That is what Bobs bandmate use to call out over the PA before he would rip into a solo. Bob Butterfield is one of the GREAT harp players to never get noticed natonaly. Bob lives in Burlington VT. and played in the band North End Rythem Kings. I was lucky enough to have alot of people help me in my early years of playing harp. One of my friends that I hadn't talked to for a couple years(at that time). Called me and said he heard this band in Burlington that had this wild harp player and they were playing tonight at club Toast. So off we went. I don't remember what year it was. Around 89'. I have never heard ANYONE play the highend of the harp better! It was amazing! My buddies were blown away. I remember driving home that night and one of my buddies said if you play your harp on the way home I'll throw it out the window. If I remember correctly I bothered them all the way over with my annoying wailing! That was my first up close exposure to how you play the harp when your GOOD! To this day I still practice and try to play the highend slippery, quick and percise like Bob did. Not long ago I got an Email from pabutter. Well low and behold it was Big Bad Bob Butterfield! I know there have been many GREAT musicians that slipped thru the cracks. Trust me I KNOW! There have only been a few harp players that did something so differnt and was so good at it I just became obsessed with learning what they knew. Bob is in my top three! 20 years ago there weren't many people Bob couldn't slay with graet ease. Everyone plays different and its not a sport. Its different for everyone I think, but Bob Butterfield was one of the best harp players I have ever heard! I worked on a few harps for him recently and I just started thinking about that again. He doesn't even know how he influenced me. I'm sure he knew how good he was. Everyone else in the house did! I just thought it was pretty cool that thru building custom harps and working on harps for people I got to work on some of his. Hopefully I get a chance to play with him some time soon. That would be cool. I hope there are other people out there that were lucky enough to make it to Burlington VT to hear Bob in his hey day.
Thats what I'm talking about! The last part was a sample of what he use to do all night long! He use to do riffs that went from hole 1 to 10 and after wailing on the highend for a minute he would slide up to the highend and play scale like riffs back down. That was a much more relaxed and less complicated version of what use to do on the highend! It was OK, but nothing compared I heard and saw him do! The last part was pretty cool though! Everyone can play however they want, but thats what I've been after for 25 years.
Thanks for posting that Rharley. That isn't the Northend Rythem Kings. Nor is it the Bob I remember, but the attitude and attack is Bob Butterfield! That's the thing that I got from Bob. When you play the harp mean it! Paul Butterfield was the first to record in this style (and no it wasn't Little Walter). I'm talking about attack. Playing with attitude! I guess Little Walter was attitude when he did it, but he didn't play hard. He had more distortion than the rest of the band. Thats different. I know he is the one that started the whole thing, but its still different! Paul Butterfield, Majic Dick and Bob Butterfield. That is attitude and attack! Its a certain way of playing the harp!
