Search - Paul Blues Band Butterfield :: Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw

YOU'RE BUYING THE WRONG CD!

BOB | LOS ANGELES, CA | 11/02/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"
Yes, this is the great PBBB's 3rd album, but it's not the CD you should be buying.



This domestic CD was released in 1989 and has never been remastered.



The import 2CD version of this title (backed with the PBBB's 4th "In My Own Dream") is the one to get. It was remastered in 2004.



Ditto for "The Paul Butterfield Blues Band" & "East West"; the 2004 import 2CD is also remastered (and sounds incredible) and the domestic CD's are not.



Why WEA and Elektra have not made these four remasters available domestically is a mystery.



Don't waste your money on these inferior versions: Get the imports!



Link to the remastered import of Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw/In My Own Dream"

Resurrection? Hardly. Insurrection? More Like It.

BluesDuke | Las Vegas, Nevada | 07/06/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The skinny: guitarmeister Mike Bloomfield had bolted the Butterfield band following their masterwork "East-West," Bloomfield having fallen in love with San Francisco and an idea he got for a hot horn band that might yank the whole of indigenous American music into a blues-rooted group (this turned out to be the short-lived but memorable enough Electric Flag). Drummer Billy Davenport left for jazzier pastures; bassist Jerry Arnold seemed to have had it with the road. Leaving Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop and Mark Naftalin in search of new teammates. Butterfield, though, had his own idea for a hot horn lineup, and brought it together from a pack of R and B and jazz-laced players and rhythm meisters."The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw" (Pigboy Crabshaw, for those who haven't guessed by now, was Bishop's nickname in the band, much as Eric Clapton was known to his Cream bandmates as Captain Madman) was the first result. It wasn't exactly as overwhelming or as freewheeling as the incandescent, somewhat experimental "East-West," but don't let that stop you: this first flight of the new brassy Butterfield Band plain smoked. (It still does, even if the thin production means docking the album a star.) Butterfield was gunning for big game in his own right, mixing in a solid soul front to his usual brand of bristling blues. Elvin Bishop steps forward as the band's official lead guitarist for the first time and, while he's not exactly Mike Bloomfield (really: WHO was?), he showed his own identity and made it a credible one with smooth, spare but sinewy fills and solos when handed off. Bassist Bugsy Maugh is a strong vocalist in his own right ("Drivin' Wheel") and he teams with one-time Wilson Pickett drummer Philip Wilson to give Butterfield a thick rhythm. Butterfield himself is a little more open with his trademark harmonica styling, but he gives even more room to his men to move than he had in the past (and he'd given plenty as it was) and he feeds them with aplomb. And the horns - featuring the youthful and exuberantly agreeable David Sanborn and steady tenorman Gene Dinwiddie (who became the leader of the horn section for the rest of the band's life until its 1973 dissolution) - breathe warmly, drawing from various R and B and jazz motifs yet coming forth with a sound entirely its own. (And, more influential than you might have thought - Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes's horns owed as much to the first Butterfield horn section as they did to the Memphis/Muscle Shoals horn stylings.)Their cover of Otis Rush's "Double Trouble" alone is worth the price, but so is a very snappy rendition of Albert King's "Born Under A Bad Sign" - it doesn't try to beat Big Albert at his own game, but it lays out the groove pretty widely. Overall, Butterfield found himself a very comfortable setting, and one he would use for the rest of the Butterfield Blues Band's life, as they would go from here to graduate almost completely away from the pure blues toward an oddly affecting hybrid of soul funk and jazz that had few pretensions and a lot of raw snap."

So, who was Pigboy Crabshaw?

Jon G. Jackson | Santa Rosa, CA | 06/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nowadays, not many people remember that The Butterfield Blues Band played at the '65 Newport Festival, Monterey Pop in '67, AND at Woodstock in '69! Not only that, but two days after Dylan was booed off the stage at Newport, Butterfield came on stage with an electric set that was enthusiastically received! In the years before he died, apparently, Butterfield suffered from recurrent stomach hernias, caused by "his forceful style of playing the harmonica." Get the idea? These guys were truly hot! The earlier "raw" albums are often cited as Butterfield's best, but I've always had a stronger affection for 1967's "The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw." Mike Bloomfield had left the band at this point. But, as far as that goes, I think Elvin Bishop's guitar on this album (and on 1968's "In My Own Dream") was about as good as it gets. Mark Naftalin is on keyboards. The horn arrangements are superb. The songs are great! And Butterfield's soul is heavy and deep. One of my all-time favorite albums. HIGHLY recommended."