30 Facts About Paul Butterfield

Paul Vaughn Butterfield was an American blues harmonica player, singer and band leader.

Paul Butterfield explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he met Muddy Waters and other blues greats, who provided encouragement and opportunities for him to join in jam sessions.

Paul Butterfield soon began performing with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop.

Paul Butterfield was born in Chicago and raised in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood.

Paul Butterfield was athletic and was offered a track scholarship to Brown University.

Paul Butterfield met guitarist and singer songwriter Nick Gravenites, who shared an interest in authentic blues music.

Paul Butterfield [Butterfield] was playing more guitar than harp when I first met him.

Paul Butterfield persuaded Butterfield to bring Bloomfield into the band, and they were signed to Elektra Records.

Maria Muldaur, with her husband Geoff, who later toured and recorded with Paul Butterfield, recalled the group's performance as stunning; it was the first time that many of the mostly folk-music fans had heard a high-powered electric blues combo.

On March 28,1966, Paul Butterfield appeared on the CBS game show To Tell the Truth.

In 2009, Paul Butterfield was included in the expanded 40th Anniversary Edition Woodstock video, and an additional two songs appeared on the box set Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm.

The album Keep On Moving, with only Paul Butterfield remaining from the original lineup, was released in 1969.

Paul Butterfield next pursued a solo career and appeared as a sideman in several different musical settings.

Paul Butterfield kept up his association with former members of the Band, touring and recording with Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars in 1977 and touring with Rick Danko in 1979.

In 1986, he released his final studio album, The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again, which was an attempt at a comeback with an updated rock sound.

Not only did Paul Butterfield clear the way for white musicians to build upon blues tradition, but his storming sound was a major catalyst in bringing electric Chicago blues to white audiences who'd previously considered acoustic Delta blues the only really genuine article.

In 2006, Paul Butterfield was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame, which noted that "the albums released by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band brought Chicago Blues to a generation of Rock fans during the 1960s and paved the way for late 1960s electric groups like Cream".

The induction biography commented that "the Paul Butterfield Band converted the country-blues purists and turned on the Fillmore generation to the pleasures of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Willie Dixon and Elmore James".

In 2017, a documentary titled Horn from the Heart: the Paul Butterfield Story premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Paul Butterfield's style has been described as "always intense, understated, concise, and serious", and he was "known for purity and intensity of his tone, his sustained breath control, and his unique ability to bend notes to his will".

Paul Butterfield wrote a harmonica instruction book, Paul Butterfield Teaches Blues Harmonica Master Class, a few years before his death.

Also like other electric Chicago blues harp players, Paul Butterfield frequently used amplification to achieve his sound.

Paul Butterfield has been associated with a Shure 545 Unidyne microphone, although producer Rothchild noted that around the time of a 1965 recording session, Butterfield favored an Altec harp microphone run through an early model Fender tweed amplifier.

Paul Butterfield listened to records and went places, but he spent an awful lot of time, by himself, playing [harmonica].

Paul Butterfield was this tough Irish Catholic, kind of a hard guy.

Paul Butterfield was down there on the South Side, holding his own.

Paul Butterfield remembered Butterfield as "not much interested in other people".

On May 4,1987, at age 44, Paul Butterfield died at his apartment in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles.

Paul Butterfield just went for it and took it all in, and he embodied the essence of what the blues was all about.

In 1964, Paul Butterfield began his association with Elektra Records and eventually recorded seven albums for the label.