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Monday, October 19, 2026

rep>>> The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin' (1971 us, superior blues rock with jazz shades, 2015 release)



The Butterfield Blues Band has been critically acclaimed as one the greatest electric blues bands ever! Lead by singer & harmonica player Paul Butterfield, their albums have stood the test of time as classics of the 60's and early 70's. Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin', was their fourth album, originally released in 1971. It features saxophonist David Sanborn. It was the last album the band recorded for Elektra Records.

Paul Butterfield does not over burden the album by constantly hammering on his harmonica. He sprinkles the right amount and lets the rhythm, the horns, the vocals round out the entire album. It strikes a very, very balanced approached in the instrumentation. I think this is one of his best, this one is a fuller rounded album.

I think Paul was a genius in not over doing it on the harp. Some harp players just blast away on an entire album. Not here. Just look at the liner notes and who is on this album. Empressive list and the talent jumps out when you listen. This is a perfect album it is a winner.
by Jimi Z
Tracks
1. Play On (Paul Butterfield, John Elefante, Kerry Livgren) - 3:34
2. 1000 Ways (Rod Hicks) - 4:48
3. Pretty Woman (Andrew Charles Williams) - 3:48
4. Little Piece of Dying (Paul Butterfield) - 3:30
5. Song For Lee (Paul Butterfield) - 3:46
6. Trainman (Brother Gene Dinwiddie) - 5:47
7. Night Child (Paul Butterfield, Brother Gene Dinwiddie, Ted Harris, Rod Hicks, Oscar Peterson) - 4:26
8. Drowned In My Own Tears (Henry Glover) - 5:18
9. Blind Leading The Blind (Paul Butterfield) - 4:02

Musicians
*Big Black - Conga, Percussion, Vocals
*Paul Butterfield - Harmonica, Piano, Vocals
*Merry Clayton - Vocals
*George Davidson - Drums
*Brother Gene Dinwiddie - Flute, Saxophones, Tambourine, Vocals
*Oma Drake - Vocals
*Venetta Fields - Vocals,
*Bobbye Hall - Bongos, Conga, Percussion
*Ted Harris - Composer, Piano
*Rod Hicks - Bass, Vocals
*Clydie King - Vocals
*Trevor Lawrence - Saxophone
*Steve Madaio - Trumpet
*David Sanborn - Alto Saxophone
*Ralph Wash - Guitar, Vocals
*Dennis Whitted - Drums, Vocals


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rep>>> The Butterfield Blues Band - Live (1970 us, great blues rock with funky vibes, 2005 issue)



It's difficult to know where to begin with a release like this -- there's no much here that's new and worthwhile that it virtually blows the original vinyl release, good as that was, off the map. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band didn't go quietly into the night, as this double-CD set reminds us. Originally a two-LP set, Live was their penultimate release on Elektra Records, recorded at the L.A. Troubadour and released in 1971, and it was over 70 minutes of some of the loudest, boldest blues of its time.

Oddly enough, the released concert contained some of the more straightforward and less complex material in the band's book -- this could have been a much bolder and more challenging release at the time. One discovers listening to the second disc in this set 66 minutes of much more ambitious arrangements opening with "Gene's Tune," an on-the-spot improvisation on a tune that saxman Gene Dinwiddie delivered just before the group took the stage, and offering an ample showcase not just for the reeds but for Butterfield's harmonica (which is the lead instrument and heard in its full glory for much of the first-half of this 12-minute jam) but also for Ralph Walsh's guitar and Ted Harris' keyboards.

Similar extended excursions are built around the more raw, more purely bluesy "Losing Hand," and the band's one-off hit, "Love March." Those are juxtaposed with more traditionally structured Chicago-style blues numbers, including "You've Got to Love Her With a Feeling," and funky jazz in bassist Rod Hicks' "All in a Day."

The band comes off as a killer hybrid ensemble, somewhere midway between, say, the Count Basie band of the late 1940s and a large-scale Chicago blues band of early in the next decade, and Booker T. & the MG's paired with the Mar-Keys, all bound up in a lean, sleek package resembling the second incarnation of Blood, Sweat & Tears at their best moments. Based on what's here, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band probably deserved a hearing as much as the latter group got, if not the same sales (Butterfield was a good singer, but lacked David Clayton-Thomas' MOR appeal) -- but musically, they could have blown all competitors off the stage in their sheer eclecticism.
by Bruce Eder
 Tracks
1. Everything Going to Be Alright - 10:08
2. Love Disease - 4:01
3. The Boxer - 6:38
4. No Amount of Loving - 5:53
5. Driftin' and Driftin' - 13:43
6. Intro to Musicians - 1:45
7. Number Nine - 10:10
8. I Want to Be With You - 3:55
9. Born Under a Bad Sign - 5:44
10.Get Together Again - 6:29
11.So Far, So Good - 9:17

Musicians
*Paul Butterfield - Vocals, Harmonica, Piano
*Ralph Wash - Vocals, Guitar
*Brother Gene Dinwiddie - Vocals, Saxophone, Tenor, Soprano Saxophone
*Rod Hicks - Vocals, Fretless Bass
*Trevor Lawrence - Baritone Saxophone, Background Vocals
*Steve Madaio - Trumpet, Background Vocals
*Ted Harris - Piano, Keyboards
*George Davidson - Drums

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