#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.