Paul Butterfield - Biography
Leading the first interracial blues band is just one of Paul Butterfield’s accomplishments that make him a legendary figure in blues rock. He was an innovator, a gifted blues harmonica player, and an extraordinary bandleader. His Paul Butterfield Blues Band not only backed Bob Dylan at his famous gone-electric Newport appearance, but they also served as inspiration for the entire West Coast/San Francisco psychedelic rock scene. Paul Butterfield set the blues rock bar high, forming standards in a genre many have tried to meet.
Born December 17, 1942, Paul Butterfield hails from Chicago, home of the blues. He first studied flute as a teenager and then switched his attentions towards harmonica. “Within about six months he was almost as good as he was gonna get. He was great. He just had a natural thing for it,” said guitarist Elvin Bishop in the book Mike Bloomfield: If You Love These Blues. Butterfield and Bishop made history when they formed a band with the African-American Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay of Howlin' Wolf's band, and secured a gig as the house band at a joint called Big John's. With the addition of Mike Bloomfield on guitar, the band recorded its debut self-titled album, 1965’s The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965 Elektra), featuring the Nick Gravenites-penned song “Born in Chicago.” Standout moments on the album include Bloomfield's slide on Elmore James' “Shake Your Money Maker,” and the band's takes on Muddy Waters' “I Got My Mojo Working” and Little Walter's “Mellow Down Easy.” The album was such a strong statement in blues rock that it was suggested, among diehard fans of the genre, that they might outrank the Rolling Stones. The band's proximity to the great bluesmen in their hometown Chicago, not to mention Lay and Arnold's membership in the band, gave the Butterfield Band an obvious edge.
Known for his band's ability to deliver live, Butterfield was the consummate showman, immaculately dressed and in possession of a natural stage manner. Unlike other harmonica players, he held his harmonica upside-down, although his reasons for doing this are not known. Starting out as an incredibly fast player, especially when accompanied by Bloomfield, he eventually honed his harmonica style into a more mature mode. Working with longer notes, he became very conscious of tone — as Muddy Waters said, "Tone is everything." — and Butterfield's tone featured a deep, rich, and powerful vibrato that he used to great emotional effect. As he took blues harmonica to new dimensions, Butterfield's became a much-imitated style of accompaniment, though he was just as strong playing behind a singer.
In 1966, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band's released East-West (1966 Elektra), which was groundbreaking in the way it utilized the sitar. This expansion of the boundaries of blues influenced the nascent San Francisco Sound. Butterfield has claimed that the concept for the album came to him during his first acid trip and that’s where he figured out how to play Indian music. It is also on this album that Butterfield became one of the first to revive the work of bluesman Robert Johnson with his version of “Walkin' Blues.” Bishop takes a vocal turn on “Never Say No” and the band even covers Michael Nesmith’s song “Mary, Mary” (recorded by The Monkees later that year) as well as a version of Alan Toussaint's “Get Out of My Life, Woman,” featuring a piano spot by Mark Naftalin. However it is their version of “Work Song,” rearranged by Nat Adderley, for which Butterfield and East-West is most often remembered.
Butterfield shifted directions when Bloomfield left the band in 1967. On The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw (1967 Elektra), Butterfield debuted his acoustic harp sound, influenced by the great Sonny Boy Williamson. Butterfield also admired the tone and economy of Little Junior Parker whose big, expanded band ensemble inspired his own expansion. His new lineup included an R&B horn section with David Sanborn and Brother Gene Dinwiddie. The new ensemble played at the Monterey Pop Festival.
In My Own Dream (Elektra) followed in 1968, as did the departure of Bishop and Naftalin. 1969’s Keep on Moving (Elektra) saw the addition of Billy Davenport on drums and the teenaged Buzzy Feiten, a dynamic lead guitarist. Butterfield appeared at Woodstock in 1969, though he is not featured in the documentary film. He was also chosen to accompany Muddy Waters for the live concert and album Fathers and Sons (1969 Chess), which featured Bloomfield and Lay alongside Otis Spann, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Paul Oscher, and Buddy Miles.
The group disbanded and Butterfield’s next project, Paul Butterfield's Better Days, featured an all-star lineup including multi-instrumentalists and singers Maria and Geoff Muldaur, Amos Garrett on guitar, and Ronnie Baron on piano. 1973’s Paul Butterfield's Better Days (Bearsville/Rhino) opens with a version of “New Walkin' Blues” and displays a new depth in Butterfield's singing and harp style. Taking his cues from Ray Charles, Butterfield called his singular technique “the feel” and was always looking for a place in a song to “get” or grab the audience, searching for new ways to pull them in and take them on a journey through music. In his later years these considerations became his focus. He also developed an interest in soul music and turned toward the piano as his instrument. His band became an entirely new animal as he turned more towards the mold of a singer-songwriter. Paul Butterfield's Better Days and It All Comes Back (1973 Bearsville/Rhino) are demonstrations of Butterfield’s new direction and were both recorded in his new home of Woodstock, New York.
Butterfield’s first solo album Put It In Your Ear (1976 Bearsville/Rhino), produced by Henry Glover, featured a who's who of musicians from The Band's Garth Hudson and Levon Helm, to jazz and soul player Bernard Purdie and Motown bassist James Jamerson. But by this time, Butterfield had moved away from the scene, adrift in a changing musicscape that had rejected old school blues and roots music. In 1979, on a trip with his then-girlfriend singer Elizabeth Barraclough, Butterfield went to Memphis to record with legendary producer Willie Mitchell for the album North-South (1981 Bearsville/Rhino). However, what could have been a potentially legendary pairing didn't add up when the recording was rushed and the material was lacking. The record tanked.
In the early '80s, Butterfield performed a series of shows with actor/musician Gary Busey on vocals as well as Dr. John and Rick Danko in Los Angeles. It was a well-received revue and many thought that Butterfield's career would have a renaissance. During this period, he also formed the Danko-Butterfield Band and performed with Levon Helm in the RCO All Stars. Unfortunately, Butterfield could not keep up the pace as health problems and drug and alcohol dependence dogged him until the day he died. The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again (1986 Amherst), featuring Blondie Chaplin and Paul Shaffer, was his final recording. He died in North Hollywood on May, 4, 1987 of a heart attack.
The '90s saw the release of archival Butterfield material including The Original Lost Elektra Sesssions (1995 Elektra) and East-West-Live (1996 Winner Records). The Butterfield Blues Band's Live (2004 Rhino Handmade) was issued in a limited edition with bonus tracks.