Paul Butterfield - North South (1981 japan edition)
Paul Butterfield (1942 – 1987) was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival. Paul Butterfield was the first white harmonica player to develop a style original and powerful enough to place him in the pantheon of true blues greats. It's impossible to overestimate the importance of the doors Butterfield opened: before he came to prominence, white American musicians treated the blues with cautious respect, afraid of coming off as inauthentic. Not only did Butterfield clear the way for white musicians to build upon blues tradition (instead of merely replicating it), but his storming sound was a major catalyst in bringing electric Chicago blues to white audiences who'd previously considered acoustic Delta blues the only really genuine article.
His initial recordings from the mid-'60s, featuring the legendary, racially integrated first edition of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, were eclectic, groundbreaking offerings that fused electric blues with rock & roll, psychedelia, jazz, and even (on the classic East-West) Indian classical music. As members of that band - which included Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop - drifted away, the overall impact of Butterfield's music lessened, even if his amplified harp playing was still beyond reproach. He had largely faded from the scene by the mid-'70s, and fell prey to health problems and drug addiction that sadly claimed his life prematurely. Even so, the enormity of Butterfield's initial impact ensured that his legacy was already secure.
Butterfield the blues harp master would keep busy with session work through the end of the 1970s, and toured with the Band's Levon Helm and his RCO All Stars. Paul Butterfield remained signed to Bearsville Records, and made his proper solo debut in 1976, releasing "Put It In Your Ear" in Los Angeles with renowned sessioneers like Chuck Rainey, Timothy Drummond, James Jameson, Fred Carter, Jr., Ben Keith, Eric Gale and Bernard Purdie, as well as Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of The Band.
“North South” (referring to 1966’s “East West”) was recorded in 1981 at Hi Records’ Royal Recording Studios in Memphis, and was produced by the legendary Willie Mitchell. It features Hi’s rhythm and brass sections playing throughout
In 1986 he released his last album, "The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again". Butterfield died in May 1987 at the age of 45, suffering a heart attack that was probably brought on by years of drug and alcohol abuse.
Butterfield also played harmonica for among others:
• 1967 - John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers • 1968 - Jimi Hendrix - Blues at Midnight
• 1969 - Muddy Waters - Fathers and sons
• 1972 - Bonnie Raitt - Give It Up
• 1975 - Muddy Waters - Woodstock Album
• 1976 - The Band - The Last Waltz
Tracklist:
1.I Get Excited (Bradley, Fisher) - 3:34
2.Get Some Fun in Your Life (Turner) - 4:00
3.Footprints on the Windshield Upside Down (Carlisle, McClinton) - 3:20
4.Catch a Train (Bradley, Fisher) - 2:56
5.Bread and Butterfield (Toles) - 4:28
6.Living in Memphis (Turner) - 4:07
7.Slow Down (Cobb) - 4:38
8.I Let It Go (To My Head) (Fuller, Toles) - 2:54
9.Baby Blue (Greenfield, Sedaka) - 5:07
