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The lessons in this chapter, coming in the second phase of the project, will explore the scenes in Britain and the United States that found young, white musicians studying American Blues music, learning its style, and creating something that was related but not entirely so, as is often the case in even the most studious cultural borrowing. In the early 1960s, British musicians such as Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner approached American music as "purists," attempting to get as close as they could to the spirit of the Blues and Jazz they loved. Future members of the Rolling Stones soaked up what they could in their environment (no matter that they would eventually depart from the purist camp), and thus this purist movement proved itself a key to the transition into the Rock and Roll of the late 1960s.
In the States, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a similar role in influencing a wide array of artists who would go on to become giants of late 60s and early 70s Rock and Roll. With two former Howlin' Wolf sidemen in the racially mixed group, the Butterfield band worked in Chicago, where artists including Muddy Waters were actively playing clubs. Among the band, it was guitarist Mike Bloomfield who would garner the most attention. Like Davies and Korner, he studied the Bluesmen of Chicago with a noted reverence. But his abilities as a player took him beyond that world and, among other places, into Dylan's band when Dylan "went electric" at Newport Folk Festival.
The Blues Explosion chapter captures a time in which the Blues "crossed over," changing the lives and careers of many of the music's most celebrated names. If this chapter discusses acts that have less notoriety than many across this curriculum, those acts nonetheless played a pivotal role in the development of much that would follow.
lesson:
The American Blues in Britain
In what ways did American Blues affect English musicians in the early 1960s?
Video
video:
Son House
<p>The lessons in this chapter, coming in the second phase of the project, will explore the scenes in Britain and the United States that found young, white musicians studying American Blues music, learning its style, and creating something that was related but not entirely so, as is often the case in even the most studious cultural borrowing. In the early 1960s, British musicians such as Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner approached American music as "purists," attempting to get as close as they could to the spirit of the Blues and Jazz they loved. Future members of the Rolling Stones soaked up what they could in their environment (no matter that they would eventually depart from the purist camp), and thus this purist movement proved itself a key to the transition into the Rock and Roll of the late 1960s.</p> <p>In the States, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a similar role in influencing a wide array of artists who would go on to become giants of late 60s and early 70s Rock and Roll. With two former Howlin' Wolf sidemen in the racially mixed group, the Butterfield band worked in Chicago, where artists including Muddy Waters were actively playing clubs. Among the band, it was guitarist Mike Bloomfield who would garner the most attention. Like Davies and Korner, he studied the Bluesmen of Chicago with a noted reverence. But his abilities as a player took him beyond that world and, among other places, into Dylan's band when Dylan "went electric" at Newport Folk Festival.</p> <p>The Blues Explosion chapter captures a time in which the Blues "crossed over," changing the lives and careers of many of the music's most celebrated names. If this chapter discusses acts that have less notoriety than many across this curriculum, those acts nonetheless played a pivotal role in the development of much that would follow. </p>
video:
Death Letter Blues
<p>The lessons in this chapter, coming in the second phase of the project, will explore the scenes in Britain and the United States that found young, white musicians studying American Blues music, learning its style, and creating something that was related but not entirely so, as is often the case in even the most studious cultural borrowing. In the early 1960s, British musicians such as Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner approached American music as "purists," attempting to get as close as they could to the spirit of the Blues and Jazz they loved. Future members of the Rolling Stones soaked up what they could in their environment (no matter that they would eventually depart from the purist camp), and thus this purist movement proved itself a key to the transition into the Rock and Roll of the late 1960s.</p> <p>In the States, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a similar role in influencing a wide array of artists who would go on to become giants of late 60s and early 70s Rock and Roll. With two former Howlin' Wolf sidemen in the racially mixed group, the Butterfield band worked in Chicago, where artists including Muddy Waters were actively playing clubs. Among the band, it was guitarist Mike Bloomfield who would garner the most attention. Like Davies and Korner, he studied the Bluesmen of Chicago with a noted reverence. But his abilities as a player took him beyond that world and, among other places, into Dylan's band when Dylan "went electric" at Newport Folk Festival.</p> <p>The Blues Explosion chapter captures a time in which the Blues "crossed over," changing the lives and careers of many of the music's most celebrated names. If this chapter discusses acts that have less notoriety than many across this curriculum, those acts nonetheless played a pivotal role in the development of much that would follow. </p>
video:
Got My Mojo Working
