Nice basic interview with Lester Butler from the Tulsa World, on tour with Los Lobos in 1992 — (adjective deleted).
Red Devils Pour Out Blues With Rock ‘n’ Roll Spirit; Band Opens for Los Lobos
By John Wooley, Tulsa World
October 24, 1992
Lester Butler, lead singer and harmonica player for the L.A.-based Red Devils, knows about the roots of the blues. He can, and does, talk about blues legends like Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter.
And on their first album, the live “King King” (Def American Records), the group mixes tunes by those gentlemen and Junior Wells with originals in the same kind of groove.
But don’t expect the Red Devils to respectfully recreate the originals. Instead, the quintet dives into them with a rock ‘n’ roll spirit, sharpening them to a keen edge and playing them hard and loud.
“A lot of blues players are such (adjective deleted) purists that they lose the whole idea of the music,” said Butler in a recent telephone interview. “The idea of the music is not to recreate it, but to make it evolve, like Muddy Waters did.
“It’s the silliest thing in the world for me to see a musician copy another song note for note, phrase for phrase. That’s crazy. It’s not real. If I sing words from a Sonny Boy Williamson song about being down on the farm picking peaches or something, people are just going to think it’s silly. Instead, why not sing about going down and trying to find one of your friends in Crack Alley?
Read more »
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
Until last year I’d never even heard of this. Our producer John Leckie gave it to me while we were recording “Butterfly House” and it blew my head off. The Red Devils used to play live in L.A. in all these little clubs and Rick Rubin loved them. So he just recorded them live in this club called King King. The band — all amazing players — just sound like they’re on fire. There’s something about the way Rick Rubin’s done it too, it sounds really special. He could have done it in the studio but it wouldn’t have been as good. With “King King” you can hear the whole atmosphere of the club — you’re there, you’re with them, Read more »
