Paul Vaughn Butterfield was born on December 17, 1942, and passed away on May 4, 1987. He was an American musician who played the blues harmonica, sang, and led musical groups. After learning to play the flute classically, he became interested in the blues harmonica. In his hometown of Chicago, he explored the blues scene and met famous musicians like Muddy Waters, who supported him and invited him to join group music sessions. He later performed with other blues musicians, Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop.

In 1963, Butterfield created the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The group recorded successful music and performed at major events in the late 1960s, including concerts at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, the Fillmore East in New York City, the Monterey Pop Festival, and Woodstock. The band blended electric Chicago blues with rock music and was among the first blues groups to include members of different races. They also made early recordings that combined blues with jazz. After the band ended in 1971, Butterfield continued to perform with other groups, including Muddy Waters and members of the roots-rock band the Band. He died in 1987 at age 44 from an accidental drug overdose.

Music critics praised Butterfield for developing a unique style that made him one of the most well-known blues harmonica players. In 2006, he was added to the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2015, Butterfield and the original members of his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Both groups recognized his harmonica skills and his role in sharing blues music with younger and more diverse audiences.

Career

Paul Vaughn Butterfield was born on December 17, 1942, in Chicago and grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of the city. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was a painter. He attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school connected to the University of Chicago. He was introduced to music early in life and studied classical flute with Walfrid Kujala, a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Butterfield was also athletic and received a track scholarship to Brown University. However, an injury to his knee and a growing interest in blues music led him to choose a different path. He met Nick Gravenites, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who shared his love for real blues music. By the late 1950s, they began visiting blues clubs in Chicago, where musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Otis Rush encouraged them and sometimes let them join in on jam sessions. The two began performing together as "Nick and Paul" at college-area coffee houses.

In the early 1960s, Butterfield met Elvin Bishop, an aspiring blues guitarist. Bishop later said:

Eventually, Butterfield, who sang and played harmonica, and Bishop, who played guitar, were offered a regular performance spot at Big John's, a folk club in Chicago's Old Town district. With this opportunity, they convinced Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay, both from Howlin' Wolf's touring band, to join them in 1963. Their performances at the club were very successful and caught the attention of record producer Paul A. Rothchild.

During their time at Big John's, Butterfield met Mike Bloomfield, a guitarist who was also playing at the club. Rothchild saw one of their performances and was impressed by their teamwork. He encouraged Butterfield to bring Bloomfield into the band, and the group signed with Elektra Records. Their first recording in December 1964 did not meet Rothchild's expectations. To better capture their sound, Rothchild convinced Elektra's president, Jac Holzman, to record a live album. In the spring of 1965, the Butterfield Blues Band recorded at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City. These recordings still did not satisfy Rothchild, but the band's performances at the club helped them gain recognition in the East Coast music scene. Rothchild then persuaded Holzman to allow a third recording attempt, which led to more performances outside of Chicago. At the last minute, the band was invited to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965. Maria Muldaur, who later toured with Butterfield, described the group's performance as stunning. It was the first time many East Coast music fans had heard a powerful electric blues band. Bob Dylan, a regular at the festival, invited the band to back him during his first live electric performance. Dylan performed a short set with Bloomfield, Arnold, and Lay, along with Al Kooper and Barry Goldberg. The performance was controversial, but it brought the band to a much larger audience.

The band's first album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was released in 1965 and reached number 123 on the Billboard 200 album chart. On March 28, 1966, Butterfield appeared on the CBS game show To Tell the Truth. At the end of his segment, he performed "Born in Chicago" with the house band. In August 1966, the band released their second album, East-West, which reached number 65 on the album chart.

In November 1966, Butterfield recorded several songs with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers in England. Mayall had recently finished the album A Hard Road. Butterfield and Mayall sang on the recordings, and Butterfield's Chicago-style blues harmonica was featured. Four songs were released in the UK on a 45-rpm EP titled John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Paul Butterfield in January 1967.

The Butterfield Blues Band changed its lineup, with Arnold and Davenport leaving the band, and Bloomfield forming his own group, Electric Flag. The band added bassist Bugsy Maugh, drummer Phillip Wilson, and saxophonists David Sanborn and Gene Dinwiddie. This lineup recorded the band's third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, in 1967. It was Butterfield's highest-charting album, reaching number 52 on the album chart. Most of this lineup performed at the Monterey Pop Festival on June 17, 1967.

