Re: [Harp-L] Butterfield, some more thoughts

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bret Littlehales wrote:
> I'm 53 years old and bet that, like me, a lot of harp players on 
> this list got really started on harp by Paul Butterfield. 

I've been playing harp for a long time (more than 30 years), though I 
was not serious about it for quite a long time.  When I reignited my 
passion for the instrument a decade or so ago, I remembered first the 
role of Magic Dick Salwitz and the J. Geils Band in inspiring a 15-
year-old kid to spend all his considerable free time learning the 
harmonica.  

But it was when I went back and listened to my vinyl copy of the 
Butterfield Live album that I realized what a profound impact Paul 
had on my playing.  I never saw the man live, and I didn't appreciate 
the Better Days work at the time (what all that *acoustic* harmonica 
about?), but in retrospect, no other harmonica player had as much 
influence on the development of my style or my expectation of what 
the harmonica could be in music than Paul Butterfield.  

It's wonderful to go back and rediscover all of those old recordings 
and to listen to those trailblazing performances.  I agree that there 
hasn't been as original a voice in blues harmonica since that day, 
which is not to say that there aren't many wonderful players well 
worth listening to.  But it seems that Butterfield fired a generation 
with his passion and his originality, and we are his legacy.  Too bad 
he isn't around to witness it.

-tim

Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/