Paul Butterfield Blues Band

A real curates egg of an album – some divine playing and excruciating vocals, all sounding as though it was recorded on a cassette from the back of the hall.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was a crucial link between old Chicago Blues and the nascent hippie movement in San Francisco. With the fabulous talents of Mike Bloomfield on guitar, they took classic Chicago Blues numbers and made them accessible to a whole new scene.
Over time they disintegrated owing to the relentless schedules, divergent directions of their management and freely available ‘substances’, but there was a time – captured here – when they made music that enlivened even the most stoned of hippies.

It kicks off with a lively version of ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ and then Elmore James ‘The Sky Is Crying’ with superb slide guitar from Bloomfield. Albert King’s ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ gets a thorough workout and the music chugs along happily. Butterfield’s harp is featured on Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Help Me’ alongside a sublime guitar solo. The last of the 1966 numbers is titled ‘East West’ – basically a Blues jam over nearly 19 minutes and worth buying the CD for on its own.
The last two numbers were recorded in New York in 1970 and show a very different side. Well recorded versions of ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ and ‘Driftin’ Blues’, with the band stretching out across a couple of classic numbers.

Well worth it for anyone into Blues of the period and surprisingly good listening today.