Showing posts with label Wild Child Butler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wild Child Butler. Show all posts

Friday, June 17, 2022

Wild Child Butler - Direct-To-Disc Sessions [Vinyl] (APO 004)

Source: Vinyl (clean)
Size: 71.3 MB
Time: 30:55
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2011
Styles: Chicago Blues, Harmonica Blues
Art: Full

01. Weak In The Knees (6:22)
02. Treat Me Like I Treat You (3:19)
03. Forty Year Old Woman (4:00)
04. Anyone Can Say They Love You (4:36)
05. Can You Use A Man (6:13)
06. My Baby Done Put Me Down (6:25)

Personnel:
Vocals [Vocal], Blues Harp [Harp Bullet] – Wild Child Butler Acoustic Guitar – Aaron Griggs (tracks: 4 to 6)
Bass – Julian Grech (tracks: 1 to 3)
Dobro – Jimmy D. Lane (tracks: 4 to 6)
Drums [Drums Kick] – Geoffrey Daye
Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Aaron Griggs

All tracks were recorded live, direct-to-disc at Blue Heaven Studios, Salina, Kansas. Recorded October 14, 2000.

From all accounts, George Butler came by his nickname Wild Child honestly. On Sundays, some of the older ladies would come to the shack where he lived to visit his mother. Even as a toddler, little George would grab their legs and tug their skirts. The ladies would tell his mother that she had to "do something about that wild child," and the name stuck. Fortunately, he found time between the youthful shenanigans to learn some harp basics at age 12. He was gigging professionally as a bandleader by the late 1950s, but the harpist didn't have much luck in the recording wars until he moved to Chicago in 1966 and signed with Shreveport, La., based Jewel Records.

Wild Child's resume is top notch. He has toured with Jimmy Rogers, Lightnin' Hopkins, Cousin Joe and Roosevelt Sykes. His biggest influence is John Lee Sonny Boy Williamson and yet his sound is all his own. A prolific songwriter, Wild Child Butler performs mostly original compositions. George Butler is one of the most stylistically interesting and underrated blues performers in the business today.

In this, an era when Blues is so frequently fused with rock, soul and other more commercially viable music forms, Wild Child stands his artistic ground. Wild Child still plays and sings his blues in exactly the same authentic style that he developed and learned from his rural Alabama sharecropping mentors more than 40 years ago. When asked if he would change his style to be more commercially successful, Wild Child's didn't hesitate. "No I would not! Record companies have asked me to do that before. I wouldn't do it then, and I wouldn't do it now, just to sell more records. The way I do my blues, that's me! The blues isn't just something that I do, it's something that I am."

George is polite but firm with his audiences. In fact, when you meet George Butler, one finds him to be a pleasant, highly personable man with a ready smile as big as an Alabama cotton field, and in no way keeping with the image conjured up by the name Wild Child. He was asked "Why in spite of all the hard times and bad luck, do you still keep going?" He replied with an audible grin, "The blues is the facts of life, the truth, and the blues is what I'm about."

Indifferent agents, unethical record companies, insensitive audiences and the tough life on the road have not squelched the blues fire in Wild Child Butler. The swamp-harp king is one authentic original folk blues artist who can, in his own words, "Sho' 'nuff make the blues come down." Side A is Wild Child and his electric band. Side B is acoustic with Jimmy D. Lane accompanying on guitar. 6 songs.

Direct-To-Disc Sessions [Vinyl] (APO 004) MP3
Direct-To-Disc Sessions [Vinyl] (APO 004) FLAC

Thursday, July 29, 2021

George 'Wild Child' Butler - Open Up Baby

Album: Open Up Baby
Size: 91,2 MB
Time: 39:07
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1969/1985
Styles: Chicago blues, harmonica blues
Art: LP front & back

1. Open Up Baby (2:46)
2. Big Momma, Little Momma (2:49)
3. Axe And The Wind (2:47)
4. Jelly Jam (2:25)
5. Hold Me Baby (2:35)
6. Do Something Baby (2:32)
7. She Walks Like Mary Ann (3:08)
8. Put It All In There (2:50)
9. My Forty Year Old Woman (3:06)
10. Harmonica Prayer (2:27)
11. Gravy Child (3:34)
12. Best Of Wild Child (Instrumental) (2:24)
13. Keep On (Doin' What You're Doin') (3:19)
14. Hippy Playground (2:20)

Charly's Open Up Baby rounds up several singles George "Wild Child" Butler recorded for Jewel between 1966 and 1968. All of the sessions were produced by Willie Dixon, and the great majority of the songs were written either by Butler or Dixon. Some of the material has dated a bit ("Hippy Playground," for instance), but there's no denying the down and dirty grit in Butler's performances, as he's backed by such well-known musicians as Big Walter Horton and Jimmy Dawkins. Butler rarely did straightahead Chicago blues any better than he did here. /Thom Owens, AllMusic

Open Up Baby mc
Open Up Baby zippy

Monday, June 21, 2021

Wild Child Butler - The Devil Made Me Do It

Album: The Devil Made Me Do It
Size: 104,6 MB
Time: 45:07
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1991
Styles: Harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. These Mean Old Blues (3:25)
2. Give Me An Answer (3:53)
3. Anyone Can Say They Love You (4:15)
4. Crack House Woman (4:25)
5. Walkin' The Little Girl Home (4:42)
6. The Devil Made Me Do It (3:12)
7. It's A Pity (4:35)
8. No One Woman's Man (3:21)
9. It's A Sin To Be A Thief (4:37)
10. My Woman's Been Misled (4:15)
11. (Baby) Do Your Thing (4:21)

Butler began playing harmonica as a child in rural Alabama. In the late '60s he worked with Lightnin' Hopkins and recorded for Jewel, produced by Willie Dixon, who was impressed enough to tell him: "Keep this work up and you gonna help keep the blues alive". From the early '80s onwards he was based in Windsor, Ontario.

On this album recorded and released in Europe by Blue Horizon - and in US by Bullseye Blues and titled "These Mean Old Blues" - Butler is still immovably immersed in his favourite sounds, and supported by band playing that's idiomatic and solid, whether rocking through the changes of the Muddyish "No One Woman's Man" or conjuring a more reflective setting "It's A Pity", whose references to an American-Iraqi confrontation found a fresh resonance a dozen years later. What elevares Butler's records above many by players of his age, besides his obvious enthusiasm for making music, is his determination to tell his own stories rather than fall back on standard repertoire.

Personnel: George "Wild Child" Butler (harmonica, vocals); Martyn C. Winning (tenor sax); Richard Simmons, John Baggott (keyboards); Pete "Guitar" Boss (guitar); Jon Southgate (bass); Les Morgan (drums).

The Devil Made Me Do It mc
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Friday, June 15, 2018

George 'Wild Child' Butler, Frank Frost, Raful Neal - Harp And Blues

Year: 1983
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:10
Size: 84,1 MB
Styles: Harmonica blues
Scans: LP front & back

1. Frank Frost - Harpin' On It (2:56)
2. Frank Frost - Things You Do (2:32)
3. Frank Frost - Harp & Soul (2:52)
4. Frank Frost - Ride With Your Daddy Tonight (2:35)
5. George 'Wild Child' Butler - Axe And The Wind (2:25)
6. George 'Wild Child' Butler - Hold Me Baby (2:35)
7. George 'Wild Child' Butler - Do Something Baby (2:32)
8. George 'Wild Child' Butler - Jelly Jam (2:17)
9. George 'Wild Child' Butler - My 40 Year Old Woman (3:04)
10. George 'Wild Child' Butler - Open Up Baby (2:46)
11. George 'Wild Child' Butler - The Best Of Wild Child (2:12)
12. Raful Neal - Let's Work Together (3:03)
13. Raful Neal - Blues On The Moon (1:48)
14. Raful Neal - It's Been So Long (2:25)

Frank Frost’s skills encompassed keyboards and guitar, but like many other blues artists, he started with the harmonica. After moving to St. Louis as a teenager, he took up playing with Sonny Boy ‘Rice Miller’ Williamson in the mid-50s, appearing regularly with him on the famous radio show King Biscuit Time. He also teamed up with Robert Nighthawk and his son Sam Carr, before relocating to the south. In 1962 he recorded for Sam Phillips as part of the Nighthawks trio, featuring Carr on drums and guitarist Big Jack Johnson. One single and an album, Hey Boss Man!, resulted, featuring a very tough and raw, but tight, down-home blues sound, unusual on record at this time. A similar sound emerged from his next sessions in Nashville in 1966, produced by Scotty Moore, which produced three fine singles and, later, an album on Jewel Records. ‘My Back Scratcher’, Frost’s take on Slim Harpo’s ‘Baby Scratch My Back’, was even a minor R&B hit. Subsequently, Frost went back to mainly local performing in the juke joints around his home area in the Mississippi Delta, basing himself at Eddie Mae’s Café in Helena, Arkansas. He also continued to make records and tour with Carr and Johnson, releasing 1979’s Rockin’ The Juke Joint Down as the Jelly Roll Kings. Frost undertook some highly acclaimed appearances in Europe and, following his appearance in the 1986 movie Crossroads, recorded several well-received solo albums before his death in October 1999.