The band's next album, In My Own Dream, released in 1968, moved away from Chicago blues toward a soul-influenced, horn-based sound. Butterfield sang only three songs on the album, which reached number 79 on the Billboard album chart. By the end of 1968, both Bishop and Naftalin had left the band. In April 1969, Butterfield participated in a concert at Chicago's Auditorium Theater and a recording session organized by producer Norman Dayron, featuring Muddy Waters backed by Otis Spann, Mike Bloomfield, Sam Lay, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Buddy Miles. Songs like "Forty Days and Forty Nights," "I'm Ready," "Baby, Please Don't Go," and "Got My Mojo Working" were recorded and later released on the album Fathers and Sons. Muddy Waters said the

Legacy

Paul Butterfield is known as one of the most important harp players in the Blues. He also helped guide blues-based music toward new and creative directions. AllMusic critic Steve Huey noted this in his review.

In 2006, Butterfield was added to the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame. The organization stated that the albums made by the Butterfield Blues Band introduced Chicago Blues to many Rock fans during the 1960s and helped create the success of late 1960s electric bands like Cream. In 2015, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame’s description said that the band helped people who preferred traditional country-blues music discover the work of artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Elmore James.

In 2017, a documentary called Horn from the Heart: the Paul Butterfield Story was shown at the Newport Beach Film Festival. Directed by John Anderson and produced by Sandra Warren, the film won the Outstanding Achievement Award in Filmmaking: Editing. In October 2018, the documentary was shown in select U.S. theaters. It received praise from critics and was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick. It was also featured in Rolling Stone and The Wall Street Journal.

Harmonica style

Paul Butterfield, like many Chicago blues harmonica players, played the instrument similar to a brass horn, focusing on single notes rather than chords. He was known for his serious and focused style, with a clear tone, strong breath control, and the ability to bend notes. His note choices were compared to those of Big Walter Horton, but he never copied another player. Instead, he created a unique and powerful style that earned him a place among respected blues musicians.

Butterfield used Hohner harmonicas, especially the diatonic ten-hole Marine Band model. He wrote a harmonica instruction book, Paul Butterfield Teaches Blues Harmonica Master Class, which was published in 1997. In it, he explained techniques demonstrated on a CD. He often played in cross-harp, or second position. As a left-handed player, he held the harmonica upside down in his right hand, with the lower notes on the right side, and used his left hand to mute notes.

Like other Chicago blues players, Butterfield used amplification to create his sound. He was linked to a Shure 545 Unidyne microphone, though he used an Altec harp microphone with a Fender tweed amplifier during a 1965 recording. Later, starting with the album The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, he switched to an acoustic harmonica style as he shifted toward a more R&B-based sound.

Personal life

Paul Butterfield was very focused on his music. His brother Peter said that producer Norman Dayron described Paul as "very quiet and defensive and strict. He was a tough Irish Catholic, kind of a serious person. He wore black shirts, sunglasses, and dark jackets. Paul was hard to be friends with." Although they later became close, Michael Bloomfield said his first impression of Butterfield was that he was "a bad guy. He carried guns. He was down there on the South Side, holding his own. I was very afraid of him." Michael Erlewine, a writer and founder of AllMusic, who knew Butterfield early in his career, said he was "always intense, somewhat distant, and sometimes even unfriendly." Erlewine remembered that Butterfield "was not very interested in other people."

By 1971, Butterfield had bought his first house in rural Woodstock, New York. He began enjoying family life with his second wife, Kathy Peterson, and their baby son, Lee. Maria Muldaur said she and her husband often visited for dinner, which usually included sitting around a piano and singing songs. She doubted her singing ability, but "it was Butter [sic] who first encouraged me to sing freely and play the blues, and not to worry about singing perfectly or hitting all the right notes. He helped me feel less nervous and uncertain. He will always be remembered in my heart for that and for respecting me as a fellow musician."

Death

Beginning in 1980, Butterfield had several surgeries to treat his peritonitis, a serious and painful inflammation of the intestines. Although he did not support the use of heroin as a bandleader, he became addicted to it. According to Steve Huey in AllMusic's biography of Butterfield, some people thought he was trying to relieve his pain from peritonitis. The cost of supporting his drug habit caused financial problems, and the deaths of his friend and former musical partner Mike Bloomfield and his manager Albert Grossman deeply affected him. On May 4, 1987, at age 44, Butterfield died at his apartment in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. An autopsy showed he had died from an accidental drug overdose. His body had high levels of morphine (heroin), codeine, a tranquilizer called Librium, and a small amount of alcohol.

