#71 Why Spread the Butter? Part 6 The Paul Butterfield Legacy

It is the early morning hours of August 18^th 1969, and the Woodstock Music and Art Fair is winding down after a successful three day event. The festival welcomes over 400,000 people making it the largest outdoor music festival ever, and the most important in rock music in history.

It showcases performances by 32 established and rising stars in 60s popular music; almost all of them are white artists who perform blues or blues based rock songs. Most of them owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Paul Butterfield for opening doors to new prospects in black music, and post war urban blues.

His band, the Butterfield Blues Band are just about to finish their set, and will then leave the stage to make room for 50s rock and roll nostalgia band Sha Na Na, and a new blues rock guitar slinger, Jimi Hendrix. Butterfield isn’t the headliner that day, but he will make history – again.

He walks to the front of the stage for the last song of his set, picks up his electric ten hole harmonica, pushes it into his mouth, and then lets out a fierce rallying cry of blues phrases. The audience is transfixed by the sound of his electric harmonica. Then his big horn laden band launches a sortie on Marion Little Walter Jacob’s 1959 Chicago blues standard Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.

Butterfield is doing something no other blues harmonica player before him has done. He has his ten hole harmonica plugged into two Daisy chained Fender Twin reverb amps, making it the loudest in history. However, this is a minor fact in comparison with his most important contributions to the little instrument. It takes him four grueling years working toward just such  day, and finally he has arrived. Paul Butterfield has become the most successful white bluesman who stands in front of a band singing blues, and accompanying himself on the ten hole harmonica in history.

However, the next decade will be both kind but very cruel to the young bluesman, and the music he helps popularize. There are young black harmonica bluesmen like James Cotton, Jr. Wells, and Bill Boy Arnold who are introduced to a whole new lucrative audience because of Butterfield. 

Then there is a collection of white bluesmen like John Mayall, Alan Wilson and Canned Heat, Corky Siegel of the Siegel – Schwal Band who also enjoy the luxury of  being able to perform blues, and be accepted as authentic by audiences because of Butterfield’s efforts.

Probably the two most convincing white blues singers of the crop are actually from Butterfield’s Chicago days. Former south side rival Charlie Mussellwhite sticks close to a post war blues format, but has become an authentic white bluesman. Then there is Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band. He plays some harmonica in the Butterfield style, but prefers to accompany himself with his guitar. Miller isn’t known as a bluesman or harmonica player, but one listen of his composition Living in the U.S.A. showcases his prowess on the instrument.

However, the authentic harmonica playing bluesman figure is fading into the background of the more popular music created by the mainstream popularity of  blues based rock bands. In many of these bands, blues and the harmonica playing bluesman is just a nod to the genre. There are several whose lead singers attempt to play the role of harmonica playing blues singer:  Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones to name a few. They all include blues songs which feature them supporting their singing with the ten hole harmonica, but none is very authentic.

Butterfield will enjoy unprecedented popularity as the premier harmonica playing bluesman in the mid 70s, but his
career is in its plateau stage. He will form one of the first Americana music bands of the decade in '72, Better Days, and produce two albums of songs made up of  rural and urban blues, traditional folk, New Orleans funk and gospel. His innovative mind is still active during these days as he tells one interviewer that he plays something he has never before heard on the ten hole harmonica, a rhythm pattern with the root octave of his harmonica, (Louisiana Flood).

Paul Butterfield's Better Days appear in large venues around the country, play on daytime and evening talk shows, but for a variety of reasons,  the band crumbles in late ’74. Unfortunately, the once great bluesman ceases to be a creative force in popular music. His last stand will be in '75 when he makes a memorable appearance in the best rock documentary in the history of the music, The Last Waltz.

There are technical problems while filming his performance though. According to director Martin Scorsese, only one spotlight functions properly, and the performance is almost lost, but in the end, it works in Butterfield favor. He offers up a visceral interpretation of Jr. Parker’s Mystery Train, playing some of the best blues harmonica of his career. It is an iconic image and performance of the authentic bluesman standing in front of a band singing blues and accompanying himself on the ten hole harmonica.

Unfortunately, after Butterfield's performance in the The Last Waltz , his health declines and he relieves himself of the enormous responsibly of being a bandleader. He will spend the rest of his career as a studio musician, a sideman for bands like Levon helm and the RCO Allstars, and during the late 70s into the early 80s he teams up with Rick Danko of the Band for sporadic tours of the bar circuit.  Remember, Butterfield's most important contributions are made between '65 and '75, a longer run than most artists of any genre. 

However, Butterfield's legacy is almost as impressive as his career. The white harmonica playing bluesman figure is not as popular by the 80s, but there are several young white bluesmen trying to make it work for them, and all owe a great debt to what Butterfield accomplishes during his career. Californian bluesman Kim Wilson will front his band The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and by the end of the 80s have a few blues based songs working their way up the mainstream pop charts. 

Another Californian, Rod Piazza will start working the blues circuit playing mostly chromatic harmonica in the post war style of George Smith. Then there is the fine work of William Clarke and Mark Hummel all of whom also acknowledge the influence of Paul Butterfield. 

None of these young white harmonica playing bluesman would not be able to stand up in front of a crowd, and expect to be treated with much credibility if it were not for the doors Butterfield opens in the mid 60s.

Butterfield’s influence as an artist and harmonica player is wide though. One harmonica player inspired by Butterfield’ playing, Mickey Raphael, will take a job with country singer Willie Nelson in the early 70s.  A decade later he will record a duet with Butterfield, call it Hand to Mouth, and submit it as the title track of his first album. Country harmonica virtuoso Charlie McCoy, who is not directly influenced by Paul Butterfield, reaps some residual benefits of the blues craze Butterfield helps to create, and records an album of blues classics in '75 entitled Harpin’ the Blues.

As a compliment to the white harmonica playing bluesman figure that Butterfield helps to create, Canadian comedic actor, Dan Akyroyd will play the role of a white Chicago bluesman in the very successful 1978 movie The Blues Brothers. The film’s success will inspire a live album release with a full band of authentic bluesmen and soul singers in tow, A Briefcase Full of Blues.

Another bluesman who cites Butterfield as an influence is Huey Lewis, but he choses to be a rock star fronting the very successful 80s band, Huey Lewis and The News. He and his band will earn 19 top ten hits on the pop charts, some of them featuring Lewis playing electric blues harmonica. One of the best examples of Lewis' skill as a blues harmonica player is the post war urban blues influenced Workin for Livin’. It will  climb to number 20 on the pop charts in '82.

Butterfield will do one last performance in 1987 as a sideman in a B.B. King television special, B.B. King and Friends. In spite of his declining physical health, he manages to upstage both Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert King during a performance of Elmore James’ 1959 hit, The Sky is Crying. Butterfield will die a month later, and as a tribute, King will dedicate the special him.

Over in France there is a young white bluesman singer/songwriter who also cites Butterfield as one of his influences, Jean Jacques Milteau. He will record several successful albums using the ten hole harmonica in pop, blues, jazz and French folk music. 

Back in the U.S., a young John Popper will do some of what Curtis, Jacobs and Butterfield did for the ten hole harmonica, and create new phrases for the instrument while fronting his successful rock band Blues Traveller.

Then, multi instrumentalist, jazz musician, and leader of his band Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Howard Levy, who points to Butterfield as his first harmonica hero. He will become the most important exponent of the ten hole harmonica in the late 20^th century when he develops and implements a new technique for the instrument he calls overblows and overdraws. The technique transforms the little diatonic harmonica into a chromatic instrument, opening doors for hundreds of harmonica players in the 21st century.

Levy will teach two more Butterfield influenced harmonica playing bluesmen: Cuban Canadian Carlos Del Junco, and American Jason Ricci. Two more artists who cite Butterfield's playing as an influence on their own work; both will take the ten hole harmonica in explorations of blues, jazz and other forms of music. 

If there was ever a modern white bluesman who stands in front of a band singing blues and accompanying himself on the ten hole harmonica to take over from where Paul Butterfield finishes, it Jason Ricci. He is creative, innovative, a both dynamic on stage and in the studio. Watch out for his work!

It is impossible to overestimate the influence Paul Butterfield has on post war urban blues, the harmonica playing bluesman figure, and the popular music of the latter half of the twentieth century. Consider, if we remove his important contributions to popular music, there may never have been the Electric Flag, Blood Sweat and Tears, Chicago, the authentic white harmonica playing bluesman figure, Carlos Santana, Americana music, Huey Lewis, Howard Levy, or Jason Ricci. One thing is for sure, without Paul Butterfield’s important contributions, popular music would be left with an enormous void. 

In 2016, this writer was invited to act as a consultant for the documentary Horn From the Heart; The Paul Butterfield Story, by award winning director John Anderson and producer Sandy Warren. A debt of gratitude must be be extended to Butterfield fans like these two, and all other people who keep the Paul Butterfield legacy alive.

If you are interested in learning how to play harmonica like Paul Butterfield, start with his early 80s, instructional series available on Homespun tapes. 

There are also many excellent instructional videos devoted to the Butterfield sound on YouTube by excellent teachers, and players such as: Adam Gussow , Rolly Platt, Will Wilde, Ronnie Shellist, Hakan Ehn, and Tomlin Leckie. 

Also, have a look at my Facebook page The Complete Paul Butterfield

Thanks for reading this five part series!