George Butler was born in Autaugaville, Alabama on October 1, 1936. His mother nicknamed him ‘Wild Child’ before he could even walk. George took up the harmonica by the age of six and at 14 he was already performing professionally. In the late 1950’s ‘Wild Child’ Butler moved to Chicago and became a blues sensation. His recording debut was released in 1964. Butler continued to record and tour extensively for decades. In the early 1980’s while on tour in the Yukon Butler met a Canadian named Elaine who would soon become his wife and manager. In order to remain in Canada but be close to Chicago the Butlers settled in the Windsor area in 1985. While living in Windsor, Butler recorded These Mean Old Blues in 1991 and Stranger in 1994. In the summertime Butler could be found enjoying a day of fishing and playing his harmonica at fishing holes and farm ponds around Stoney Point. George ‘Wild Child’ Butler passed away March 1, 2005 at the age of 68. Mr. Butler had been preparing to record his next CD and had finished writing all the songs for the album prior to his passing.

Born in Baton Rouge in 1936, Raful Neal took up the harp at age 14, tutored by a local player named Ike Brown and influenced by Chicago mainstay Little Walter. Neal's first band, the Clouds, also included guitarist Buddy Guy. This was the band Little Walter heard while in Baton Rouge and invited them to move up to Chicago and fill in at the gigs Walter couldn't make. Guy jumped at the chance but Neal decided to stay in Louisiana and raise his family. The harpist debuted on vinyl in 1958 with a 45 for Don Robey's Houston-headquartered Peacock Records. But "Sunny Side of Love," fine though it was, didn't lead to an encore for Peacock or anywhere else until much later, when Neal turned up with 45s on Whit, La Louisiane, and Fantastic. Neal's debut album, the aptly titled Louisiana Legend, first emerged on Bob Greenlee's King Snake Records and was picked up by Alligator in 1990. I Been Mistreated, Neal's equally swampy follow-up, was released on Ichiban the following year; sons Noel (on bass) and Raful Jr. (on guitar) pitched in to help their old man out. Neal toured around the world and in 1997 he contributed harp to a couple of tracks on Tab Benoit's Live: Swampland Jam record. The understated but solid Old Friends appeared in 1998. Raful Neal died on September 1, 2004, after a long bout with cancer.

Harp And Blues mc
Harp And Blues zippy

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

George 'Wild Child' Butler - Keep On Doing What You're Doing

Year: 1969/1991
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:53
Size: 97,2 MB
Styles: Electric blues, harmonica blues
Scans: Full

1. Hippie's Playground (2:40)
2. Gravy Child (4:02)
3. Can You Use A Man? (3:33)
4. Horner's Corner (3:12)
5. Worried All The Time (3:13)
6. Keep On Doin' What You're Doin' (2:53)
7. Sweet Love (2:33)
8. It's All Over (2:47)
9. Never Had Nothin' (4:16)
10. The Best Of Wild Child (4:17)
11. My Baby Done Put Me Down (4:50)
12. When I First Met You Baby (3:31)

From all accounts, George Butler was indeed a "wild child." But he found time between the youthful shenanigans that inspired his mom to bestow his descriptive nickname to learn some harp basics at age 12. He was gigging professionally as a bandleader by the late '50s, but Butler's recording career didn't blossom until he moved to Chicago in 1966 and signed with Shreveport, LA-based Jewel Records (his sidemen on these sessions included bassist Willie Dixon and guitarist Jimmy Dawkins).

The harpist didn't have much luck in the recording wars: his 1969 Mercury album sank with little trace, while a 1976 LP for T.K., Funky Butt Lover, did equally little for his fortunes (it was later reissued in slightly altered form on Rooster Blues as Lickin' Gravy). Around 1981, Butler moved up north to Ontario, Canada, and continued his career. A decade later, he cut the first of two albums for British producer Mike Vernon; These Mean Old Blues was an engaging set of original material cut in London. Stranger, the fruits of another English session, emerged in 1994. /Bio by Bill Dahl, AllMusic

Personnel: George 'Wild Child' Butler (vocals, harmonica), Jimmy Dawkins, Mighty Joe Young (guitar); Big Mojo Elem (bass); Robert Richey (drums); Ronnie Stigger (congas); Johnny Young (mandolin); Lafayette Leake (piano, organ).

