| Paul Butterfield Blues Band — In My Own Dream (1968) |
Paul Butterfield Blues Band — In My Own Dream (1968)
Formed: 1964 in Chicago, IL
Birth name: Paul Vaughn Butterfield
Instruments: Harmonica, vocals, guitar, keyboards, flute
Born: December 17, 1942, Chicago, Illinois
Died: May 4, 1987, North Hollywood, California
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock, Chicago Blues
Styles: Blues–Rock, Electric Chicago Blues, Regional Blues
Album release: 1968
Record Label: Rhino/Elektra/Culture Factory
Duration:
Tracks:
01. Last Hope’s Gone (Paul Butterfield, Jim Haynie, David Sanborn) 4:52
02. Mine To Love (Bugsy Maugh) 4:21
03. Get Yourself Together (Bugsy Maugh) 4:10
04. Just To Be With You (Bernard Roth) 6:12
05. Mornin’ Blues (Bugsy Maugh) 4:58
06. Drunk Again (Elvin Bishop) 6:08
07. In My Own Dream (Paul Butterfield) 5:47
Credits:
≡♠≡ Alfred G. Aronowitz Liner Notes
≡♠≡ Elvin Bishop Composer, Guest Artist, Guitar
≡♠≡ Butterfield Composer
≡♠≡ Paul Butterfield Harmonica, Leader, Primary Artist
≡♠≡ The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Primary Artist
≡♠≡ John Court Producer
≡♠≡ Brother Gene Dinwiddie Sax (Tenor), Tambourine
≡♠≡ William S. Harvey Art Direction
≡♠≡ Keith Johnson Trumpet
≡♠≡ Al Kooper Guest Artist
≡♠≡ Naffy Markham Keyboards
≡♠≡ Bugsy Maugh Bass, Composer
≡♠≡ David Sanborn Composer, Guest Artist, Sax (Alto, Baritone, Soprano)
≡♠≡ Gene Szafran Cover Art
≡♠≡ Phillip Wilson Conga Drum, Drums
Awards:
Billboard Albums
≡♠≡ 1968 In My Own Dream The Billboard 200 #79
© Paul Butterfield at Woodstock Reunion, Parr Meadows, Ridge, NY
AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder; Score: ***½
≡♠≡ The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s In My Own Dream — their fourth official release — marked the point where the band really began to lose its audience, and all for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of their music. They’d gotten past the loss of Michael Bloomfield in early 1967 (which had lost them some of their audience of guitar idolaters) with the engagingly titled (and guitar–focused) Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw. In My Own Dream has its great guitar moments, especially on “Just to Be with You,” but throughout the album, Elvin Bishop’s electric guitar shares the spotlight with the horn section of Gene Dinwiddle, David Sanborn, and Keith Johnson, who had signed on with the prior album and who were more out in front than ever. More to the point, this album represented a new version of the band being born, with shared lead vocals, and the leader himself only taking three of the seven songs, with bassist Bugsy Maugh singing lead on two songs, Bishop on one, and drummer Phillip Wilson taking one. What’s more, there was a widely shared spotlight for the players, and more of a jazz influence on this record than had ever been heard before from the group. This was a band that could jam quietly for five minutes on “Drunk Again,” building ever so slowly to a bluesy crescendo where Bishop’s guitar and Mark Naftalin’s organ surged; and follow it with the title track, a totally surprising acoustic guitar–driven piece featuring Sanborn, Dinwiddle, and Johnson. The playing is impressive, especially for a record aimed at a collegiate audience, but the record had the bad fortune of appearing at a point when jazz was culturally suspect among the young, an elitist and not easily accessible brand of music that seemed almost as remote as classical. “Get Yourself Together” was almost too good a piece of Chicago–style blues, a faux Chess Records–style track that might even have been too “black” for the remnants of Butterfield’s old audience. It also anticipated the group’s final change of direction, when it blossomed into a multi–genre blues/jazz/R&B/soul outfit, equally devoted to all four genres and myriad permutations of each.
