(Radio Iowa) – An exhibit at the Sioux City Public Museum features the photos, instruments and personal memorabilia of a local rock legend. Museum curator Matt Anderson says the “Gypsy Soul” exhibit features guitarist Tommy Bolin, who was known for his solo session work and for playing with the James Gang and Deep Purple.

“If you look up Tommy Bolin online you’ll find numerous very influential guitarists and rock musicians that cite him as an influence and an inspiration. He is just a highly regarded historically for his talent,” Anderson says. Anderson says Bolin was born in 1951 and taught himself to play the guitar and seem to have an aptitude for it. “And also just the desire to work hard at it. And so at 16 years old, he went out to Denver, Colorado where there was a burgeoning music scene, and he got involved with a band called Zephyr,” Anderson says. “And that was actually kind of his first national touring act, they recorded two albums with him. And they were kind of a blues rock ensemble with the lead singer, a female lead singer that was kind of the Janis Joplin mold.”

Bolin went on to become one of the most talented and versatile hard rock guitarists to emerge during the first half of the 1970s. It started with him being asked to play on Billy Cobham’s Jazz Fusion album called “Spectrum.” Anderson says it was big step. “He is self-taught, doesn’t read music, and he was in a room with a bunch of veteran jazz musicians, you know virtuoso musicians who all read charts and things like that and he would just listen to what they were going to play and then improvise the lead guitar and on this album, his guitar playing is really the driving force,” he says. Bolin then replaced Joe Walsh in the James Gang in 1973 and Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple in 1975. He released a solo album “Teaser” in 1975, while his 1976 album “Private Eyes” earned him opening concert slots with Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Rush, and ZZ Top.

His life and career were cut short by a drug overdose on December 4th of 1976. Many of the items on display are from the collection of Bolin’s brother Johnnie, who was the drummer in the original Tommy B