The Butterfield Blues Band - East-West (1966)

The Butterfield Blues Band were an American blues group fronted by vocalist and harmonica player Paul Butterfield, who was one of the first well-known white blues singers.

The Butterfield Blues Band's second album saw them develop into a true group democracy, after their first album was dominated somewhat by Butterfield. Drummer Sam Lay had by this point been replaced by Billy Davenport, giving them the refreshed lineup of Paul Butterfield (lead vocals/harmonica), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Elvin Bishop (guitar/vocals), Mark Naftalin (piano, organ), Jerome Arnold (bass) and Billy Davenport (drums). Bishop emerged to play more of an important role than he had on their debut, contributing more guitar solos and singing lead on "Never Say No". Stylistically the album expanded on the Chicago blues sound of the first album to incorporate elements of jazz, most notably on the title track, which also had Bloomfield playing guitar lines inspired by Indian raga music (he wrote the song with band associate Nick Gravenites). With its lengthy improvisational structure, "East-West" can be heard as part of what inspired the West Coast's psychedelic rock revolution around the same time.
Elsewhere the album included covers by artists as diverse as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Allen Toussaint, Nat Adderly and Michael Nesmith.
It was more successful than their first album, reaching #65 on the charts and introducing them to a wider audience, and is generally seen as both the band's and Butterfield's greatest achievement.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965) <|> The Resurrection Of Pigboy Crabshaw (1967)
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanx for ALL this great music..

goinsidemyhead said...

the acid was very good back then when Paul Butterfield, the Dirty Bluesband and the Outlaw Blues Band played their white-boy psychedelic Chicago-raga blues. There is nothing greater than a distorted psychedelic guitar playing absolutely orgasmic solos during a hard Chicago stomper.