                                                     

#70 Why Spread the Butter? Part 5 The Paul Butterfield Catalogue

In blogs #66 - #69, we discuss some of the crucial contributions Paul Butterfield makes to post war urban blues that establish him as one of the most important bluesmen figures who stands in front of his band singing blues, and accompanying himself with a ten hole harmonica in history. The next key contribution we will discuss is one that all important bluesmen must make. They need to create a catalogue of one or more songs that become standards in the genre. As we shall see, Butterfield's catalogue is impressive.

It is useful to mention here that while Butterfield's brand of urban blues has deep roots in the post war Chicago blues tradition, his past is quite different from his predecessors, John Lee Curtis and Marion Jacobs. Both of those artists emerge from the rural blues of the south, which becomes electrified in the 30s and 40s, and generally caters to an urban and rural black audience. Scoring commercial success with their songs in this market is paramount to career longevity. This is not a primary goal of Butterfield's. 

John Lee Curtis is unique in that he is an unplanned pioneer in the field of urban blues, and while she does earn a few commercial successes with songs like Good Morning Little School Girl ; it is within a very limit audience. Marion Jacobs builds on Curtis' success, writes or co-writes mainstream blues songs like Juke & My Babe, which sound like a cross between Louis Jordan and John Lee Curtis. His efforts earn him 14 charted successes from '52 -'58 with a much broader audience. During these years he also becomes known for his Jazz like improvisations on the harmonica which creates the extremely important post war Chicago blues sound. Paul Butterfield then expands on the work of both of these artists, and in turn, takes the blues in directions never before imagined.  

Butterfield's entry into Chicago blues is different than most other bluesmen. He enters the genre by way of  a cultural trend that sweeps across the U.S., up to Canada, and then across the Atlantic to Europe historians call the folk boom of the 50s and 60s.  The attitude of many of the artists creating in during this period is the antithesis of most mainstream popular music goals of the day. Many of these artists maintain a residual philosophy from the 30s and 40s  folk revivalist , who view the music as a bridge for social and political change, and consequently should represent a rebellion against western capitalist consumer values. 

This attitude gives rise to many understated artists such as: The Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin and Paul Butterfield. These artists dress in humble uniforms of jeans and t-shirt, and often write songs that make social and political statements on behalf of their audience of young white baby boomers. Publicly, many claim that their lack of mainstream commercial success is a badge of honor. (Probably to the chagrin of their management and record label) Many of them, Butterfield included, never experience a number 1 chart success, and yet, they do maintain record sales with busy touring schedules. It is a unique time for popular music. Butterfield is not only in the middle of the trend, but is often leading the charge.  

It is almost easier to describe what Paul Butterfield's diverse music is not, rather than try and label it as one coming from one particular genre. While everything he records and performs live is steeped in post war urban blues, a connection he maintains his entire career,  he travels in several different artistic directions, always with exploratory enthusiasm.  Consequently, his music is a combination of  urban and rural blues, jazz, rock, folk, country, military, psychedelic rock, not commercial, and consequently very hip. He releases 11 albums over the course of his career, most of which do offer up singles for the mainstream market, but none of his work ever earns a position in the top ten charts the way Jacobs does. As a matter of fact Butterfield 's music should receive acknowledgement as a pioneering effort  in the new genre of music we now call Americana. 

His unique harmonica sound is in demand for most of his career so we can hear him lending it to many records throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. If you listen to Peter, Paul and Mary's (Too Much of Nothing) his harmonica adds a unmistakable funk to an otherwise basic folk tune, and then there is title track to a 60s psychedelic movie You Are What You Eat, (You Are What you Eat). No other blues harmonica player has attempted this feat before him.

In '74 he plays his harmonica on Maria Muldaur's #12 hit I Am Woman , stealing the show. Then there are rare recordings like the one he does for Ronnie Barron's version of Cissy Strut in 1985.  However, the jewel in this bluesman's crown is supporting Muddy Water's on his 1969 album Fathers and Sons. This is the album that establishes Butterfield as the most successful blues harmonica player alive.

Blues is very much an interpretive artform. Some artists write very few songs of their own, and so, need to rely on unique interpretations of blues standards. If an artist can generate audience approval with his interpretation, then that song becomes his own. A good example of this dynamic is Willie Dixon's composition Wang Dang Doodle which Chicago blueswoman Koko Taylor earns success with in '65. The song will be performed and recorded by numerous artists over the years, but no one manages to steal away the ownership from Taylor.

Butterfield did not compose Born in Chicago.  His close friend Nick Gravenites wrote it for The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, but the Butterfield interpretation has earned the song, blues standard status. There are scores of bar bands round the world that perform it nightly, and most are trying to copy the Butterfield phrases note for note. However, there are also several artists such as Tom Petty, Jesse Colin Young, George Thorogood, Joe Lewis Walker and James Cotton who add their own personality to the song. 

Other Butterfield band interpretations such as Elmore James' Shake Your Moneymaker,  Little Walters' Mellow Down Easy, Nat Adderley's Work Song (Muddy Waters uses it as a live show opener in the 6os) and Too Many Drivers have become standards too. 