At the time of his death, Butterfield was no longer widely known in the music industry. Maria Muldaur said he fully understood and expressed the soul of the blues. She noted that he embraced the blues completely, but that his intense lifestyle also affected his life negatively.

Discography

In 1964, Butterfield started working with Elektra Records and later recorded seven albums for the label. After the Butterfield Blues Band ended in 1971, he recorded four albums for his manager Albert Grossman's Bearsville Records—two with Paul Butterfield's Better Days and two as a solo artist. His final solo album was released by Amherst Records. After his death in 1987, his former record companies released several live albums and collections.

• The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965) (reached number 123 on the Billboard 200 album chart)
• East-West (1966) (reached number 65 on Billboard 200)
• The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw (1967) (reached number 52 on Billboard 200)
• In My Own Dream (1968) (reached number 79 on Billboard 200)
• Keep On Moving (1969) (reached number 102 on Billboard 200)
• Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin' (1971) (reached number 124 on Billboard 200)

• Better Days (1973) (reached number 145 on Billboard 200)
• It All Comes Back (1973) (reached number 156 on Billboard 200)

• Put It in Your Ear (1976)
• North–South (1981)
• The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again (1986)

All by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, except as noted.

• Live (1970) [2LP] – reissued in 2005 on CD with bonus tracks (Billboard 200 number 72)
• Strawberry Jam (1996) – recorded 1966–1968
• East-West Live (1996) – recorded 1966–1967
• Live at Unicorn Coffee House – recorded 1966. Released with several titles and dates, bootleg.
• Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Live at Winterland Ballroom (1999) – recorded 1973
• Paul Butterfield Band, Rockpalast: Blues Rock Legends, Vol. 2 (2008) – recorded 1978
• Rick Danko, Richard Manuel & Paul Butterfield, Live at the Lone Star (2011) – recorded 1984
• Live in White Lake, N.Y. 8/18/69 (2015) – released as part of The Complete Albums 1965–1980
• Live at Woodstock (2020) [2LP]

• Golden Butter: The Best of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1972) [2LP] – Billboard 200 number 136
• The Original Lost Elektra Sessions (1995) – recorded 1964
• An Anthology: The Elektra Years (1997) [2CD]
• Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Paul Butterfield's Better Days: Bearsville Anthology (2000)
• Hi-Five: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (2006) – EP

• Folksong '65 (1965)
• What's Shakin' (1966)
• Festival (1967 film, including 1965 appearance with Dylan)
• You Are What You Eat (1968 film soundtrack)
• Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More (1970, recorded 1969)
• Woodstock 2 (1971, recorded 1969)
• An Offer You Can't Refuse (1972, recorded 1963)
• Woodstock '79 (1991 video, filmed 1979)
• Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music (1994, recorded 1969)
• The Monterey International Pop Festival June 16–17–18 30th Anniversary Box Set (1997, recorded 1967)
• The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (2002 video, filmed 1967)
• Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm (2009, recorded 1969)
• Woodstock: 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition (2009 video, filmed 1969)

• The Peter, Paul and Mary Album (1966), Peter, Paul and Mary, "The King of Names" with Butterfield, Bloomfield, and Naftalin
• John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Paul Butterfield (1967 EP), John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
• Blues at Midnight (released with several titles and dates), Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and others (bootleg of jam recorded 1968)
• Fathers and Sons (1969, reissued 2001 with bonus tracks), Muddy Waters
• Give It Up (1972), Bonnie Raitt
• 2nd Right, 3rd Row (1972), Eric Von Schmidt
• Steelyard Blues (1973 film soundtrack), Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites, Maria Muldaur, and others
• That's Enough for Me (1973), Peter Yarrow
• The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album (1975), Muddy Waters
• Levon Helm & the RCO All-Stars (1977)
• Already Free (1977), Nick Jameson
• The Last Waltz (1978), the Band
• Elizabeth Barraclough (1978), Elizabeth Barraclough
• Hi! (1979), Elizabeth Barraclough
• Down by Law (1985), Deadline
• B.B. King & Friends (released with various titles and dates), B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan,