An Anthology: The Elektra Years

Disc 1
1	Born in Chicago 3:13
2	Lovin' Cup 2:39
3	One More Mile 3:30
4	Off the Wall 2:04
5	Come on In 2:05
6	Nut Popper, No. 1 2:25
7	Ain't No Need to Go No Further/It's Too Late Brother 2:43
8	Born in Chicago 3:06
9	Shake Your Moneymaker 2:25
10	Blues With a Feeling 4:21
11	Thank You Mr. Poobah 4:05
12	Our Love Is Drifting 3:34
13	Mystery Train 2:33
14	Last Night 4:17
15	Walking Blues 3:17
16	I Got a Mind to Give up Living 4:57
17	Work Song 7:53
18	All These Blues 2:21
19	East West 13:09
Disc 2
1	One More Heartache 3:20
2	Double Trouble 5:38
3	Last Hope's Gone 4:50
4	Come on In 4:56
5	Just to Be with You 6:10
6	Get Yourself Together 4:08
7	In My Own Dream 5:46
8	Love March 2:56
9	Walking by Myself 4:28
10	Love Disease 3:28
11	Everything's Gonna Be Alright 10:02
12	Driftin' and Driftin' 13:41
13	Blind Leading the Blind 3:59
14	Song for Lee 3:42

Barnes & Noble

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was one of the very best bands of 1960s, blues or otherwise. Butterfield was a gutsy singer with a beefy, Little Walter tone to his harmonica, and the band debuted with two gifted guitarists, Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, and a fine keyboard player, Mark Naftalin. Bloomfield played on the band's first two albums, which are well chronicled on the first of this two-disc compilation. "Born in Chicago" captures the band rocking, while "Blues with a Feeling" and "I Got a Mind to Give Up Living" showcase Bloomfield's mastery of the slow blues solo. Two extended jams, the swinging "Work Song" and the jazzy "East West," operate at the highest levels of disciplined improvisation, and both rock like crazy. The second disc covers later incarnations of Butterfield's band and features some exceptional Butterfield vocals ("Just to Be with You"), more great guitar (by Bishop and Buzz Feiten), and the addition of horns. If later Butterfield groups could never quite equal the power of the original, that's just the price of greatness. John Milward

All Music Guide

An Anthology -- The Elektra Years is a double-disc, 33-song set that offers a comprehensive overview of Paul Butterfield's eight years with the label. His first two albums, Paul Butterfield Blues Band and East-West, were seminal, groundbreaking records that blurred the boundaries between blues, jazz and rock, suggesting everything from blues-rock to psychedelia. They were stunning achievements which proved difficult to match, but Butterfield's remaining albums for the label all had a few good cuts. An Anthology does a nice job of rounding up those highlights, picking the best moments from uneven records; consequently, it's quite a valuable package for listeners who simply want a sampling from those later albums instead of purchasing them individually. Butterfield's first two albums remain necessary listens in their own right, but this set offers an excellent summary of his entire stint with Elektra. Stephen Thomas Erlewine