The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (CD - 1965)

Personnel: Paul Butterfield (vocals, harmonica); Sam Lay (vocals, drums); Elvin Bishop (guitar); Mike Bloomfield (slide guitar); Jerome Arnold (bass); Mark Naftalin (organ).

Includes liner notes by Pete Welding.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Michael Bloomfield.

The '60s Blues Revival begins here. Calling this album influential is an understatement akin to calling the Grand Canyon a rut; suffice to say that an entire generation of musicians (mostly young and white) heard this and had their lives changed forever. In fact, for at least a year after the album's release in 1965, it was impossible to walk down the hall of any college dorm in America without hearing one of the songs here echoing from somebody's room.

Heard today, the thing still packs a wallop. Butterfield's harmonica and vocals are utterly idiomatic, without a hint of minstrelsy. Michael Bloomfield's lead guitar is stinging and eloquent, and the rhythm section, on loan from Howling Wolf, swings like mad. The only fly in the ointment is the fairly primitive production, which often makes Mark Naftalin's keyboards sound like a horde of angry bees, but that's a small criticism in the face of blues playing as passionate and accomplished as this. A genuine classic. minimize