With a style honed in the gritty blues bars of Chicago's South Side, the Butterfield Blues Band were instrumental in bringing the sound of authentic Chicago blues to a young white audience in the mid-'60s, and although they weren't a particularly huge commercial success, their influence has been enduring and pervasive.
The group was formed when singer and harmonica player Paul Butterfield met guitarist and fellow University of Chicago student Elvin Bishop in the early '60s. Bonding over a love of the blues, the pair managed to hijack Howlin' Wolf's rhythm section (bassist Je...