Mike Wilhelm (musician)

Mike Wilhelm
Born	March 18, 1942 Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Folk rock, psychedelic rock, rock, blues
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, harmonica
Years active	1964 - present
Labels	Kapp, Philips, Sire
Associated acts	The Charlatans, Loose Gravel, The Flamin' Groovies

Mike Wilhelm is a guitarist, singer and songwriter from California, United States of America. He was born in Los Angeles March 18, 1942 and first learned to play blues guitar in his teens, from legendary Tennessee bluesman Walter "Brownie" McGhee. He served for a short time in the U.S. Navy before starting his professional music career as an opening act for The Chambers Brothers.

He was a founding member of the influential Bay Area band The Charlatans, who were the first psychedelic rock band in San Francisco. During the 1960s, when the photographer Herb Green asked Jerry Garcia who his favorite guitarist was, Garcia responded "Mike Wilhelm" without hesitation. Although they were hugely influential on the San Francisco counter-culture scene during the late 1960s, The Charlatans never managed to break into the national Billboard charts and only released one album, The Charlatans, before breaking up at the end of 1969.

A version of Buffy St. Marie's "Codine", recorded by The Charlatans in 1966, was used in the movie Boys Don't Cry during Hilary Swank's sex change scene. The song's guitar solo, one of Wilhelm's favorites, was deleted from the movie soundtrack and the Charlatans had to sue the director of the film in order to receive royalties.

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