Artist Biography by Steve Leggett
≡♠≡ With a style honed in the gritty blues bars of Chicago’s south side, the Butterfield Blues Band was instrumental in bringing the sound of authentic Chicago blues to a young white audience in the mid–‘60s, and although the band wasn’t a particularly huge commercial success, its influence has been enduring and pervasive. The band was formed when singer and harmonica player Paul Butterfield met guitarist and fellow University of Chicago student Elvin Bishop in the early ‘60s. Bonding over a love of the blues, the pair managed to hijack Howlin’ Wolf’s rhythm section (bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay) and began gigging in the city’s blues houses, where they were spotted in 1964 by producer Paul Rothchild, who quickly had them signed to Elektra Records. Guitar whiz Mike Bloomfield joined the band just before they entered the studio to record their debut album (and in time to be on–stage with the group when they backed up Bob Dylan at his infamous electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival). Organist and pianist Mark Naftalin also came on board during the sessions for the self–titled The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which was released by Elektra late in 1965. Lay became ill around this time, and his drum chair was taken by Billy Davenport, whose jazz and improvisational background came in handy during the recording of the band’s second album, the Ravi Shankar–influenced East–West, released in 1966. Bloomfield departed to form Electric Flag in 1967, and Bishop handled all the lead guitar on the more R&B–oriented third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, which was released later that year and featured an entirely new rhythm section of Bugsy Maugh on bass and Phil Wilson on drums. Bishop and Naftalin left the band following the recording of 1968’s In My Own Dream, and Butterfield drafted in 19–year–old guitarist Buzzy Feiten to help with the recording of 1969’s Keep On Moving, which also featured the return of drummer Billy Davenport. After a live album in 1970 and the lackluster “Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin’”, released in 1971, Butterfield put the band to rest. In retrospect, the Butterfield Blues Band had pretty much put their cards on the table in their first two albums, both of which are classics of the era, featuring a heady mixture of folk, rock, psychedelia, and even Indian classical music played over an embedded base of good old Chicago blues. ∫ http://www.allmusic.com/
Studio albums:
The Butterfield Blues Band:
♠ The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
♠ East–West (1966)
♠ The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw (1967)
♠ In My Own Dream (1968)
♠ Keep On Moving (1969)
♠ Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin’ (1971)
≡♠≡≡♠≡_______________________________________________≡♠≡≡♠≡
| Paul Butterfield Blues Band — In My Own Dream (1968) |
Formed: 1964 in Chicago, IL
Birth name: Paul Vaughn Butterfield
Instruments: Harmonica, vocals, guitar, keyboards, flute
Born: December 17, 1942, Chicago, Illinois
Died: May 4, 1987, North Hollywood, California
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock, Chicago Blues
Styles: Blues–Rock, Electric Chicago Blues, Regional Blues
Album release: 1968
Record Label: Rhino/Elektra/Culture Factory
Duration:
Tracks:
01. Last Hope’s Gone (Paul Butterfield, Jim Haynie, David Sanborn) 4:52
02. Mine To Love (Bugsy Maugh) 4:21
03. Get Yourself Together (Bugsy Maugh) 4:10
04. Just To Be With You (Bernard Roth) 6:12
05. Mornin’ Blues (Bugsy Maugh) 4:58
06. Drunk Again (Elvin Bishop) 6:08
07. In My Own Dream (Paul Butterfield) 5:47
Credits:
≡♠≡ Alfred G. Aronowitz Liner Notes
≡♠≡ Elvin Bishop Composer, Guest Artist, Guitar
≡♠≡ Butterfield Composer
≡♠≡ Paul Butterfield Harmonica, Leader, Primary Artist
≡♠≡ The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Primary Artist
≡♠≡ John Court Producer
≡♠≡ Brother Gene Dinwiddie Sax (Tenor), Tambourine
≡♠≡ William S. Harvey Art Direction
≡♠≡ Keith Johnson Trumpet
≡♠≡ Al Kooper Guest Artist
≡♠≡ Naffy Markham Keyboards
≡♠≡ Bugsy Maugh Bass, Composer
≡♠≡ David Sanborn Composer, Guest Artist, Sax (Alto, Baritone, Soprano)
≡♠≡ Gene Szafran Cover Art
≡♠≡ Phillip Wilson Conga Drum, Drums
Awards:
Billboard Albums
≡♠≡ 1968 In My Own Dream The Billboard 200 #79
AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder; Score: ***½
