1 	Open Up Baby 	
2 	You Had Quit Me
3 	I Got To Go (Sweet Daddy-O) 	
4 	Can You Use A Man Like Me 	
5 	Moaning Morning 	
6 	Slippin 'In 	
7 	Funky Things 	
8 	Maryanne 	
9 	It's All Over 	
10 	Loving 	
11 	Achin' All Over 	
12 	I Changed 	
13 	Baby I Can't Exist

Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Jimmy D. Lane
Acoustic Guitar – Jimmie Lee Robinson (2)
Bass – Bob Stroger
Drums – Sam Lay
Vocals, Harmonica – George "Wild Child" Butler

George "Wild Child" Butler, harmonica player par excellence, has toured with Jimmy Rogers and Lightnin' Hopkins, and has been praised by many of the legends of the blues. He is one of the most underrated blues performers today, according to the good folks at Chad Kassem's Blue Heaven Studios. He cut his first record in Montgomery, Alabama in 1964. Now he has cut his first SACD in Salina, Kansas in 2000, at the age of 64. Wild Child has a commanding stage presence, and his lively harmonica playing and singing really hit me where I live. I know, because I was at Chad Kassem's place to see him perform in rehearsal and in front of a delirious audience. And now Chad has issued an SACD that captures George Butler at his rollickin' best.

Chad Kassem is doing as much as anyone alive today to preserve the blues. His Blue Heaven Studios, in a beautiful old cathedral in Salina, Kansas, is a place where blues artists can be recorded in state-of-the-art sound in a relaxed, inviting atmosphere. Chad has become justifiably famous for his efforts to record aging blues masters for posterity.

I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Wild Child Butler while covering Chad's third "Blues Masters at the Crossroads" festival in October, 2000. The bouncing baby George was born in 1936 on a plantation in Alabama. His mildly menacing moniker apparently came from his habit as a baby of sliding across the floor, tearing womens' stockings, and tugging at their skirts. Although the name has stuck, the still-bouncing but mature Wild Child is friendly and low-key off-stage. He's anything but low-key when he hits the stage.

During the concert, Wild Child bounded onto the stage sporting what looked like a cartridge belt, but it turned out to be a harmonica belt. With the appropriate harmonica always ready, Wild Child put on an astounding show. In my humble opinion, this fellow deserves to be ranked right up at the top of today's reigning blues masters. And that's even if he does play his harmonicas upside-down (he didn't know any better while he was learning to play, and no one pointed it out to him for years). But backwards blues this is not. No one sounds quite like Wild Child Butler.

With this SACD, you'll get a good dose of what I got in Salina. The sound is clear, live and real. Wild Child, on vocals and harmonica, is accompanied by Jimmy D. Lane on acoustic and electric guitar, Bob Stroger on bass, Sam Lay on drums, along with the venerable Jimmie Lee Robinson on acoustic guitar on one cut. The unique and compelling Wild Child sound will get your toes tapping and your blood flowing. Many of the cuts are feel-good, up-tempo numbers that roll right along. Others are slower, but punctuated with Wild Child's patented "snappy" blues style. My favorite blues musician of all time, Sonny Boy Williamson, was a big influence on Wild Child, and I can hear it clear as day in some of his slower numbers.

Here's hoping Wild Child makes it back to Salina for an encore. Highly recommended. ---Dave Glackin, enjoythemusic.com

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1. Axe and The Wind
2. She Walks Like My Mary Ann
3. Hold My Baby
4. Keep On
5. Put It All InThere
6. Jelly Jam
7. Best Of Wild Child
8. Harmonica Prayer
9. Open Up Baby
10. Gravy Child
11. My 40 Year Old Woman
12. Do Something Baby
13. Hippy Playground
14. Big Momma, Little Momma

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. ---Bill Dahl, Rovi

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01. Hippie's Playground (Jimmy Dawkins) - 2:35					play
02. Gravy Child (George Butler) - 3:59
03. Can You Use A Man? (George Butler) - 3:30
04. Horner's Corner (F.DeVere/H.B.Levy/A.Williams) - 3:08
05. Worried All The Time (Jimmy Dawkins) - 3:10
06. Keep On Doin' What You're Doin' (George Butler) - 2:50
07. Sweet Love (Jimmy Dawkins) - 2:28
08. It's All Over (George Butler) - 2:43						play
09. Never Had Nothin' (Jimmy Dawkins) - 4:13
10. The Best Of Wild Child (George Butler) - 4:13
11. My Baby Done Put Me Down (George Butler) - 4:46
12. When I First Met You Baby (George Butler) - 3:30

- George "Wild Child" Butler - mouth harp, vocals
- Jimmy Dawkins - lead guitar
- Lafayette Leake - piano, organ
- Eddie "Big Mojo" Elem - bass
- Mighty Joe Young - rhythm guitar
- Robert Richey - drums
- Ronnie Stigger - congos, bongos
- Johnny Young – mandolin

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. ---Bill Dahl, allmusic.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire ulozto gett solidfiles bayfiles

back