Paul Butterfield's Better Days: Paul Butterfield (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric piano, harp); Geoff Muldaur (vocals, slide guitar, piano, vibraphone); Amos Garrett (guitar, background vocals); Ronnie Barron (piano, organ, background vocals); Billy Rich (bass); Christopher Parker (drums).
Additional personnel: Dave Sanborn (alto saxophone); Gene Dinwiddie, J.D. Parran (tenor saxophone); Howard Johnson (baritone saxophone); Peter Ecklund, Stan Shafran (trumpet); Sam Burtis, Gary Brocks (trombone); Maria Muldaur, Dennis Whited, Bobby Charles (background vocals).
Recorded at Bearsville Sound Studio, Bearsville, New York.
Personnel: Paul Butterfield (vocals, harp, harmonica, electric piano, background vocals); Geoff Muldaur (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, piano, background vocals); Maria Muldaur (vocals, fiddle, background vocals); Ronnie Barron (vocals, piano, electric piano, organ, keyboards); Dennis Whitted (vocals, drums, background vocals); Bobby Charles (vocals); Amos Garrett (guitar, acoustic guitar, background vocals); David Sanborn (saxophone, alto saxophone); Brother Gene Dinwiddie, J.D. Parran (saxophone, tenor saxophone); Howard Johnson (baritone saxophone, horns); Stan Shafran, Peter Ecklund (trumpet); Gary Brocks, Sam Burtis (trombone); Chris Parker (drums).
Arrangers: Geoff Muldaur; Howard Johnson ; Paul Butterfield.
"We're the only band around that's playing rooted American music," Better Days vocalist and former folkie Geoff Muldaur told an interviewer when this album was first released in 1973, and with perhaps just a handful of exceptions he was right. The band's mix of various styles of blues, from rural (Robert Johnson), to cosmopolitan (Percy Mayfield), along with hints of New Orleans R&B, boogie woogie, and early rock and country, was tremendously out of step with the pop trends of its time.
These days, of course, there are many bands doing more or less the same thing (although rarely as well), but the fact that these guys couldn't have cared less about appearing trendy is one of the reasons why BETTER DAYS sounds timeless. Another reason, of course, is world class musicianship; Muldaur, Paul Butterfield, and stupendously stylish guitarist Amos Garrett in particular come across as both relaxed and passionate. Despite their essentially formalistic approach to music making, they never sound academic or sterile. BETTER DAYS is one of the great lost albums of the '70s.
