis); and countless uncles, cousins, friends and chosen family whose lives he touched deeply.

In lieu of flowers the family would love to hear and see any memories you have to share. To do so please visit this link.

To honor Dan and the big, vivacious life he lived, a celebration of life will be held in July. Details to follow soon.

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Last of a three-part series.

PREVIOUSLY:

• MUSICAL MEMOIR: When Sunnyland Slim Tells You to Take Route 66, You Should Take Route 66
• MUSICAL MEMOIR: I Was the Drummer for Two of the World’s Greatest Blues Men, and They Agreed That I Did Not Know How to Play the Drums

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After my difficult tour playing drums in San Francisco with blues legends Sunnyland Slim and Mike Bloomfield, I wondered if I’d ever get another chance to play with great musicians again.

I was determined to become a professional drummer and give myself another shot. I got that chance in spring 1976.

When Sunnyland drove back to Chicago in December 1972, I stayed in San Francisco with my friend and harmonica player Harry Duncan. I was not going back for another frigid winter to Wisconsin, my home state.

After the November 1972 Sunnyland/Bloomfield tour, I started playing club dates with a local rhythm and blues band, The Alligators. I also did gigs with the legendary Chess Records session guitarist Luther Tucker as well as a talented Bay Area blues pianist and singer, Dave Alexander.

I found a San Francisco drum teacher, Bob Rose, in 1973 and every week learned the rudiments, the math and how to read rhythm charts.

Money was tight and without much cash the Bay Area wasn’t a lot of fun. I missed my friends and family in Wisconsin and decided to move there in summer 1974. My parents let me stay with them while I worked a summer job for the city of Racine.

Harry called me one evening and asked if I would like to play a show in Madison with Sunnyland, Harry and guitarist Louis Myers, a member of the Chess Records’ recording sessions rhythm section, The Aces. I’d heard him on records with the great Chicago harmonica player Little Walter, such as l Hate to See You Go.

It would be my first time playing with Sunnyland since that ill-fated 1972 tour. I was excited to get a chance to redeem myself.

I did the show with them at a small Madison club. On the break, Sunnyland said, “Paul, you’re playing right. You’ve got a backbeat.”

Getting Sunnyland’s approval lifted my spirits. I felt like I was on my way to becoming a pro.

At the end of the show, Harry asked Sunnyland if I could play with them at the Toronto Island Blues Festival scheduled for the next weekend, July 13 and 14, 1974. Slim said yes.

We left Chicago on Friday morning and drove eight hours straight to Toronto. With no internet and no information readily available about the festival, I had no idea how big it was.

We took a ferry Saturday morning to Toronto Island with our equipment. We got off the ferry and were driven to the backstage area. I was stunned to see an audience of 20,000.

In addition to the Sunnyland band, there were Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, Roy Buchanan, John Lee Hooker and Howling Wolf. The view from the stage was astounding. There were blues fans stretched out in front of me as far as I could see. The energy was mind-altering, the largest crowd I’ve ever played for to this day.

Sunnyland was pleased with my drumming. By the end of the summer, I returned to San Francisco to try to establish myself there. But it was not really happening. I kept taking drum lessons, practicing and playing occasional shows.

I got an offer to join a guy I’d played with in San Francisco, Fortuna native Jerry Cooper, to play with him and his wife Karen in a country band. The Coopers were offered six months of gigs, every Friday and Saturday for $50 per night per musician at Rio Dell’s Rendezvous Lounge in Humboldt County. That was good money in those days.

I took the gig and moved to Humboldt in March 1975. It was far better than what I was doing in San Francisco.

A second tour with Sunnyland

Harry called in March 1976 and asked if I could get away for a five-week West Coast tour with Sunnyland and the great guitarist Hubert Sumlin, who played and recorded with Howling Wolf for 20 years. Of course, I said yes.

By then, I was living in Arcata and playing country music three nights a week with Ronnie Tharp and the Sons of Redwood Country at Harvey’s Club, a honky-tonk near Fortuna. It was a 9 to 1:30 in the morning gig paying $50 a night. My life was consumed with playing gigs, practicing and exploring the beautiful outdoors of Humboldt.

Harry put together a solid band to play with Sunnyland and Hubert: the up-and-coming Portland-based harmonica player and singer Paul deLay; Chicago bassist Bombay Carter; Sunnyland’s girlfriend, Chicago singer Big Time Sarah; and me. In mid-April I drove to a house in San Francisco where we were all staying.

