Born on December 25, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois, Barry Goldberg was a blues and rock keyboardist, songwriter, and producer best known as a founding member of blues-rock band The Electric Flag. In the 1950s, he began his musical career as a teenager in Chicago, playing alongside blues icons including Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters and others. By the 1960s, he was performing with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and backing up Bob Dylan in 1965 during Dylan’s controversial electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival. That same year, guitarist Steve Miller moved to Chicago, met Barry Goldberg and they formed the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band. After recording a single for Epic Records, Steve Miller left the group and moved to San Francisco, California. Now known as the Barry Goldberg Blues Band, the group released the album Blowing My Mind in 1966. Connecting with guitarist Mike Bloomfield and drummer Buddy Miles, the trio formed the blues-rock group The Electric Flag, bringing in vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks to fill out the band. Their debut album was the soundtrack to the 1967 movie The Trip. The group’s line-up began to splinter after the release of 1968’s A Long Time Comin’ and Bloomfield and Barry Goldberg left The Electric Flag. In 1968, Barry Goldberg returned to a solo career with There’s No Hole in My Soul, which was followed by Two Jews Blues featuring Mike Bloomfield (1969) and Street Man (1969). The Electric Flag reunited for the album The Band Kept Playing (1974), which was released the same year as his self-titled solo album, which was produced by Bob Dylan and Jerry Wexler. From the late 1970s until 2002, Barry Goldberg remained busy producing and playing with other artists including Carla Olson and Mick Taylor, Percy Sledge, and many others. As a songwriter, he composed songs for artists like Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, B.J. Thomas, Gladys Knight, and more. He returned to recording in the 2000s with Stoned Again (2002) and two albums with blues supergroup The Rides featuring Stephen Stills and Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Can’t Get Enough (2013) and Pierced Arrow (2016). Barry Goldberg returned to his solo career with In the Groove (2018) while still working on projects with other artists. Barry Goldberg died on January 22, 2025, of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 83 years old.