≡♠≡ The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s In My Own Dream — their fourth official release — marked the point where the band really began to lose its audience, and all for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of their music. They’d gotten past the loss of Michael Bloomfield in early 1967 (which had lost them some of their audience of guitar idolaters) with the engagingly titled (and guitar–focused) Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw. In My Own Dream has its great guitar moments, especially on “Just to Be with You,” but throughout the album, Elvin Bishop’s electric guitar shares the spotlight with the horn section of Gene Dinwiddle, David Sanborn, and Keith Johnson, who had signed on with the prior album and who were more out in front than ever. More to the point, this album represented a new version of the band being born, with shared lead vocals, and the leader himself only taking three of the seven songs, with bassist Bugsy Maugh singing lead on two songs, Bishop on one, and drummer Phillip Wilson taking one. What’s more, there was a widely shared spotlight for the players, and more of a jazz influence on this record than had ever been heard before from the group. This was a band that could jam quietly for five minutes on “Drunk Again,” building ever so slowly to a bluesy crescendo where Bishop’s guitar and Mark Naftalin’s organ surged; and follow it with the title track, a totally surprising acoustic guitar–driven piece featuring Sanborn, Dinwiddle, and Johnson. The playing is impressive, especially for a record aimed at a collegiate audience, but the record had the bad fortune of appearing at a point when jazz was culturally suspect among the young, an elitist and not easily accessible brand of music that seemed almost as remote as classical. “Get Yourself Together” was almost too good a piece of Chicago–style blues, a faux Chess Records–style track that might even have been too “black” for the remnants of Butterfield’s old audience. It also anticipated the group’s final change of direction, when it blossomed into a multi–genre blues/jazz/R&B/soul outfit, equally devoted to all four genres and myriad permutations of each.
≡♠≡ With a style honed in the gritty blues bars of Chicago’s south side, the Butterfield Blues Band was instrumental in bringing the sound of authentic Chicago blues to a young white audience in the mid–‘60s, and although the band wasn’t a particularly huge commercial success, its influence has been enduring and pervasive. The band was formed when singer and harmonica player Paul Butterfield met guitarist and fellow University of Chicago student Elvin Bishop in the early ‘60s. Bonding over a love of the blues, the pair managed to hijack Howlin’ Wolf’s rhythm section (bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay) and began gigging in the city’s blues houses, where they were spotted in 1964 by producer Paul Rothchild, who quickly had them signed to Elektra Records. Guitar whiz Mike Bloomfield joined the band just before they entered the studio to record their debut album (and in time to be on–stage with the group when they backed up Bob Dylan at his infamous electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival). Organist and pianist Mark Naftalin also came on board during the sessions for the self–titled The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which was released by Elektra late in 1965. Lay became ill around this time, and his drum chair was taken by Billy Davenport, whose jazz and improvisational background came in handy during the recording of the band’s second album, the Ravi Shankar–influenced East–West, released in 1966. Bloomfield departed to form Electric Flag in 1967, and Bishop handled all the lead guitar on the more R&B–oriented third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, which was released later that year and featured an entirely new rhythm section of Bugsy Maugh on bass and Phil Wilson on drums. Bishop and Naftalin left the band following the recording of 1968’s In My Own Dream, and Butterfield drafted in 19–year–old guitarist Buzzy Feiten to help with the recording of 1969’s Keep On Moving, which also featured the return of drummer Billy Davenport. After a live album in 1970 and the lackluster “Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin’”, released in 1971, Butterfield put the band to rest. In retrospect, the Butterfield Blues Band had pretty much put their cards on the table in their first two albums, both of which are classics of the era, featuring a heady mixture of folk, rock, psychedelia, and even Indian classical music played over an embedded base of good old Chicago blues. ∫ http://www.allmusic.com/
Studio albums:
The Butterfield Blues Band:
♠ The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
♠ East–West (1966)
♠ The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw (1967)
♠ In My Own Dream (1968)
♠ Keep On Moving (1969)
♠ Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin’ (1971)
≡♠≡≡♠≡_______________________________________________≡♠≡≡♠≡