In the last few months blues has become very popular with the white coffee house crowds. This blues is a kind of washed out version of what was popular during the forties and early fifties when now familiar names like Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Sunnyland Slim, Little Walter and Jimmy Reed were popular to a different type of audience. Most of the artists mentioned are still turning out albums in the blues city, Chicago, but the music has changed, maybe for the better, maybe not. The old gut-bucket style of delivery, the slurred speech, and the startlingly honest lyrics have been toned down slightly.
In Chicago, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Reed are examples of old blues musicians that make-quite comfortable livings from entertaining the coffeehouse group. In Detroit however, the best known blues bands are not originally from the South, and they are not predominately Negroes. These bands are the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the Seigal-Schwall Blues Band. Paul Butterfield is without a doubt one of the finest blues harmonica players around, and he is surrounded by superior musicians, featuring Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar, Elvin Bishop, rhythm, Jerome Arnold, bass, Mark Naftalin, organ and piano, and Billy Davenport on drums.
The Butterfield Blues Band’s latest album called EAST-WEST is a great example of the material they do in person, but falls short in expressing the intensity and professionalism of the artists.
Corky Siegal and Jim Schwall are a big surprise; they head up a four piece group that really burns. They are fantastic, and their first album on Vanguard is fantastic. Don’t miss it.
There is a rash of live albums that have been released recently, and most sound terrible. Two of the best are the Four Tops ‘LIVE’ and ‘GOT LIVE IF YOU WANT IT!’ by the Rolling Stones. The Four Tops album features their phenomenal smash ‘Reach Out and I’ll Be There’ and ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’, it is well worth the bread. The Stones album was not produced as well as the Four Tops, but it really shows how these characters come on. It, too, is well worth the money.
A few forty-fives deserve recognition; preferably the new one by the Paul Butterfield Band that isn’t being played locally called ‘Come On In’ and the new Holland-Dozier, Holland-penned piece, called ‘Standing In the Shadows Of Love,’ by the Four Tops.
The Siegal-Schwall Blues Band will appear for a week at the Chessmate starting Dec. 13. The Chicago Loop, a fine rock group will be in Ann Arbor’s Fifth Deminion club Dec. 16. They feature Barry Goldberg on piano. Remember Goldberg-Miller blues band and the ‘Mother Song?’ Well, I hope so.
Ignore false rumors. There are not, I repeat, there are not 10,000 Jewish Blues Bands.