While I don’t ever feel I need a specific reason to write about the blues, I can’t deny the timing of this post isn’t entirely coincidental. The other day, I watched a Q&A with Walter Trout that was streamed online, during which he answered questions fans had submitted. At some point, he talked about his influences and in this context noted The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and their eponymous debut album from October 1965. Well, evidently, Trout’s got great taste!
Frankly, I could have picked any tune from this record, which is just outstanding from the first to the last bar. So let’s kick it off with the opener Born in Chicago. It was written by blues, rock and folk singer-songwriter Nick Gravenites, who became best known as the lead vocalist for The Electric Flag and his work with Janis Joplin and Butterfield Blues Band guitarist Mike Bloomfield.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1966 (from left to right, front: Paul Butterfield (lead vocals, harmonica)& Billy Davenport (drums); back: Jerome Arnold (bass), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Mark Naftalin (organ) & Elvin Bishop (guitar)
Apart from the great music, I’d like to call out the tune’s lyrics. These words could have been written in present-day America – something to think about as the country’s so-called leaders present alternate facts, while they pretend to celebrate the nation’s birthday with grandiose and thoughtless mass gatherings in the middle of a deadly pandemic!
I was born in Chicago 1941/I was was born in Chicago in 1941/Well, my father told me/”Son, you had better get a gun”/Well, my first friend went down/When I was 17 years old/Well, my first friend went down/When I was 17 years old/Well, there’s one thing I can say about that boy/He gotta go…
As frequent visitors of the blog know, I just dig vocals, so let’s shake things up a little with a great instrumental. Thank You Mr. Poobah was co-written by Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield and the band’s keyboarder Mark Naftalin. I love that tune’s groove fueled by Jerome Arnold’s walking bass and Sam Lay’s drum work. And there’s also Bloomfield’s masterful guitar-playing and Butterfield’s great harmonica work. Frankly – dare I say it – when the music is so nicely rockin’ and rollin’, who needs vocals! Yes, that just came from the guy who likes to wine about certain tracks, especially in prog rock, which seemingly have endless instrumental parts with no vocals! 🙂
While it’s perhaps an obvious choice, I just couldn’t skip I Got My Mojo Working – what a killer rendition of the Muddy Waters tune that originally came out in April 1957! ‘Nuff said, here it is!
Let’s move on to another original, Our Love Is Drifting, co-written by Butterfield and the band’s second guitarist Elvin Bishop. It’s a great mid-tempo blues track. Butterfield’s singing, Bishop’s guitar work and Arnold’s bassline are the standouts to me in this tune.
I’d like to wrap up things with another blues classic: Mystery Train written by Junior Parker and produced by Sam Philips in 1953. Elvis Presley was the first among many other artists who covered the tune.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was the first of six albums Butterfield released under that name between 1965 and 1971. The band saw various line-up changes already starting with its sophomore album East-West from August 1966, which featured Billy Davenport on drums. Bloomfield who had tired of the band’s intense touring schedule left in 1967 to form The Electric Flag. Among others, that band included the above-noted Gravenites (rhythm guitar, vocals), Barry Goldberg (keyboards), Harvey Brooks (bass) and Buddy Miles (drums), who later became a member of Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s eponymous debut album essentially was ignored when it came out, at least from a chart perspective. It only climbed to number 123 on the Billboard 200. I’m also a bit surprised it merely ranked at no. 468 on Rolling Stone’s 2012 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Well, it least they did include it, along with the following commentary: Where American white kids got the notion they could play the blues. This band had two kiler guitarists: Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. Jeez, there’s even a typo in there – what an embarrassment!
As more frequent visitors of the blog know, I generally dig tribute bands and wrote a feature about some of them about a year ago. While then I did not plan a part 2, the reality is I’ve seen many more tribute acts than I could ever feature in one post. So, who knows, this may turn into a series of occasional posts with additional parts in the future. For now, I’d like to focus on part 2. Since I couldn’t figure out in which order to lists the acts, I decided to do so alphabetically.
