Search - Butterfield Blues Band :: In My Own Dream

One of Butterfield's greatest allbums

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 07/02/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This being one of Paul Butterfield's best albums means that this is one of the best albums of its era. I remember the original date of release to sometime in the very early seventies, maybe the late sixties.
This incarnation of the Butterfield Blues Band is a stirring mix of jazz, blues and soul. The personnel is Paul Butterfield on the harmonica and vocals, Elvin Bishop on guitar and vocal, David Sanborn on alto sax (I think this is his first album), Gene Dinwiddie on the tenor sax, flute and vocals, Keith Johnson on the trumpet, Bugsy Maugh on the bass and vocals, Phillip Wilson on drums and vocals, Naffy Markham on the keyboards and Al Kooper guests on two of the songs on keyboards.
Several things about this group stand out in the Butterfield opus. The horn section is fat, the vocals harmonies are the best on any of his albums, the lead vocals are more soulful than bluesy and the instrumental emphasis is on the group sound more than individual solos. Don't get me wrong- good solos abound. Bishop tears up the end of Drunk Again and Dave Sanborn has a wonderful solo on the title song. But the overall emphasis to me is on what I consider to be one of the hallmarks of a great Chicago blues band. I mean the way that everybody is doing little fills all the time, never getting in each other's way and the way it all adds up to something very rich and satisfying like a complex musical stew. I cannot tell you how much fun this band was live. They could have everybody up and dancing at the same time that Dinwiddie and the horn section were starting to play complex free jazz funk and land it all back again with solid group singing. Wilson and Maugh would keep it all in the pocket. One of the great concerts of my life- right up there with Zappa, Mingus, Tyner, Miles, Sonny Rollins, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Bill Frisell, etc. These guys were a treat.
The songs are Last Hope's Gone (great recent cover by Robben Ford), Mine to Love, Get Yourself Together, Just to Be With You, Morning Blues, Drunk Again (Bishop's silly but wonderful showpiece as his alterego Pigboy Crabshaw), and In My Own Dream.
The only drawback is that it is all too short- fairly typical for the time period, the whole album clocks in under thirty one minutes.
It is truely unfortunate that there are no song samples for this one. I can only suggest that you take courage and your money in hand and take a risk. I have played this album for a lot of people in my life. The vast majority of them have loved it.
I played it today for the first time for my soon to be born daughter. I am pretty sure she was grooving on it. Maybe good taste is inheritable?"

Sultry, inventive - masterful players create quite the groov

Phil Rogers | Ann Arbor, Michigan | 05/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You know the guy who once said that this CD was mired in the 60's? Well that guy is mired in the blues. All he reviews is blues, probably all he listens to is blues. Probably thinks he knows everything there is to know about anything that has anything . . . to do with the blues. But what happens when something starts to cook on a jazz tip like what's claimed by the other reviewer who beat me out of the gate, and who basically had nothing but goodness to throw our way, or to say? Then the former reviewer starts to hear the rocks rattlin' in his head - but we'd been hearing them all along. 'In My Own Dream' is satisfying, and almost supremely so, from cover to cover, if you'll forgive the book metaphor. It's soulful, inventive in every sort of way, and even relaxing. There's something rawer to the three albums that preceded this one chronologically. But to think that raw is absent from 'Dream' - that's just plain silly. In addition, these songs attain extreme mastery of mood, color, multiple meandering melodies, yet stay together, weave tightly together, all the way through. Somewhat ambient as was Mayall's slightly earlier 'Bare Wires' but sultry, more expressive, reedier. Slow tempo, quick tempo, any tempo.And no, it's not too short, even at around 30 minutes. There's just enough to slake your thirst, energize your belly, sooth your heart. By all means do ignore the jaded ones that traffic in tongue-and-cheek criticism, eyes bulging under their dark glasses, acrid smoke brimming from their ears. They're not to be believed - they're certainly not worth your time of day."

Ultimate Blues Fix

Mackie | 12/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I never tire of this CD. Have it on vinyl too. Powerful phrasing of the harp & ax - hypnotic vocals - check out the end of Drunk Again. Elvin Bishop emerges as a great blues guitarist. Raw & edgy white boy Chicago blues at its best."