<p>The lessons in this chapter, coming in the second phase of the project, will explore the scenes in Britain and the United States that found young, white musicians studying American Blues music, learning its style, and creating something that was related but not entirely so, as is often the case in even the most studious cultural borrowing. In the early 1960s, British musicians such as Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner approached American music as "purists," attempting to get as close as they could to the spirit of the Blues and Jazz they loved. Future members of the Rolling Stones soaked up what they could in their environment (no matter that they would eventually depart from the purist camp), and thus this purist movement proved itself a key to the transition into the Rock and Roll of the late 1960s.</p> <p>In the States, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a similar role in influencing a wide array of artists who would go on to become giants of late 60s and early 70s Rock and Roll. With two former Howlin' Wolf sidemen in the racially mixed group, the Butterfield band worked in Chicago, where artists including Muddy Waters were actively playing clubs. Among the band, it was guitarist Mike Bloomfield who would garner the most attention. Like Davies and Korner, he studied the Bluesmen of Chicago with a noted reverence. But his abilities as a player took him beyond that world and, among other places, into Dylan's band when Dylan "went electric" at Newport Folk Festival.</p> <p>The Blues Explosion chapter captures a time in which the Blues "crossed over," changing the lives and careers of many of the music's most celebrated names. If this chapter discusses acts that have less notoriety than many across this curriculum, those acts nonetheless played a pivotal role in the development of much that would follow. </p>
video:
Night Time is the Right Time
<p>The lessons in this chapter, coming in the second phase of the project, will explore the scenes in Britain and the United States that found young, white musicians studying American Blues music, learning its style, and creating something that was related but not entirely so, as is often the case in even the most studious cultural borrowing. In the early 1960s, British musicians such as Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner approached American music as "purists," attempting to get as close as they could to the spirit of the Blues and Jazz they loved. Future members of the Rolling Stones soaked up what they could in their environment (no matter that they would eventually depart from the purist camp), and thus this purist movement proved itself a key to the transition into the Rock and Roll of the late 1960s.</p> <p>In the States, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a similar role in influencing a wide array of artists who would go on to become giants of late 60s and early 70s Rock and Roll. With two former Howlin' Wolf sidemen in the racially mixed group, the Butterfield band worked in Chicago, where artists including Muddy Waters were actively playing clubs. Among the band, it was guitarist Mike Bloomfield who would garner the most attention. Like Davies and Korner, he studied the Bluesmen of Chicago with a noted reverence. But his abilities as a player took him beyond that world and, among other places, into Dylan's band when Dylan "went electric" at Newport Folk Festival.</p> <p>The Blues Explosion chapter captures a time in which the Blues "crossed over," changing the lives and careers of many of the music's most celebrated names. If this chapter discusses acts that have less notoriety than many across this curriculum, those acts nonetheless played a pivotal role in the development of much that would follow. </p>
video:
Got My Mojo Working
<p>The lessons in this chapter, coming in the second phase of the project, will explore the scenes in Britain and the United States that found young, white musicians studying American Blues music, learning its style, and creating something that was related but not entirely so, as is often the case in even the most studious cultural borrowing. In the early 1960s, British musicians such as Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner approached American music as "purists," attempting to get as close as they could to the spirit of the Blues and Jazz they loved. Future members of the Rolling Stones soaked up what they could in their environment (no matter that they would eventually depart from the purist camp), and thus this purist movement proved itself a key to the transition into the Rock and Roll of the late 1960s.</p> <p>In the States, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played a similar role in influencing a wide array of artists who would go on to become giants of late 60s and early 70s Rock and Roll. With two former Howlin' Wolf sidemen in the racially mixed group, the Butterfield band worked in Chicago, where artists including Muddy Waters were actively playing clubs. Among the band, it was guitarist Mike Bloomfield who would garner the most attention. Like Davies and Korner, he studied the Bluesmen of Chicago with a noted reverence. But his abilities as a player took him beyond that world and, among other places, into Dylan's band when Dylan "went electric" at Newport Folk Festival.</p> <p>The Blues Explosion chapter captures a time in which the Blues "crossed over," changing the lives and careers of many of the music's most celebrated names. If this chapter discusses acts that have less notoriety than many across this curriculum, those acts nonetheless played a pivotal role in the development of much that would follow. </p>
Print Journalism
article:
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
WHILE ENGLAND was paving the way for mass acceptance of white interpretations of classic blues material with bands like the Yardbirds and Bluesbreakers and talented individuals of the caliber of Clapton, Beck and Page, America produced two notable bands working in the same genre – the Al Kooper / Danny Kalb-led Blues Project and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The latter was not as prone as most to the inevitable "can a white man play the blues?" question (the issue being emotional honesty rather than technical ability), having honed their craft in Chicago’s South Side blues clubs and at the...
article:
Long John meets John Lee Hooker
THEY COULD hardly have been a bigger contrast in background and appearance: the young, very tall, bright white Englishman Long John Baldry, and the mature, short, dark brown American John Lee Hooker. But they had the blues in common and when I brought Baldry and Hooker together recently they got along like old friends. John Lee was amazed that Long John, who is a mere 23, has been listening to blues records for 11 years "Yes, the first disc I bought was Muddy Water singing 'Honey Bee' on French Vogue. Then I got another French Vogue, Big Bill Broonzy's 'Blues...