Long out of print, “13 featuring Lester Butler” appears to be headed back to stores.
Copies of the 1997 album, first issued on the now-defunct HighTone label, are scarce, and often sell for nearly $100 on eBay.
Now, almost exactly 14 years after its debut, “13″ looks like it’s being reissued through Rockbeat Records.
There is not much information on this record yet, as it has just begun appearing on sites such as amazon.com, bn.com and others. Here are a few things we do know:
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This is one of the more readily available interviews with Lester Butler, but we’re including it here anyway:
Blowin’ out reeds with Lester Butler: Blues harp player/singer says the bad luck made him better
By Fred Shuster, Los Angeles Daily News Music Writer
March 28, 1997
Blues harpist Lester Butler says 13 is his lucky number, even though it spells bad news for others.
“There’s lots of symbolism behind it — bad luck and that whole deal,” Butler said. “But it’s always been lucky for me. All the bad things that happen make you stronger. The 13 thing is where the worst stuff can happen, but you can turn it around, and it actually helps you survive.”
Butler, who sings the blues with conviction and blows a mean Chicago-style harmonica, has been through the music-biz ringer. In the early ’90s, he led the Red Devils, a popular local combo that scored a deal with producer Rick Rubin’s Def American label. The band recorded an EP and a well-received live album titled “King King,” after the then-jumping club.
On Mondays, the Devils played to star-studded, packed houses at the now-defunct La Brea Avenue night spot. ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons and Mick Jagger often dropped by. Queen’s Brian May, members of the Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz and Peter Wolf sat in with the band. Angelo from Fishbone would recite spoken word when he wasn’t playing saxophone.
We are continuing to sift through Feelgood’s fantastic collection of Red Devils and 13 memorabilia. He’s sent us a lot of great stuff to look at, including images of several ticket stubs, and the really cool handbill at right. It is from the Nov. 18, 1993, gig at Schaaf, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Appears that Paul Size and Dave Lee Bartel were unceremoniously scratched-out from this promo item; Size had probably already left the band a few months earlier.
Feelgood also sent us these two ticket stubs, one Devils and one 13:
Both tickets are from the venue Oosterpoort in Groningen, Netherlands, three years apart; ABOVE LEFT is the Devils Sept. 4, 1994, and ABOVE RIGHT is 13 Sept. 7, 1997.
Finally, Feelgood shared his own ticket collection with us: Chuck Berry, Flaco Jimenez, Bo Diddley, Georgia Satellites, Steve Earle, John Hiatt, the Paladins, Billy Joe Shaver, and many more. That’s an impressive resume!
Watch for more from Feelgood’s collection, soon on nofightin.com.
There is no better way to show your devotion to a band than a concert T-shirt. Unfortunately, there are very few options for The Red Devils or 13; when we saw 13 on tour in the Midwest in 1997, they really had no merch to speak of (and unfortunately, the Devils’ 1992 tour is something of a blur almost two decades later). Nofightin.com reader Feelgood sent us some images of the handful of tees out there.
Above left is a fan tribute shirt that Jasper Heikens says is by Chris Wobben; above right is the Red Devils’ Planet Hollywood-style tee, which Feelgood said he bought when he saw the Devils on Nov. 18, 1993, at Zalen Schaaf, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; below left and right is the front, sleeve and backside of the 13 T-shirt, with damn slick tattoo-style artwork, purchased Jan. 30, 1998, near Feelgood’s hometown, Het Bolwerk, Sneek, The Netherlands: “I bought here the 13 T shirt, Lester was after the show present on the stand with T shirts and Cd’s for a chat and a autograph.”
Jasper Heikens has more T-shirt images and info on the Lester Butler tribute page.
Thanks as always to our pal Vince Jordan for providing great photos, including this picture of the touring version of 13, James Intveld, left, on drums, Lester Butler, bassist Mark Goldberg and guitarist Alex Schultz (photographer unknown), outside the Blue Cafe in Tahiti, probably 1997.