We started our tour the next day. The first show we played was at the Inn of the Beginning in Cotati, in Sonoma County.

Hubert Sumlin took a liking to me and vice versa. We’d hang out after shows and days off talking about music and life. He liked the way I played. He was fantastic, playing with joy, creativity and precision. When he was on stage he transformed – looking like he was in his mid-20s rather than his mid-40s.

“Paul, you keep playing and music will make you beautiful,” he said.

Paul deLay, a tall, heavy-set white singer and harmonica player, impressed Sunnyland and Hubert.

“Big Paul (I was Little Paul) is going to be a star,” Sunnyland said. “The white boy can sing and play that harp. The man’s a monster.” That was Sunnyland’s highest compliment for a musician.

Playing music wIth this band was exciting and fun. We got better as the tour rolled on. But there were some bumps in the road.

After playing a half-dozen shows, including two nights at the Jambalaya Club in Arcata, we performed at the Euphoria Club in Eugene. The Robert Cray Band opened for us.

Our bassist, Bombay Carter, was complaining about not being an equal headliner on the show posters along with Sunnyland and Hubert. If he didn’t get equal billing, he threatened Sunnyland he would quit the band and fly back to Chicago when we got to Seattle in a few days.

“You’re not a headliner with me and Hubert,” Slim sternly told him. “If you don’t like it, you can leave. I’ll find someone else to play bass.”

Sunnyland talked to me in the dressing room while the Robert Cray Band played their opening set.

“Paul, go down and check out the bass player,” he said. “If you think he could play for us, ask him if he could finish the tour. Ask him to sit in with us at the beginning of our set.”

I was knocked out by the Cray Band, my first time seeing them. Robert Cray had so much charisma and talent as a singer and guitarist. I knew he was going to be a star. The bassist, Richard Cousins, was excellent and possessed a commanding stage presence. After their set I asked Richard if he would be available to finish the tour with Sunnyland if Carter left. When he said yes, I asked him to play the first few songs with us at the beginning of our set. As far as I know, he had never before been on stage with Chicago blues musicians.

The first song Cousins played with us was Sunnyland’s uptempo shuffle Get to my Baby.Cousins fit right in with a smooth walking bass line. Sunnyland nodded his approval from across the stage.

Sunnyland then kicked off Ray Charles’ driving Latin rhythm song What’d I Sayon a Hammond B-3 organ. Everything was grooving along when Sunnyland finished singing the second verse and called for Hubert to take a solo.

Slim always told his musicians to take one or two solo verses and then finish to make room for his vocal. He disliked Grateful Dead-style jamming.

“A guitar player has to get in and get out,” he’d preach to his musicians. “Play your solo and, BOOM, get out and let me sing.”

Hubert played one solo verse and Slim said take another. During that second verse, Hubert walked over to me and Cousins on bass to my left. As he came to the end of the second instrumental verse, Hubert put his head down and kept playing a fiery solo.

Sunnyland was furious. Over his vocal mic, he yelled, “Hubert, stop. The man thinks he’s a star.” Hubert finished his third verse and kept playing.

Now Sunnyland was looking at us with his hands on his hips. “The man played with Howling Wolf and he plays too loud for me,” he told the full-house audience. Hubert launched into a fourth verse with even more intensity as Sunnyland kept yelling at him.

Richard Cousins, eyes open wide, said, “What the hell is happening?” “Just keep playing,” I said.

Finally at the end of his fifth solo verse, Hubert looked up and signaled an ending to Cousins and me. Sunnyland glowered at Hubert before launching into one of his slow songs, “Depression Blues.” A confused Cousins left the stage shaking his head and Bombay Carter returned.

After the show, nothing was said between the two Chicago bluesmen. Just musical water under the bridge for them. Not an angry word.

Carter told Slim after the show he decided to continue on the tour. He never complained again about his lack of headliner status.

In Portland, we played a concert at Reed College. We performed a couple of nights at a Seattle nightclub, The Pipeline, before heading to Bellingham, Washington.

At a Western Washington University concert hall, we opened for John Lee Hooker in front of a capacity crowd. Hooker played with a focused intensity. Musicians who played with him knew he would often jump to the next chord change in the middle of a measure.

While listening to him, I asked Sunnyland what he thought of Hooker’s timing. “Well, the man’s got the timing of a road lizard,” Sunnyland said. “He’s got timing, but he’s the only one who knows what it is.”

