[Harp-L] re: Butterfield

[martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

As one poster noted, Butterfield certainly has a "great" vibrato. It may not be the most subtle -- in fact it´s probably not subtle at all -- but to my ears he almost turned it into a signature sound, a bit like BB King on guitar. 
  I´d feel pretty confident in picking him out on a blind test -- and I´m not sure if that would be the case with any other harmonica player, based on sound? ( Well ... Howard Levy.)
 
Also what he did, at least on Levon Helm´s "RCO All  Stars" album (mid 70´s I think), was show how to use harmonica backing in an un-obtrusive way in an orchestra. He plays on most of the tracks, he´s there riffing, quite audible, but he´s not all over the place all of the time. A lesson, I think. (This is not a blues album, but some sort of down home rock, slightly funkified in the Little Feat manner. Not very remarkable, but sympathetic.)
  And, Gino, it has some quite decent third pos. playing! (He´s even taming the draw 3 one whole step, if I remember correctly. We´ve all heard that sound like crap every now and then.)
 
Cheers,
Martin