Butterfield wasn't a prolific songwriter like some of his blues rock contemporaries such Jagger and Richards or Bob Dylan, but he does compose a few excellent songs which become part of the blues based roots canon. Here are some of his compositions which have been recorded by various artists over the years:

Lovin' Cup ('66) did not bring Butterfield much mainstream success, but it is a blues standard now having been covered by Robben Ford, UFO, James Cotton, Debbie Davis, Felix Cabrera and Albert Castigila

Rock compositions such as Run Out of  Time (67) which is the B side of his interpretation of Marvin Gaye's One More Heartache. And then there is Blind Leading the Blind from 1971.

His gospel tinged testimonial ballad In My Own Dream is covered by Texas blues singer Karen Dalton for her In My Own Time album in 1971.

Freddie King's Larger than Life  album (1975), and blues rock supper group Royal Southern Brotherhood (2013), both record versions of the Butterfield/ Henry Glover song You Can Run But You Can't Hide.

Bobby Charles is the unofficial sixth member of Paul Butterfield's early 70s band called Better Days. He and Butterfield share writing credits on a few songs, one of which is Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It  - Wilson Pickett releases in the 70s.    

The Better Days version of the Bobby Charles/ Rick Danko's composition Small Town Talk  is recorded by several artists including Rick Danko, Boz Scaggs, Jackie DeShannon, Yvonne Elliman, Amos Garrett and Geoff Muldaur and in 2016, the  San Francisco Americana band The Lucky Losers record it. 

Butterfield also sets standards for all future bluesmen when he writes, and records an instrumental on the ARP synthesizer, The Flame for his album 1975 album, Put It In Your Earin. No other bluesman has attempted such a goal. It has been used as the theme music for a nightly news show in the 70s.  Then there are jazz like harmonica instrumentals he composes such as Song for Lee and Night Child for his 1971 album Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin'.  It is not an exaggeration to point out that Butterfield is the first ten hole player to play jazz/rock on the ten hole harmonica.

Another important contribution he makes is to record the first blues harmonica accompaniment, and solo for electronic music. If you can find a copy of the electronic music band Deadline's 1985 album Down By Law , Butterfield is on track #4 with Jaco Pastorious on bass. 

After leaving a catalogue of songs, many of which become blues rock standards, the next contribution all important artists must make is to inspire future generations of artists to play their own versions of that catalogue. There are three excellent Paul Butterfield tribute albums available that fans can still purchase: A Tribute to Paul Butterfield, Robben Ford and the Ford Blues Band (2001), and then The Butterfield/Bloomfield Concert: The Ford Blues Band, with Robben Ford and Chris Cain (2006). Most recently there is an excellent tribute album,  Electric Butter by exceptional harmonica player Rob Paparozzi and the Ed Palermo Big Band (2015)

35 years after his death in 1987, Paul Butterfield leaves behind an impressive catalogue of music which is still popular with old and new fans. In the next and final post in this series,  we will discuss the last criterion that every harmonica playing bluesman must make to be considered historically important. He must inspire future generations to stand in front of a band singing blues, and accompanying himself with a ten hole harmonica. 

Stay tuned

Thanks for reading!                                                                

#69 Why Spread the Butter? Part 4: The Paul Butterfield Sound

Every ambitious blues harmonica player wants his own signature sound. It could be their tone, or maybe even a repetitive phrase that resonates with their audiences, but they all want some aspect of their sound to be instantly recognizable. The ultimate compliment is when a listener hears only one note, and they can immediately identify the player. Paul Butterfield is a good example of a blues harmonica player who can play one note on his ten hole harmonica, and everyone knows it is him. There are thousands of ambitious blues harmonica players who still try to duplicate the Butterfield sound, but while some might come close, none ever achieve their goal.

Remember, John Lee Curtis, the first of the important electric Chicago blues harmonica players, creates his unique sound almost by accident because there were so few players amplifying, and inventing new phrases for the instrument. Then there is Marion Little Walter Jacobs who develops sounds on the blues harmonica that no other player achieves before him. However, Paul Butterfield’s signature sound may very well be more noticeable than any other blues harmonica alive or dead. Consequently, his sound is one of the many very important contributions he makes to post war urban blues harmonica. 

Another sign that Butterfield has created a unique sound because it spawns hundreds of imitators who often spend copious quantities of money on equipment, and then expend time and energy, all in an effort to duplicate the Butterfield sound. While this might be an honorable exercise, it is futile. Butterfield himself testifies to this fact in his 1984 instructional series. Attempting to learn another player's tone and phrases is a great learning tool, but it should be a means to developing your own sound, not an end. Let’s discuss some of the features of the Butterfield sound in an attempt to understand why it is so unique.

