The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin' 1971

An eclectic variety of group stalwarts, session players, and friends gathered to record 1971's Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin'. It proved to be the final Paul Butterfield Blues Band album; Butterfield retired the group and signed with Bearsville Records to launch his new group, Better Days. After two albums, Better Days also folded, and Butterfield recorded as a solo artist and a sideman in a career that was followed by blues fans but had fallen outside mainstream visibility. Paul Butterfield died on May 4, 1987 in North Hollywood, California; he was 44 years old. After his passing, a variety of archival releases from the Butterfield Blues Band appeared, including studio outtakes (1995's The Original Lost Elektra Sessions), early live material (2018's Born in Chicago: Live 1966), and the group's complete Woodstock performance (2020's Live at Woodstock). Mike Bloomfield died on February 15, 1981 at the age of 37, with other important members of the group passing in the years that followed. Drummer Phillip Wilson, who also performed with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, died on March 25, 1992 at the age of 50. Billy Davenport retired from music in 1981, and died on December 24, 1999 at the age of 68. Gene Dinwiddie focused on studio work before his death on January 11, 2002 at the age of 65. Bugsy Maugh cut a pair of solo albums, appeared on Todd Rundgren's 1972 album Something/Anything?, and played in a variety of blues groups; he died on July 2, 2015 at the age of 73. Drummer Sam Lay continued to be a fixture on the Chicago blues circuit for decades. He died on January 29, 2022 at the age of 86. AMG

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