Be phenominal to re-visit a lot of  those Butterfield concerts I attended !  Roadster

 

The most influenctial albums for me (in the 60's) were Are You Experienced, Sgt. Pepper's, and East-West. That latter is a brilliant work that still holds up today. I missed seeing the PBBB with Bloomfield, as when I went to see them at the old Fillmore, he had left to form the Electric Flag. Bishop handled lead guitar and was competant, but he is not Bloomfield. There is a reunion show of the original lineup that is available to hear on-line. It's from 1978 at the Greek Theatre (for Chet Helms). Bloomie's guitar work was deteriorating, but Butter's harp work is great.

Call me crazy, but I prefer the first album to East West. I mean they're both great, but I just love the first one. Not only that, but it was the photos on the front and back cover that made me really want to be a musician. They were one of the coolest looking bands ever.

I totally know what you mean. I just happened to hear East West first, but I used play the heck out of the first album too. You have to admit though, that the cover photo of East West has some pretty cool lookin' dudes too. But, I love that Elivn is working on a toothpick on the first album, and that it has the great Sam Lay. I just saw him at the SF Blues Festival two years back. He still has it for sure. Also, the first album has the urban looking Bloomfield, trying to look tough or something. But he was a sweetheart (Butterfield scared the *** out of him back then); on East West he is developing his fro' which reached it's pinnacle in the Electric Flag. Both albums are classics and there are a ton of guitar players who began playing because Bloomie's work. Some examples that I know of include Robben Ford and Chris Cain. There is precious little footage of these great bands, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Vault will produce a Butterfield and a Bloomfield DVD in the future.

The first Butterfield album is indeed a classic. You can apply to it the same adage used for the first Velvet Underground album: it didn't sell a whole lot of records, but everybody who bought one started a blues band.

You may think I'm just odd, but I never really liked the first two albums at all! I didn't like PBBB until the days of Resurrection of PigBoy Crabshaw and  In My Own Dream. I only saw them live on one occasion, when they were touring in support of In My Own Dream, in the summer of 1968, with a full horn section ( 3 pieces--who were all those guys?) and some blonde kid playing a Les Paul (who was that guy, too?). They performed at a theatre in the round venue inside a big-top style tent in suburban Connecticut. I was a suburban kid with Small Town Suburban Boy Blues, I wasn;t from Chicago, not from Memphis, not from the Delta, so I  didn't any have any kind of those blues, heh heh...I wanted big bands, big arrangements, big stage presense, and a real good mix from the p.a., and I got it that night! Bloomfield? Never missed him...Elvin Bishop? Who cares? Lots of guitarists (then and now) can play those guys under the table, and I never believed in making them guitar gods--never!

I like some of Butter's work post-Bloomfield and Bishop, but I prefer the traditional Chicago blues stuff over the new horn-driven material.  The guitarist after Bishop was Buzzy Feiten, but he started in 1969; he was blond though and a real kid when he started. 

 

If you like the big band and big arrangements thing, you should have seen the Electric Flag in their short life.  They were an awfully drugged-up group, but when Bloomfield had them organzied as best they could, they were tight and bluesy and jazzy.

 

A good album to check out is the Ford Brothers tribute to Butterfield.  That's Robben Ford and his brothers blues band.  They cover a lot of the type of work you like.  They also did a great tribute album to Bloomfield.  I saw them perform this material live three times and it was wonderful -- full horns, backup signers, and guests like Nick Gravenites and Al Cooper.

After 40 years, recordings from the Monterey International Pop Festival are being released!  The festival was also one of the first to pair established stars like Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds with relative unknowns at the time such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who.

The lineup on this album is killer….

Check out a couple of these tracks:

Janis Joplin & Big Brother and the Holding Company - "Down on Me" - WINDOWS AUDIO: http://mfile.akamai.com/2851/wma/razntie.download.akamai.com/2851/monterey/downonme.asx

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Like a Rolling Stone" - WINDOWS AUDIO: http://mfile.akamai.com/2851/wma/razntie.download.akamai.com/2851/monterey/rollingstone.asx

If you like those, take a look at the main media page I found here: http://www.razorandtiemedia.com/artistpage.php?artist=171

 

Looks like the album hits stores (and Starbucks racks!) on June 5^th

For an update on downloads, please check out

"What Performers Are Paid" in the Ladies and Gentlemen forum.

Yes absolutely .. Robbens albums with this brothers are great ( there are two Butterfield tributes , one more Bloomfield orientated & live ) .. Buzz Feiten ( you can hear him elsewhere on this site with Dr John ) but I swear that is not him as billed with The Rascals on that show , neither is it Pops Popwell .. Pops joined for the Island Of Real album and though Buzz was on the Peaceful World recordings .. very much so & they're great .. this is NOT him here .. sounds like Link Chamberlain to me .

Buzz went on to Full Moon ( wonderful album with Wilson , Dinwiddie & Neil Larsen of course ) and to more work with Neil Larsen ( High Gear , Jungle fever , Through any window , Smooth Talk ) ... he got better & better in fact and his musical vocab went way beyond the blues thing .

More recently Buzz was with Dave Weckl ( 88 - 00 ) and the Synergy album features his compositions and shows him off nicely . He toured with Gregg Allman in 00 , two albums with his band Whirlies and The Second Full Moon project in 02 .. all worth checking because like John Scofield , but utterly differently , Buzz is an original .with a unique voice of his own . not a derivative bone in his body .

Buzz's live work with Butter was astonishing .. he played the legs off all the Claptons & Pages .. by far .. then he went on and developed ( they did not .. bless them )

George