This is just one of many different 13 live lineups, depending on date, location and circumstances. Hightone’s tour bio provides some clarity:
“Music is a hypnotic thing — it kind of puts you in this state and it just comes out,” confesses lead singer/harp man extraordinaire Lester Butler of Los Angeles-based 13, in attempting to describe the creative process that fuels the visceral, edgy sound of the band and its self-titled debut on HighTone Records. For the brand of blues that Lester and his mates are creating is not that by-the-book, note-for-note recreations of the usual cast of characters; but rather a living, breathing force of energy that effectively captures both the spirit and intent of what makes this music so special. And that’s the only way Butler knows how to do it.
“When you’re talking about blues, you’re talking
about storytelling. … You have to bring something to the table.
You have to have a story to tell.”
13 years ago tonight, Lester Butler and his gang took the stage at the Bar Deluxe in Hollywood to celebrate the release of the album “13 featuring Lester Butler.” [*]
Fans of The Red Devils’ “King King” were in for a surprise with this new disc: While “King King” was raw, buzzy and live, “13″ was sharp and edgy. “King King” was a tight ensemble record; “13″ sounded like a blues band riot. “King King” relied on classic blues shuffles; “13″ pushed the envelope into punk, rock, boogie, R&B and jam. “King King” celebrated women, cars and booze; “13″ was a junkie travelogue, documenting the seedy side of life as seen by Butler in the five years since The Red Devils’ triumphs.
For all their differences, “13″ and “King King” still go hand-in-hand; if you love one, you probably love the other.
But 13 was a mission statement by Butler, with one foot firmly in blues and the other somewhere in space. Distribution on the small independent blues and roots label Hightone seemingly gave Butler carte blanche to follow his muse (check out the psychedelic cyber-tarot nightmare album cover and confusing labeling for proof).
The album he crafted is filled with tales of chaos, desperation and regret, the music stripped raw in the studio — simple, pounding drums; barrelhouse piano; snaky, funky guitar; and Butler’s vocals in front, the singer damn near ingesting the mic and screaming in your ear.
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Thanks to our great nofightin.com readers for turning us on to so many great photos and recordings in the last month or so. As we continue to collect more stuff, we’ll continue to share with you.
Reader Harry sent us this concert ticket for 13 at the Tivoli, Utrecht, The Netherlands. The date is Sept. 9, 1997, and Harry remarks, “It was a great show!” European blues band Drippin’ Honey was also billed.
The Web site that brought us the 13 Moulin Blues DVD, www.bluesdvd.nl, now has a YouTube channel. Of interest to us: A great quality highlight reel of the 13 DVD. If you’ve been on the fence about getting this concert, watch this video and get going!
More than a year after its release — and more than 11 since the gig — the Lester Butler DVD, “Live at Moulin Blues Ospel 1998 — Lester’s Legendary Last Gig,” is still being discovered by fans.
A review posted today by “Slidin’ Slim” from Sweden underlines some of what we’ve been saying about this DVD:
To watch Lester’s very last performance (he died from a drug overdose one week after the gig) at the Moulin Blues Ospel in The Netherlands 1998 together with some very rare rehearsal footage and a few songs from 1993 with The Red Devils was both joyful and extremely sad.
Again, you can pick up a copy of the DVD from www.bluesdvd.nl.
Thanks to drummer Eddie Clark, much of 13′s history has been preserved on video, including excellent rehearsal videos of Lester Butler and 13 from 1998..
You should recognize these videos as the source of the “Business in the Street” clips from the 13 Moulin Blues DVD, recorded at YO! Studios, Van Nuyes, California, in March 1998.
The guitarist is Chris Masterson; in an e-mail, Clark tells nofightin.com that “Chris replaced Alex Schultz and Enrico Crivellaro and did most of the gigs in the Los Angeles area and short road trips outside of L.A. Alex Schultz was the ‘ringer’ for festivals and such, as promoters asked if Alex was in the band for those events. Hence his appearance on MBO 1998.”
Clark — who says he does not remember the bassist on this session — says he was the man who insisted on rehearsals, including three in 1998, “mostly going over old material and creating Lester’s new material. We had to make up our own parts for those new songs and try to make it fit.”
“Shake ‘Em on Down”:
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