Robben Ford has had a diverse career. He taught
himself guitar when he was 13 and considered his first influence
to be Mike Bloomfield. At 18 he moved to San Francisco to form
the Charles Ford Band (named after his father, who was also a
guitarist) and was soon hired to play with Charles Musselwhite
for nine months.
In 1971 the Charles Ford Blues Band was re-formed and recorded
for Arhoolie in early 1972. Ford played with Jimmy Witherspoon
(1972-1973), the L.A. Express with Tom Scott (1974), George Harrison,
and Joni Mitchell. In 1977 he was a founding member of the Yellowjackets,
which he stayed with until 1983, simultaneously having a solo
career and working as a session guitarist.
In 1986, Ford toured with Miles Davis and he had two separate
periods (1985 and 1987) with Sadao Watanabe, but he seemed to
really find himself in 1992 when he returned to his roots: the
blues. Ford formed a new group, the Blue Line, and subsequently
recorded a couple of blues-rock dates for Stretch that are among
the finest of his career. In 1999, he released Sunrise on Rhino
and Supernatural on Blue Thumb. Ford signed to the Concord Jazz
label in 2002 and released Blue Moon that same year, followed
by Keep on Running in 2003 and Truth in 2007.
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