Paul Butterfield on Midnight Special on.....Clavinet??

[zxcvbnm098]

 

 

Wow, he sounds great! Had no idea he played keys, never mind funky Clav! He starts at 9:57

[analogika]

Wouldn't it need to be plugged in in order to actually "sound great"? 

 

Asking for a friend.

[J.F.N.]

36 minutes ago, analogika said:

Wouldn't it need to be plugged in in order to actually "sound great"? 

 

Asking for a friend.

 

11:09, Red cable..

[Mididude]

Nice footage.  I've seen other Midnight Special footage before of that guy who's playing the Rhodes in the clip, 'Ronnie Barron'.  I don't recall if it was this band that he was playing with, but a memory stands out to me that he was belting out some blues and playing Hammond B3 at the same time, including some fast run on the keys that I rewound (scrubbed back to)..,and watched/heard several times, at the end of the performance.  I had never heard of him before, but to those of the Baby Boom generation maybe he was popular back then, if only through the Paul Butterfield Band's albums and concerts.  The guy had clear talent.

[Docbop]

i was a big Paul Butterfield fan his early records were what I constantly played along with to learn guitar and bass.   His Better Days band was really great players of the day especially their first album.   For me Butterfield was like the American Blues version of what John Mayall was to British Blues they had a lot of great player come through their bands.  

[BenWaB3]

2 hours ago, Mididude said:

Nice footage.  I've seen other Midnight Special footage before of that guy who's playing the Rhodes in the clip, 'Ronnie Barron'.  I don't recall if it was this band that he was playing with, but a memory stands out to me that he was belting out some blues and playing Hammond B3 at the same time, including some fast run on the keys that I rewound (scrubbed back to)..,and watched/heard several times, at the end of the performance.  I had never heard of him before, but to those of the Baby Boom generation maybe he was popular back then, if only through the Paul Butterfield Band's albums and concerts.  The guy had clear talent.

Ronnie Barron played organ on Dr. John's "Gumbo" album. It was mainly background pads but that's how I knew of him before Better Days. He covered piano, organ and clav parts very well on those (Better Days) albums (and possibly elec. pianos - I don't have access to the records right at this moment). He showed impressive vocal chops on a few Better Days songs as well. He was supposedly lead vocalist in one of the Dr's lineups back in New Orleans too.

[analogika]

7 hours ago, J.F.N. said:

 

11:09, Red cable..

indeed! 
 

I sit comfortably corrected. 

[Piktor]

That is Alberta’s own (now) Amos Garrett on guitar. My best friend and used to play in his band. Amos is the fellow who played that memorable guitar solo on “ Midnight at the Oasis”. Here’s another Better Days performance where you can hear a better example of Amos’s guitar and Ronnie Barron on organ and lead vocal. 

 

[BenWaB3]

17 minutes ago, Piktor said:

That is Alberta’s own (now) Amos Garrett on guitar. My best friend and used to play in his band. Amos is the fellow who played that memorable guitar solo on “ Midnight at the Oasis”. Here’s another Better Days performance where you can hear a better example of Amos’s guitar and Ronnie Barron on organ and lead vocal. 

 

 

Thanks for sharing this, Piktor! The one thing that surprised me on this and the previous video was that I had thought Amos was a Telecaster man. Any light you could shed on that would be appreciated. Another thing I forgot to put in my previous post was that the drummer is Chris Parker, who went on to be in the original lineup of Stuff and may have shared duties with Steve Gadd for a while. The band also had Geoff Muldaur on guitar & vocals. This was a great band. It's a shame they didn't go further.

[Docbop]

2 hours ago, Piktor said:

That is Alberta’s own (now) Amos Garrett on guitar. My best friend and used to play in his band. Amos is the fellow who played that memorable guitar solo on “ Midnight at the Oasis”. Here’s another Better Days performance where you can hear a better example of Amos’s guitar and Ronnie Barron on organ and lead vocal. 

 

Especially Amos'  great guitar work on Midnight at the Oasis.

 

 

 

[jerrythek]

3 hours ago, BenWaB3 said:

Another thing I forgot to put in my previous post was that the drummer is Chris Parker, who went on to be in the original lineup of Stuff and may have shared duties with Steve Gadd for a little while.

Yes, Chris and Steve shared drum duties for a while in Stuff. A perfect pairing. 
 

 

[Mididude]

4 hours ago, Piktor said:

That is Alberta’s own (now) Amos Garrett on guitar. My best friend and used to play in his band. Amos is the fellow who played that memorable guitar solo on “ Midnight at the Oasis”. Here’s another Better Days performance where you can hear a better example of Amos’s guitar and Ronnie Barron on organ and lead vocal. 

 

Yes!  That was the very clip I was talking about.  I liked every moment of it... including that fast B3 run at the end.  Thanks for posting it.

[zxcvbnm098]

Ronnie Baron was a monster. I'd never heard of him until this thread. Apparently much of Dr. John's schtick was taken from Ronnie. They were friends from way back in NO. Died quite young.....what a talent!

[Piktor]

9 hours ago, BenWaB3 said:

 

Thanks for sharing this, Piktor! The one thing that surprised me on this and the previous video was that I had thought Amos was a Telecaster man. Any light you could shed on that would be appreciated. Another thing I forgot to put in my previous post was that the drummer is Chris Parker, who went on to be in the original lineup of Stuff and may have shared duties with Steve Gadd for a while. The band also had Geoff Muldaur on guitar & vocals. This was a great band. It's a shame they didn't go further.

You are welcome. To answer your question:

I am far from an expert in this matter. I had the opportunity to see Amos perform a number of times and had “encounters” in the eighties and nineties. (e.g. My band was performing on the night that he asked my drummer friend [not me 😄] to play for him. I did meet him and share a table once. No, I didn’t ask a bunch of questions. Unfortunately, while I have played with people who know Amos and his history, I was a bit clueless in my twenties. It was only later that I heard some of the Butterfield recordings and learned more of his history. Even in my ignorance, I COULD hear that Garret’s playing was special, especially his note choices and technique of bending multiple strings by different intervals. (Try THAT on a synth.) Watching him perform, I often got the sense of him making thoughtful choices. Finally, every time I saw Garret playing live, he was using a blond Tele with a dark fingerboard (a graphite neck?). Sorry that I don’t know more than that. 

[Jim Alfredson]

That's cool and all but Johnny Taylor is a baaaaaaaad man. The juxtaposition was striking.

[Ivan May]

Butterfield actually was proficient on a lot of instruments. IIRC he began his career studying classical flute before restricting himself to guitar and harmonica duties.