Firstly, you may remember in blog #66 &67 we discuss the tongue blocking technique of tone production that Curtis, Jacobs and most other Chicago blues harmonica players use from the thirties forward. However, while Butterfield does periodically use a type of tongue blocking technique, he is primarily a lip purser  (sometimes also referred to as the pucker method).

This mean when he places the harmonica in his mouth, he forms his lips around a single hole of the harmonica at one time, and then either pushes or draws air through the harmonica. As we discover in the previous discussions, tongue blocking allows for a fuller tone, but limits the speed with which the player can move up and down the harmonica. The lip pursing technique however, allows Butterfield the option of moving from note to note with a great deal of speed. As an example, listen to his solo in the instrumental Number 9 from his LIVE album. You should notice the speed and accuracy with which he moves on the his harmonica is impressive. It is quite possible that there is no other blues harmonica player before him, not even Jacobs, moves with this much speed.

Here is another minor point of interest to people who are fans of the Butterfield sound.  Some players notice that Butterfield plays his Hohner Marine Bands upside down (Country bluesman Sonny Terry uses this technique too), and so they consider that it may influence his sound, but it probably doesn’t. He more than likely plays his harmonica upside down because he is left handed, and playing it this way is just a more efficient use of the instrument.  

Why is it more efficient? Most players hold their instrument in such a way that the lower notes of the harmonica can fit into the cup their hand makes around the lower register of the instrument. This makes it easier to manipulate the tone when playing acoustic harmonica. If you watch the video of Butterfield  playing his acoustic solo during the song Driftin’ Blues at The Monterey Pop Festival 1967, you will see the way holds his harmonica. There are some other more important physical techniques he uses which play a greater role in his unique sound.

Let’s consider some of his amplification equipment next. Remember, Curtis is the first of the Chicago blues harmonica players to cup his hands and instrument around a microphone, and then plug it into  either a standalone amplifier or P.A. system. Once a player does this he is no longer playing an acoustic harmonica, but rather as Butterfield calls it, an electric harmonica.  Jacobs builds on Curtis’ innovations, adopts the natural distortion, then adds echo, reverb and delay as part of his signature sound, and in turn, so does almost every blues harmonica player after him. Butterfield will then build on some of the techniques that both Curtis and Jacobs create or develop.  

The amplification technology that Butterfield uses during his career is the most advanced in history of the technology. Similar to most of the electric blues harmonica players working on the south side, he starts out using the now famous Green Bullet microphone. Since the player presses the harmonica close to the face of the microphone, the system is overloaded and consequently, produces a broken or distorted tone quality.  Butterfield will use this mic off and on throughout his career, but he is too ambitious to make it a staple of his sound and instead, explores other gear in an effort to differentiate his sound from all other players. 

He uses a Altec microphone in the mid 60s, which he plugs into a Fender Tweed amp, then uses a lot of treble and gain, plus, a little reverb for a much cleaner sound than most of the other south side bluesmen. He then runs his system through the P.A.. However, by the late 60s he switches his mic to a Shure 545 which he makes famous. (Many players still refer to it as the Butterfield mic). Later, upgrades his amp to a Fender Twin before running his system through P.A. You can see his gear set up in Butterfield Blues Band live in the Woodstock videos. There he is using two Fender twins, Daisy Changed, which undoubtedly give him the loudest electric harmonica ever heard in the history of the instrument.

It is important to remember that Butterfield is not playing in the same live situations a that Curtis, Jacobs or any other blues harmonica player before him experiences. He is playing primarily for Rock audiences, and the staple of the Rock sound is very loud instrumentation. Some of the bands of the era such as The Grateful Dead and The Who use a massive walls of amplifiers to play their concerts. Butterfield often sits in with these artists, and in the process he must learn how to adapt his instrument to these situations. However, most of  this technical information is not as important to the Butterfield signature sound as the next two features we will discuss.

First, let’s compare tone production using a guitar, and then apply the principle to tone production on a ten hole harmonica. If you pick up an acoustic guitar, and pluck a single string, it vibrates. The sound that vibration creates is then amplified by way of the hole in the guitar; the body of the guitar now acts as a resonator. The uniqueness of the tone depends on factors such as how hard you pluck the string, and more importantly, the type of wood the Luthier used and/or the age of wood. Producing a sound on the harmonica works in a similar way, but it is much more personal.

Suppose Butterfield picks up his harmonica, places it in his mouth, and either pushes or pulls air through the tiny instrument with his breath. The reed will then vibrate, and the material which is used to make the harmonica comb (Pear wood or ABS plastic) will act as the resonator. The sound he produces is the common sound nearly all ten hole harmonicas make - nothing special yet. However, if he cups his hands around the instrument he can influence the quality and volume of the tone, but here is where the guitar analogy helps us.

