Starting in 1960, when Elvin Bishop was a national merit scholarship student in Chicago, a skinny white boy from Oklahoma, he'd spend a lot of time in blues clubs.

"Not many white guys were interested in knowing blues in those days. It was a break for me," Bishop explained, "because I was a kind of a novelty for the musicians. I'd get 'em a sandwich, a half-pint, whatever they wanted, and get them to show me licks."

"I didn't have any money," he clarified by phone last week. "But if they had money, I'd go get them the sandwich or the half-pint."

One of those musicians was Little Smokey Smothers, a young man from Mississippi who'd followed his older brother -- Big Smokey -- to the big city in 1956. Little Smokey and Bishop became friends, then became bandmates.

"A lot of times we weren't able to get a bass player," Bishop said, "So we'd take turns doing that thing of tuning the (guitar) strings all the way down to bass level and if a guy had a tune that he played the lead real good on, then the other guy would be the bass player."

Bishop went on to write blues history as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and then on his own as an international star. His shows are among the best in blues, with an unmatched fun level. Bishop, in his late 50s now, on stage is still just a kind of goofy kid from Oklahoma who can really play guitar and sing.

Smothers, meanwhile, quit playing music after Bishop left Chicago. "I was doing construction work and worked longshoreman and everything I could do. I was really disgusted with music and making $7 and $8 a night and $10. The music paid nothing then. I was making $12 playing with Howlin' Wolf. There just wasn't no money."

But the two kept up their friendship whenever Bishop would revisit the Windy City.

"He's still kicking really strong," Bishop said last week. "He's really good. The thing is, he's more well known in Europe and Japan than here. He played on some other records, with Howlin' Wolf and others. He never had an opportunity to make an American record."

Until now, that is. Bishop and Smothers have teamed up again for the album "That's My Partner," and are doing some touring together to promote it. They'll be on the big stage at the San Francisco Blues Festival on Sunday (Sept. 24, 2000).

For Bishop, the shows happen only on weekends now. "We've had a family tragedy," Bishop said last week, referring to the death of his daughter Selina. "The No. 1 thing is getting everybody moving in the right direction. I go out (to perform) on the weekends, and stay at home on the weekdays, trying to maintain as much routine as I can.

"I'm canning tomatoes right now," he said. "They'll be ready in about another two minutes.

"The family is solid, the band is solid, and the fans have been nice."

The new album is a blast, with solid blues licks from Smothers on guitar and even better stuff from Bishop, who, as Smothers points out, "got to be a wizard with a doggone slide. He's a wizard, really.

"Whenever we get together we have a whole lot of fun, no matter where it's at," Smothers says in the liner notes for the album. "I really love that guy. ... He makes me play a whole lot better, too. He gives me a reason to PLAY. We just sound good together."

And for the album, and for the show on Sunday, they even have a bass player.