Opening for Mike Bloomfield and Friends

We drove back to San Francisco to stay at the house we called home for five weeks. Our next show was scheduled in three days at the Keystone Berkeley opening for Mike Bloomfield and Friends.

I hadn’t seen him since November 1972 when he had told me I wasn’t ready to play with him and Sunnyland. However, he gave me a road map on how to become a professional drummer: go back to the roots of the genres I wanted to play and study the best drummers. “You are what you listen to,” he said.

I hadn’t known who Hubert was when we started touring. Now I was fascinated by him as a unique guitarist and person. One morning I went to Tower Records in San Francisco and bought the double album The Best of Howling Wolfon Chess Records.

I put the vinyl on the living room stereo while Hubert listened with me. I focused on Hubert’s playing and the collective sound the band showed on songs like Spoonful, 44 Blues, and Killing Floor.

“How did you guys make these arrangements and sound?” I asked.

“Guys created their own musical part and kept playing them,” he said. “They stayed there because there was nowhere else to go. Wolf sang and I played on top of that sound.”

It made sense. It was one of the coolest musical lessons I’d heard.

Later that night, we were back at the house and our host, the owner, asked Sunnyland, Hubert and me if we’d like to smoke opium in his living room. I thought for sure Sunnyland would say no because he rarely even took a hit off a joint.

“Yes partner,” Sunnyland said. “Me too,” Hubert added. If they’re in then, me too, I thought. I’d never smoked opium before.

We each took two deep hits off the pipe. Almost imediately I felt lighter than air, like I was floating around the room feeling no pain. I looked over at Hubert doubled over and laughing hard. Sunnyland, all six-foot-4 of him, was laying on his back on the sofa laughing and kicking his legs in the air like he was slow-motion bike-riding.

What a trip it was. I never smoked opium again. I realized it was too good.

Three days passed and the day of the show with Bloomfield and Friends arrived. It was March 1976 and I was nearly 25. We played a blistering first set at the cavernous Keystone Berkeley in front of a full house. We had Jimmy Kahr, who I played my first show with Sunnyland in 1972, as a guest guitarist.

I went into the backstage dressing room and saw Bloomfield with his back to me talking to a visitor. I tapped him on the shoulder. He whirled around and looked at me. “Paul, how are you doing, man?” he asked. I was amazed he remembered me.

“Was that you playing with Sunnyland,” he asked? “Yes,” I said.

“Man, you sound good,” he said. “You really did what I told you to do to improve. I’m impressed. I’m going to ask Sunnyland if I can sit in with you on your second set.”

I’d never felt happier as a musician when he said that. He got on stage and played that set with us. It gave me the confidence I could be a professional drummer and the sky was the limit for my future.

I never saw him again. Five years later he was found dead of a heroin overdose in his car on a San Francisco street.

Following his death, Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone magazine wrote:

Michael Bloomfield, the rich Jewish kid from Chicago who demonstrated to a generation of electric guitarists that white men can really play the blues, was found dead in his car in San Francisco at eleven o’clock Sunday morning, February 15th. He was thirty-seven.

Bloomfield was slumped in the passenger seat of his beige 1971 Mercury, which was parked on a residential street in the Forest Hills section of the city; all four doors were locked. The official cause of death has not been determined, but the presence of an empty Valium bottle in the pocket of his coat, which was lying on the back seat, spurred speculation that Bloomfield — who had been known to use heroin in the past — had died of a drug overdose. However, two of Bloomfield’s closest associates doubted he had taken his own life.

“I can tell you, just from recent talks, that he wasn’t the kind of guy who was ready to check out on Valium,” said Denny Bruce, president of the Takoma Records label, for which Bloomfield recorded four albums over the past several years. According to Bruce, the guitarist had been drawing a good response both here and in Europe with his one-man show. He had two new albums due out March 1st — Cruisin’ for a Bruisin,’ on Takoma, and Living in the Fast Lane, on the independent Waterhouse label — and he was, Bruce said, “in very, very good spirits.”

He is still revered for his remarkable recordings such as The Paul Butterfield Band’s East-West, Super Session with Al Kooper, Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, including Like a Rolling Stone, and The Electric Flag.

I will always remember Bloomfield for the musical lessons he taught me and for the extraordinary compassion he showed me as a young drummer. It meant everything to me.

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Thank you to Pam Long, my editor, and Julian DeMark for expert photo scanning. Find many more musical memories at my Substack.