After doing a forum search I found out that there was very little mention of Lester Butler. I just recently got acquainted with his playing as I did not know about him before. I was wondering where you guys put him on the ladder so to speak. I think he was a solid player but what i like about him most was the intensity of his playing.
Lester Butler has been mentioned a time or two around here. He's in my top five for sure. He's another cat who could nail Little Walter's licks and then turn around and create a punk/blues vibe that no one else had going at the time. He even played on one of Johnny Cash's Rick Rubin produced albums. Lester was for real. Check out some of his and the Red Devils' youtube vids. Anyway--
Yes, I'm a big Lester Butler fan. I think it's out of print,but "King King" with the Red Devils is a great glimpse of Lester. Just the one cut-"Automatic" is worth the price of admission. His personal life was a shambles,but he sure could play!
I gotta jump in here on this one. I was fortunate enough to have some pretty regular exposure and interaction with a narrow segment of part of the SoCal music scene during the late 80's and early 90's. As a harp aficionado, I connected most with the sound of the Red Devils. Around this same time, the guys that I efforted to make their gigs the most were Piazza, Clarke and the Devils. And, while I met and talked with Piazza a bit, he was less accessable. Lester Butler spent quite a bit of time at the house of a friend of a friend. On many occassions, I heard him fiddle around on harp or sit with an informal jam with some mix of available backyard musicians. It is unfortunate that the only recorded documented chronicle of his playing is limited to the King King album, the solo thing with 13, and the Mick Jagger stuff. I can tell you that Lester Butler, had he lived longer, would have been very highly regarded. He could work a rock crowd with his playing and loved traditional blues.
Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, Butler did some work with RL Burnside at some point as well. I didn't know about the Johnny Cash thing. I'd like to hear it.
Lester Butler could do it and do it well. He was the Real Deal.
I don't think so. I had a Blue Shadows cassette for several years that I had picked up at a show. As cassettes did, it finally met it's demise by getting munched by a deck in a truck on a washboard dirt road in Baja......I remember that one vividly.
There are plenty of Lester Butler vids on YouTube. I've seen several from the Blue Shadows times.
He's an interesting figure. Didn't really have a chance to leave much of a recorded testament, but he definitely could play--a true harp guy, not a blues rock who played a little harp.
This clip makes that clear:
I think he's in my honorable mention category, but if he's not, I'll put him there.
Funny, I've been thinking about starting a thread about him. I've been writing a song about him and another harp player from Birmingham (Topper Price) called "Unfinished Business".
There are quite a few videos of him on You Tube from The Red Devils and "13" days. Before Rick Rubin had them change their name, they were called The Blue Shadows.
The band backed Bruce Willis quite often (sad, kinda). And they played at the club King King on Monday nights to good crowds that often included quite a few celebs.
Lester Butler is another dude I'm talking about when I shout out about INNOVATIVE BLUES HARP.
The You Tube videos of him rehearsing his band "13" are very interesting because you can see how he and the band work. Watch the thought process, watch the way he leads the band. It's educational shit. Total tragedy about the way he died.
Junkies fucking up (him included, sadly) all over the damn, place. -Bob