The quality of the sound and volume of his harmonica depends on the resonator (the harmonica comb), but there is another very crucial factor working here. When you play a harmonica, the inside of your mouth, the throat and chest cavity also act as a resonator. This is why as Butterfield describes it,  the harmonica is such a personal instrument. It’s like a horn from the heart.  No two humans are built exactly the same way, and so every harmonica will resonate differently, naturally producing a unique tone quality. When Butterfield plays a note, and cups his hands around the harmonica, even if he amplifies the tone; he is really just amplifying the very unique tone that resonates from his own body. This is why you will find that all fantastic harmonica players sound great with or without amplification. 

The unfortunate reality for harmonica players who want to sound like Butterfield is that it can’t be done. Imitators can buy his technical gear, adopt the lip pursing technique, and copy his phrases, but they will never sound exactly like Butterfield’s signature sound.

The actual notes Butterfield plays are quite straightforward. He basically uses one and half octaves of the standard minor pentatonic scale (the blues scale) in second position, and he creates most of his phrases with these notes. (Between the one hole blow and up to the six hole blow). Where many harmonica players will chug on the one chord by drawing on the first three holes, Butterfield will chug on the second hole draw, but at high volume. He also uses heavy triplet vibrato, his attack of triplet phrases is almost always aggressive, and consequently intense. Sustained intensity is ecstasy! You can master all of these techniques and then apply them to a Butterfield song or solo, and chances are you might get close, but you will not be able to sound just like him.

Here is an interesting point about Butterfield only using the partial blues scale in the first octave of the harmonica, and the complete blues scale in the lower and middle octave. Some people notice that he almost never ventures into the upper octave and conclude it is because he can’t produce the important minor 3rd or minor 5th (he doesn't use over blows or over draws, and probably doesn’t even know they are possible). The most likely answer to the question is that Muddy Waters prefers the sound of the harmonica in the lower register (the meaty end), and of course he has a tremendous influence on Butterfield's sound in the early days.

All blues harmonica players want to own a signature sound that everyone identifies as belonging to them. If imitators want to try and duplicate another artist's sound, they should know that it will never be possible. The Butterfield sound is probably the most famous electric ten hole harmonica sound in the world during the 60s and 70s because it resonates with listeners. You can clearly hear his work on records, movie soundtracks, television talk and variety shows, and at enormous Rock concerts like Woodstock 1969.  There is something about his unique sound that captures the imagination of listeners. All you need to do is watch the faces of audience members when he plays his harmonica for them. It is a sound which is unique to his body, and can never be duplicated. 

There are several very proficient harmonica players who have exerted quite an effort to make instructional videos on either Butterfield solos or his technique. Most of these are quite good and worth viewing, if your goal is to learn the Butterfield sound. However, remember, even Butterfield will tell you that you can never sound like anyone but yourself.

                                                             

#68 Why Spread the Butter? Part 3 Paul Butterfield : The Authentic Bluesman

Novelist Georgia Cates makes a very powerful insight when she observes Music is what emotions sound like out loud.  We could then conclude that if a musician authentically converts sound into emotions, their work will resonate with an audience, and so, we classify them as artists. If they then take their music in exploratory directions, we label them as important. Most artists spend years, sometimes a lifetime, practicing their craft, but only a select group are accepted into the category of important artist. 

Consider that folk music artists in general, and bluesmen specifically, are similar to the everyday tradespeople and artisans in that they serve an apprenticeship with a master(s) to learn their craft, and then, if one day, their music resonates with an audience, they earn the classification of journeyman.

The  journeyman title is not easy to attain for any bluesman, as the music’s history is littered with thousands of mediocre bluesmen who work for audiences, and yet, never develop a strong following. However, in part 3 of this series on the important contributions of  three post war urban bluesmen who stand in front of a band singing blues while accompanying themselves on the ten hole harmonica, we will discuss the last of these very important bluesmen, Paul Butterfield.

At first glance Paul Butterfield may seem an unlikely candidate for an elite group of bluesmen because his race and socio-economic reality alone sets him apart from most Chicago bluesmen. However, upon closer examination, we will find that he is as deserving as any bluesman dead or alive.

As we will discuss, Butterfield and his music periodically receive dismissal, and unfounded claims of inauthenticity, usually from some under informed critics, and a small group self proclaimed folk music intelligentsia we will call the folk purists. Many in this group of the unconvinced will pronounce that given his race and socio-economic background, Butterfield's appearance on a short list of important bluesmen is at the very least unusual. In order to better understand this hurdle, we first need to take a short trip into American folk music history.

The roots of Butterfield’s mislabeling run deep into what historians call The American Folk Revival of the 1930s and 40s.The epicenter for this revival is New York City and is hosted by a few folk artists such Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Burl Ives and several others, most of whom are white, middle class, educated, and endowed with passionate political beliefs that lean left. They initiate a socialist movement which stands in opposition to mainstream American capitalist values, and demand social change through political policy. Then they adopt American folk music as an instrument of unification for their ideals. Their political movement does gain traction with some Americans but eventually fails. However, its most important cultural contribution is the American Folk Revival.  

