It’s been a while now since I wrote about the Butterfield Blues Band – way back at the start of 2020, when I wrote about “East-West,” which I had just gotten from Sundazed. Absolutely epic album. But since I got that one, I went until just the last few weeks without finding any more, and then all of a sudden, I picked up three more albums.
I found this one in one of my favorite record stores, the long-standing River Street Beat Shop in Troy. It’s a great place that I used to go into and come out of without buying very much, because when I lived around Troy I wasn’t really collecting vinyl – so sometimes I’d pick up something special, other times I’d pick up a few used CDs, but I’m sorry to say that in those days the proprietor didn’t get much of my money. Since we moved away eight years ago, though, and I got back into vinyl – well since then, every time I get a chance I go into the Beat Shop and almost always find something really special.
Well this time, it was something really special – a beautiful mono 1st edition of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s first album, from 1965. I don’t normally chase 1st editions, and in fact will happily take a clean repress over a worn original (though I’ve also belatedly found out just how much difference a good turntable and high end stylus can make in defeating noise). But I wanted this damn record, and there it was, in its natural state, so, I paid more than I would have normally and I have zero regrets.
It opens with the absolutely killer “Born in Chicago,” written by the epically underappreciated Nick Gravenites. Then it just sails through a selection of Chicago blues like this band was born to do them. It came out in 1965, and damn it sounds fresh and alive today.