Almost Queen
As their name suggests, this band is a tribute to Queen. While I could not find public information on the backgrounds of the musicians, these guys from New York surely impressed me when I saw them last September at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J. Almost Queen are Joseph Russo as Freddie Mercury, Steve Leonard as Brian May, Randy Gregg as John Deacon and John Cappadona as Roger Taylor. Their delivery of four-part harmonies and Queen’s music, combined with their looks, make for a fun live experience. More information on the band and their impressive touring schedule that extends beyond the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, can be found on their website and Facebook page. Here’s a sample: We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions.
Beginnings
This tribute to Chicago is one of the most compelling tribute bands I’ve seen, and without meaning to brag, I’ve seen many! Another group from New York, Beginnings is a national act, performing over 100 shows each year – great news for Chicago fans. Founded in the fall of 2002, the band consists of Mason Swearingen (bass, vocals), Johnny Roggio (guitar, vocals), Dan Hendrix (trombone, percussion, vocals), Adam Seely (saxophone, percussion), Doug Woolverton (trumpet, percussion), Scott Chasolen (keyboards, vocals) and Chris Milillo (drums, vocals). Beginnings’ impressive member credits include recording and performing with artists like Peter Frampton, Don Henley, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations and Blood Sweat & Tears, and awards like the Billboard Songwriter’s Award and ASCAP Songwriter’s Award – frankly, way too many credits I can list here! Check out their website and Facebookpage for more information. Here’s a great rendition of Just You ‘N’ Me I saw during a recent summer concert. BTW, the band mostly focuses on Chicago’s early and in my opinion best work.
Brit Floyd
This amazing tribute to Pink Floyd is the brainchild of musical director Damian Darlington, who also provides vocals and plays guitar and lap steel. Prior to forming the band in Liverpool, England in 2011, he had played for 17 years with long-running Aussie tribute The Australian Pink Floyd Show. The other members of Brit Floyd include Rob Stringer (keyboards, vocals), Ian Cattell (bass, vocals Chapman Stick, trumpet), Edo Scordo (guitar, vocals), Arran Ahmum (drums), Thomas Ashbrook (keyboards, vocals), as well as backing vocalists Ola Bienkowska, Angela Cervantes, Roberta Freeman, Emily Jollands and Jacquie Williams – quite a mighty line-up! For more on this band, read my previous post from March of this year when I saw them in Bethlehem, Pa., and visit their website and Facebookpage. Here’s Brit Floyd with Pink Floyd classic Comfortably Numb.
Decade
I have mentioned Decade on previous occasions, but as a huge Neil Young fan, I simply couldn’t resist to include this fantastic tribute from New Jersey in this post. The band revolves around singer-songwriter and Neil Young tribute artist John Hathaway. A life-long fan of Young, Hathaway has faithfully studied this artist in and out, and it shows. While he typically focuses on capturing the music, he can also act like Young, which I have witnessed myself. To bring the Canadian artist’s music to life in its full mighty, Hathaway is usually backed by a varying line-up of other long-time musicians. This clip of Old Man was captured during a gig earlier this year at Tim McLoone’s Super Club in Asbury Park. The backing musicians that night included Gordon Bunker Strout (guitar, backing vocals), Pam McCoy (backing vocals), John Dickson (bass), Bob Giunco (drums), Thomas Stevenson (banjo), Dave O’Brien (pedal steel guitar), Jeff Levine (keyboards) and James Doyle (guitar, banjo). More information about Decade and John Hathaway is available on Facebook here and here.
The Doobie Others
I really dig The Doobie Brothers, so a tribute I came across last month caught my immediate attention. Ingeniously called The Doobie Others, this six-piece band from New York and New Jersey features Pat Montefusco (lead vocals, guitar), Joe Torres (lead vocals, percussion), Eddie Profet Jr. (bass, backing vocals), Allan Korenstein (keyboards, backing vocals), Mike Quadrino (saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals), Ron Lovisa (lead guitar) and Jim Del (lead & backing vocals, drums). While The Doobie Others mostly seem to perform in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area, their current schedule shows they occasionally venture out to other states on the East Coast. For more information, check their website and Facebookpage. Here’s the band in action with Jesus Is Just Alright. Captured during a summer concert last month, the footage doesn’t do their high musical caliber full justice, but I feel you still get a good idea.
Free Fallin
This band from Minneapolis is a great tribute to Tom Petty, one of my all-time favorite artists. Founded in September 2007 and named after one of Petty’s songs, Free Fallin are Tom Brademeyer (as Tom Petty, guitar & lead vocals), Mark Larsen (as Stan Lynch, drums), Russ Lund (as Ron Blair, bass), Karl Swartz (as Mike Campbell, guitar & vocals), Dale Peterson (as Benmont Tench, keyboards, percussion & vocals) and Craig Volke (as Scott Thurston, guitar, keyboards, harmonica, percussion & vocals). Free Fallin is a full-time tribute band performing throughout the U.S. and even internationally. Check out their website and Facebookpage, as well as this cover of Refugee from last year’s Rock The Farm Festival in Seaside Heights, N.J., which I previously covered here.
Good Stuff
Good Stuff is another outstanding tribute act I covered before here, but similar to Decade, I did not want to leave them out – how could I as a huge Steely Dan fan? Formed about a year ago and named after a Donald Fagen tune, Good Stuff features Mike Caputo (lead vocals), Don Regan (guitar), Axel Belohoubek (keyboards), Jay Dittamo (drums), Scott Hogan (bass), Phil Armeno (saxophones, flute) and vocalists Deanna Carroll and Linda Ferrano. Among them, these professional musicians have very impressive credits, such as tour pre-production for Madonna and David Bowie, and touring musicians for Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, The Duprees , The Les Paul Trio, Jose Feliciano and Keith Emerson – yep, that Keith of ELP. Similar to Beginnings, there is too much to list. I should also mention that in addition to Steely Dan, the band performs music by Gino Vannelli, Sting and Stevie Wonder. While this may look somewhat arbitrary, combining music from these four artists works pretty well. The key is selecting songs that have a common denominator, which is a jazz influence. Check out more about this unique tribute act on their website and Facebookpage. Oh, and here’s My Old School.
Kiss The Sky
With the 50th anniversary of Woodstock going on, I’d like to close this post with a compelling tribute act to Jimi Hendrix. Again, if you are a frequent reader of the blog, the name Kiss The Sky may sound familiar, since I covered them before here. The band revolves around Jimi Hendrix tribute artist Jimy Bleu, who actually met Hendrix in 1968 as a teenager. The following year, Bleu attended Woodstock and got one of the guitar straps Hendrix used during his performance there. You can read more about his cool background story in the above post. Kiss The Sky covers music from both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys. Bleu’s excellent backing musicians for The Experience include bassist A.J. Hager as Noel Redding and drummer Ted Edwards as Mitch Mitchell. The Band of Gypsys tribute features Jay Powerz as Billy Cox (bass) and James Jaxon as Buddy Miles (drums). You can find more information about this tribute act on their Facebookpage. I also encourage you to check out this clip of Voodoo Child I took last October. Filming conditions weren’t ideal, but I think the footage still gives a good impression about this outstanding band.
Pictured in the image on top of the post are (clockwise from upper left corner) Almost Queen, Beginnings, Brit Floyd and Jimy Bleu/Kiss The Sky.
Sources: Almost Queen website and Facebook page; Beginnings website and Facebook page; Brit Floyd website and Facebook page; Decade and John Hathaway Facebook pages; The Doobie Others website and Facebook page; Free Fallin website and Facebook page; Good Stuff website and Facebook page; Kiss The Sky Facebook page; YouTube
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