Unfortunately, some of the central figures in the folk revival have a well intentioned, yet ridged philosophy about folk music, and its preservation. These folk purists see folk songs as historical artefacts which they must preserve in their original state. This might be a productive attitude if you are an academic, but it is counterintuitive and counterproductive to someone working in the field of creating active art.

Folk music is like all art, it is a living product of the human condition. For example, songs such as St. James Infirmary may have been written in another century, but there are scores of interpretations by as many artists over the years. If interpretations cease to exist, then the art form stagnates, and eventually becomes a relic. So, in this context, the philosophy of the folk purists is actually quite regressive. As we will see, this regressive attitude of the folk purists will both haunt and invigorate Paul Butterfield’s public profile as a bluesman, and give powerful license to his music.

In the context of a heavily interpretative music like blues, you can image how the regressive philosophy of the folk purists runs counter to what every bluesman does for a living. Blues is a folk music that insists the performer interpret the individual song in an effort to make it his own. The folk purist's view of blues is as, the folk music of blacks, who are a  glaring example of continued oppression, and so,  they embrace blues as part of the folk revival.  Many black rural blues artists they accept into their revival really are authentic bluesmen, and several such as Josh White, Lead Belly, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee will become beneficiaries of the revival, but it should be noted that the genre of blues will also suffer because of the purist's philosophy.

Their basic position about blues seems to be: while white people can sympathize with the emotions expressed in blues songs, they can’t empathize with those emotions, because they are not black, and therefore, white people cannot authentically sing blues songs. This irrational attitude obviously excludes all people other than blacks from performing in the genre, and in the process stifles artistic growth.   

The folk music revival survives through the 30s and into 40s before submitting to mainstream acceptance in the 50s. Ironically, it is the capitalist economic machinery that takes the music in from the fringes, and pushes it into the mainstream market. By the mid 50s, there are many folk groups such as the Weavers, who appear in large concert halls, and sell millions of records.

As folk music gains more mainstream commercial acceptance, there is a new generation young people who are rebelling against the commercialization of mainstream capitalist values, (Rock and Roll is part of that system), and in an effort to keep it real man, adopt folk music as their instrument of unification.  This is the birth of  the folk music boom of the late 50s and early 60s.  However, during the folk boom, the music becomes more than  just a national trend, as its popularity spreads from the United States, up to Canada, and over to several European countries. This is where bluesman Paul Butterfield walks on stage.

Butterfield’s generation of blues fans are similar to the fans of the folk revival in that they tend to be
mostly white, middle class, educated and left leaning young people who gravitate to folk music as an act of social rebellion, and so, blues plays an important role in this folk boom too. While there are thousands of these young people who love blues music, and would love to perform it publicly, they feel blocked by the folk purist's regressive attitudes that still permeate the genre. These young artists are often openly admonished by the self proclaimed folk music police, and reminded that they will never be able to play authentic blues because they are white. Butterfield will change that racist opinion forever.

There is no historical record of another white blues harmonica playing bluesman before Butterfield’s arrival in the early 60s. He certainly does not have the usual pedigree of a bluesman, as he is born, raised, and educated only blocks from Chicago's south side ghetto in the cosmopolitan neighborhood surrounding the University of Chicago called Hyde Park. His father is a successful lawyer who often does pro bono work for members of the south side black community, and his mother is an artist who also works as an administrator at the University of Chicago. In addition, his older brother Peter is an artist, and introduces Paul to Jazz. 

Butterfield’s natural  talent for music surfaces early, and as a boy his parents buy him classical flute lessons with a very reputable Chicago Symphony flutist. His world is so distant from the world of John Lee Curtis and Marion Jacobs, it must be difficult for anyone to imagine that he will become such an important figure in Chicago blues.

So, how does Paul Butterfield end up playing Chicago blues? Well, as we discuss earlier, there is an active folk boom happening in the 50s, and within those members, there are many young people (mostly males) hearing Chicago blues for the first time on store bought vinyl records, and through radio broadcasts. Butterfield’s introduction to blues is unique though, and the envy of most other blues fans.

He has an older friend by the name of Nick Gravenites who takes him on an adventure to a south side bar one night, and for the first time the teenager watches Muddy Waters perform Mannish Boy. Waters' performance is so powerful that it changes the life direction of the 15 year old kid from Hyde Park forever. Butterfield was fond of telling interviewers in his later years that he didn’t pick the harmonica, it picked him, but that night while watching the journeyman bluesman Muddy Waters perform, he picked south side bluesman as his chosen career.

