Got all of those...I played harp a little bit when I was a kid...and I think he was as good a white harp player as Jerry Portnoy, Charlie Musselwhite or William Clarke...right until the end...well, until the FIRST Better Days album...saw him once at the Ash grove (before the first fires) so f’d up he couldn’t make the second set and he was STILL great.William Clarke to me is a very badly underrated harmonica player and songwriter. (I had the chance to play "Pawnshop Blues" on my radio show recently; I do a radio comedy show but I mix in blues and jazz playing the blues on the show.) And if you're talking about the great white harmonica players, Magic Dick (the J. Geils Band) should be up there as Butterfield and Clarke's equal. Come to think of it, John Mayall was a hell of a harmonica player in his own right . . .
All true...have you heard Paul Rishell and Annie Raines? She tries to sing (and she isn’t too good) but she plays the harp behind him and they do some reall ass kicking Delta Blues...this is the only white guy doing blues that would fool anyone...and I mean anyone...and his playing is just beyond belief...if you haven’t heard him, let me recommend him for one of your shows...couple of albums, one electric (which was average) but the acoustic stuuf is great...especially when he gets out his old National Steel...I don’t know if their stuff got out of Boston much...
Talk about great bands that might have been...have you heard the Ronnie Earl/Jerry Portnoy Broadcasters stuff? Or Ronnie and Sugar Ray Norcia, for that matter...great stuff...before Ronnie decided to be a Jazzman at Berkely...