Paul Butterfield's Better Days - Live At Winterland Ballroom 1973

Better Days was a short-lived band led by harmonica player Paul Butterfield.

Better Days were only around briefly, and only ever released two studio albums. Fortunately in 1999 an excellent live album was released, taken from recordings of a concert at Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in 1973. It's a great quality recording, showing the talented band at their best, with lots of the songs featuring extended solos and jams. The majority of the set list is made up of numbers from the band's two albums, but it also features an otherwise unreleased song ("Countryside") and a fifteen-minute jam of Bobby Charles' "He's Got All The Whiskey" (the song originally appeared on Charles' 1972 self-titled album, which members of Better Days had played on).

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Paul Butterfield's Better Days - It All Comes Back (1973)

Better Days was a short-lived band led by harmonica player Paul Butterfield.

Better Days released their second album in 1973, not long after their debut. Like the first album, it was a fine mix of R&B styles performed by a wonderful band - Paul Butterfield (harmonica/vocals), Geoff Mulduar (guitar/keyboards/vocals), Ronnie Barron (keyboards/vocals), Amos Garrett (lead guitar), Billy Rich (bass) and Chris Parker (drums). Their friend, neighbour and fellow Bearsville Records artist Bobby Charles was apparently involved in the album, as he wrote or co-wrote four of the songs (including a wonderful version of “Small Town Talk”, originally from his 1972 album, here sung by Muldaur). He also sang backing vocals for one of these songs. 

After this second album, the band went their separate ways, marking the end of a far too short collaboration. Butterfield’s next release would mark the start of his solo career.

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Paul Butterfield's Better Days - Better Days (1973)

Better Days was a short-lived band led by harmonica player Paul Butterfield.

In 1971 Paul Butterfield disbanded the group he had founded and led since 1963, and The Butterfield Blues Band was no more. He then moved to Woodstock, which was a haven for rock musicians at the time (its residents included The Band and Van Morrison), and he quickly made friends throughout the community. Before long a new band was being formed, as he was joined by guitarist Amos Garrett, drummer Chris Parker, bassist John Kahn, organist Merl Saunders, and Geoff and Maria Muldaur, who had been members of Jim Keweskin's Jug Band in the 60s, and had also recorded together as a duo. This group worked on the soundtrack for the film Steelyard Blues, before Saunders and Kahn left and were replaced by Ronnie Barron (a veteren New Orleans pianist) and Billy Rich (who had played for Buddy Miles Express and Taj Mahal). Maria Muldaur also dropped out at this time as she broke up with Geoff, and she went on to a successful solo career. 

Now calling themselves Paul Butterfield's Better Days, the final lineup thus consisted of Butterfield (vocals/harmonica), Geoff Muldaur (vocals/guitar/keyboards), Ronnie Barron (vocals/keyboards), Amos Garrett (lead guitar), Billy Rich (bass) and Chris Parker (drums). They were signed to Albert Grossman's local Bearsville label, where they also met Bobby Charles, a Louisianan songwriter who had also come to Woodstock to hide away and ended up recording for Grossman.

Their album came out in 1973, showcasing a great range of blues styles from urban to rural. The vocals were shared equally between Butterfield, Muldaur and Barron, the latter two in particularly proving to be excellent singers. The songs included covers of Percy Mayfield's classic "Please Send Me Someone To Love", Robert Johnson's "Walking Blues" (which Butterfield had also recorded with his old band back in '66), Nick Gravenites' "Buried Alive In The Blues" and Big Joe Williams' "Baby Please Don't Go", plus a funky R&B number from Barron, and "Done A Lot Of Wrong Things", a brilliant song given to them by Bobby Charles. Maria also returned to help out with backing vocals. With brilliant musicianship all round, and brassy horn arrangements on some songs, the result was a rootsy R&B masterpiece. It got a good critical response, but it was never going to be a massive seller, leaving it as a true lost classic of the 70s.

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