Like Jacobs, Butterfield originally wants to support his blues ambitions with the guitar, but switches to the ten hole harmonica, and discovers he has a acumen for the little instrument. Then he frequents several south side blues bars in an effort to start his apprenticeship with a journeyman. He plays shuffle board and socializes with regulars, initially asking to sit in with artists like Muddy Waters as a  novelty act, but quickly graduates to being a regular attraction. During the day, he practices his ten hole blues harmonica incessantly, engages in shop talk with local artists like James Cotton, Jr. Wells, and Marion Jacobs; he even does some early recording with Billy Boy Arnold and Cotton. It is during these years that his apprenticeship in the craft of standing in front of a band and singing blues while accompanying himself with a ten hole harmonica sets him on the road to becoming a genuine bluesman. While thousands of other white Chicago blues fans are learning their lessons at a record player, Butterfield is in the middle of music, and by the early sixties he is almost a journeyman bluesman. (The only other young white man to be doing the same thing is Charlie Musselwhite; he too will become a star attraction in the late 60s).

Butterfield will form his first blues band in the early 60s, become a local star in the North side club known as Big John’s, but in July of 1965 he will explode onto the national scene by way of the premier folk music festival of the era, The Newport Folk Festival.

However, he has another hurdle to negotiate, the folk purists. They will impose their rigid philosophy on him and his electric band, and do their best to derail the young bluesman’s success. The board of the festival is stocked with folk purists like folk music revivalist Alan Lomax, and Pete Seeger; they do not want Butterfield to bring his interpretation of electric Chicago blues to their stage. It is folksinger Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame who convinces the board that Butterfield’s music is important.

The board does finally agree to let Butterfield and his band play, but Lomax takes one last swing at them by presenting the band with an implicitly disparaging introduction. (A physical fight erupts back stage between Lomax and manager Albert Grossman because of the introduction ) Some of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band performances are captured on Murray Lerner’s documentary Festival, and there are at least three audio recordings available from his band’s performance that July of ’65. You will find those performances to be classic early Butterfield, loud and brash, almost as though he and his band are thumbing their noses at the old guard folk purists.   

Coincidently, the popularity of blues based Rock is on the rise in the early sixties too. The British band the Rolling Stones have a number 1 hit record in 1964 with Willie Dixon's song Little Red Rooster, but suffer no scorn from the folk purists.  The difference is that these British and American bands are not working in the folk genre, and they do not have the audacity to call their group a Blues Band. One thing is for certain, in 1965, the folk intelligentsia are not amused with Paul Butterfield and his so called blues band! They don’t care that Butterfield’s band is sporting a seasoned rhythm section right from Howlin’ Wolf’s band, or that he is singing and playing authentic blues. As far as the regressive purists are concerned, the acceptance of the Butterfield experience as authentic is sacrilegious.

The folk music record label Elektra will release the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in October of
'65, and while it is major critical success, it isn’t a big commercial windfall. Some lazy critics do try to call out Butterfield as just a white boy aping Little Walter, but in the end, he does earn devoted fans - both nationally and internationally. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band album sells more units than any previous blues album in history. A feat no other Chicago blues artist achieves.

More importantly, the first album opens the door to literally thousands of young white musicians who love the blues and want to be taken seriously when they record and play live. Unfortunately, the folk purists have conditioned the white audience to believe that authentic blues cannot be created by white people, and Butterfield’s first album changes that perception forever. There will never be another white bluesman who stands in front of his band singing blues and playing the ten hole harmonica, who does not owe a debt of gratitude to Butterfield and his first album.

Here is another very important contribution Paul Butterfield makes to post war Chicago blues. Remember, Chicago blues is stagnating by the end of the 50s, and consequently, there is very little in the way of innovation from most of the artists. Jacobs is still performing but doesn’t create much after ’58. The young black audience is moving on to soul music(James Brown), and R & B (Ray Charles) as well as Rock and Roll (Elvis Presley), so Chicago blues is in a period of decline. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band takes Chicago blues to its next logical step, and in addition, he and his band members actively promote Chicago blues artists who were gracious toward them when they were in their teens. Butterfield’s explosion onto the international stage gives many blues artists a whole new audience in young white people. The payback is very lucrative for artists like Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and host of other south side acts. Paul Butterfield has finally become a journeyman bluesman.

If the above piece still does not convince you of Paul Butterfield’s authenticity, and influence as a
journeyman bluesman, then take some time to listen to this select collection of his work as both a bandleader and then also as a sideman: 

His blues composition Our Love is Driftin’ from The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (’65), B.B. King’s  I’ve Got a Mind to Give Up L ivin’, on East/West (’66) 

or Just to Be with You from his fourth album In My Own Dream (68).

 

Also listen to his version of Smoky Hogg’s 1940s hit Too Many Drivers from his album It All Comes Back (’74) and then Robert Johnson’s Walkin’ Blues on both East/West (‘66)and then again on Better Days (’73).

He does quite a few sideman sessions over his career, but here are a couple of notable selections: The Muddy Waters 1969 album Fathers and Sons and four tracks on Chuck Berry’s on his 1966 album Fresh Berries.