Keep On Doing What You're Doing mc
Keep On Doing What You're Doing zippy

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Wild Child Butler - Lickin' Gravy

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:11
Size: 105.7 MB
Styles: Chicago blues
Year: 1988/1998
Art: Front

[3:07] 1. Everybody Got A Mojo
[4:39] 2. Gravy Child
[3:38] 3. Funky Butt Lover
[4:01] 4. None Of Nothing
[3:54] 5. Built For Comfort
[4:46] 6. I Love You From Now On
[4:04] 7. Spoonful
[5:05] 8. My Baby Got Another Man
[4:50] 9. Rooster Blues
[5:48] 10. Love Like A Butterfly
[2:14] 11. Speed

Bass – Aron Burton, Lee Johnson; Drums – Nate Applewhite, Sam Lay; Guitar – Jimmy Rogers, Joe Kelly, Sam Lawhorn; Harmonica – George Butler; Organ, Piano – Pinetop Perkins; Rhythm Guitar – Joe Zaklan, Wild Bill Moore; Vocals – George Butler.

Before it finally saw the light of day, this 1976 album had to undergo some overdubbing touchups a full decade later that replaced certain guitar tracks with Pinetop Perkins's keyboards. Not the best way to make an album, but the results are nevertheless pretty decent, as Butler dishes up a set of his own material, a couple of Willie Dixon copyrights, and Lightnin' Slim's "Rooster Blues." ~Bill Dahl

Lickin' Gravy mc
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Sunday, December 13, 2015

Wild Child Butler - Sho' 'Nuff

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:49
Size: 125.5 MB
Styles: chicago blues
Year: 2001
Art: Front

[5:08] 1. I Got To Go (Sweet Daddy-O)
[3:32] 2. Funky Things
[4:13] 3. Maryanne
[2:19] 4. Slippin' In
[4:28] 5. Can You Use A Man Like Me
[4:54] 6. Loving
[4:20] 7. Achin' All Over
[3:16] 8. Open Up Baby
[6:28] 9. Moaning Moaning
[5:31] 10. You Had Quit Me
[6:51] 11. I Changed
[3:44] 12. It's All Over

WILD CHILD BUTLER - hca/voc, JIMMY D. LANE - gtrs, BOB STROGER - bass.

Butler never was my favorite Chicago style harmonica player. I was disappointed by most of his recordings. This album is different. Not because I had to change my mind concerning his playing, but because the production is superb. You can feel the tension in the studio. Good vibrations. Chicago blues albums of this calibre in the new millennium are rare. ~Amazon

Sho' 'Nuff mc
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Sunday, January 11, 2015

George 'Wild Child' Butler - 2 albums: Stranger / These Mean Old Blues

Album: Stranger
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:44
Size: 104.7 MB
Styles: Chicago blues
Year: 1994
Art: Front

[3:47] 1. Stranger
[4:34] 2. You Can Have It If You Want It
[3:24] 3. Weak In The Knees
[3:49] 4. High I.Q
[3:05] 5. Roll And Squeeze
[5:21] 6. Wedding Ring Blues
[3:06] 7. Rent Money Gone Again
[5:05] 8. Treat Me Just Like I Treat You
[5:39] 9. Face It Baby
[3:09] 10. I'm Not Guilty
[4:38] 11. I Just Can't Please Her

Another set of impressive originals cut in England and produced by Mike Vernon with the same attention to traditional detail as their fine previous collaboration. Butler's understated approach reeks of an authenticity that grows harder to find with every passing year, whether on his own "Weak in the Knees" and "Face It Baby" or the Vernon-generated "High I.Q." and "I'm Not Guilty." ~Bill Dahl

Stranger mc
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Album: These Mean Old Blues
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:47
Size: 102.5 MB
Styles: Chicago blues
Year: 1991/2011
Art: Front

[3:23] 1. These Mean Old Blues
[3:51] 2. Give Me An Answer
[4:13] 3. Anyone Can Say They Love You
[4:23] 4. Crack House Woman
[4:41] 5. Walkin' The Little Girl Home
[3:11] 6. The Devil Made Me Do It
[4:33] 7. It's A Pity
[3:19] 8. No One Woman's Man
[4:36] 9. It's A Sin To Be A Thief
[4:13] 10. My Woman's Been Misled
[4:19] 11. (Baby) Do Your Thing

Considering his nickname and near-anonymity at the time, it is surprising to realize that Wild Child Butler was already 55 when he made this CD. Although he had recorded very few released sessions before this album, Butler had been active most of the time since settling in Ontario, Canada. A talented harmonica player, he also possesses a deep and very expressive voice. With a first-rate combo that features the intense guitar of Pete Boss, Butler performs most of his best material for his Bullseye Blues debut. Among the highpoints are the title cut, the topical "Crack House Woman," an unaccompanied "Walkin' The Little Girl Home" and the minor-toned "It's A Pity." Recommended. ~Scott Yanow

These Mean Old Blues mc
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