[Harp-L] Re: Butterfield

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As per some of Rob P's comments, one of the most important things about Butterfield's work is the way he pushed the envelope in terms of style and context.  Almost from the very beginning, with "East/West", right on through to albums like "The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw," Butterfield made it clear that the sound of blues harmonica worked very well in all sorts of music where it hadn't been tried before.  I think he could have taken it even farther in terms of the role the harp played in his various bands (for example, why isn't the harp ever playing horn lines with the horn section on 'Crabshaw'?) but then it's easy to say "he coulda done that" after the fact.  Butterfield pushed it hard and far, and right from the beginning he had immense power in his sound.  No matter what band he was playing with, you couldn't ignore that sound.  

And in the end, that's the most important thing you can say about any artist: like him or hate him, you can't ignore him.  I think it's pretty hard to ignore Butterfield when you're talking about harp.

Regards, Richard Hunter
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter