Analogue Productions - AAPO 2045-45  - 180 gram Virgin Vinyl 

Mastered by Kevin Gray at AcousTech - 45RPM - Two Disc 

Limited Edition - Pressed at RTI

Before he could walk, little George Butler took to harassing the women who visited his mother at their rural Alabama shack. He would crawl across the floor and pull on their skirts and legs until the women began telling Beatrice Butler that her son was "a wild child." The name stuck. Wild Child began playing harmonica at age five. A local musician gave him a harp with a worn-out key, and Wild Child learned his first licks by playing around that bad spot. Finally, when that harp had gone completely bad, Wild Child fashioned a rustic model out of a Prince Albert Tobacco can, which he played for the next few years. From the time Wild Child picked up the harp, he played it upside down. He still does. In fact, it wasn't until he was about 25 years old that somebody told him the high notes were supposed to be played on the right side of the harp. But by then, Wild Child had developed his upside down sound.

As traditional as his Blues are, there's no mistaking a Wild Child tune. They can't be played this way by anyone else - not so boisterous, not so Wild Child. Perhaps it's the syncopation. The way Wild Child punches certain syllables with either his harp or voice. His blues sometimes sound angry and raw, other times soft and country-polished. "I was told from Willie Dixon that I had a way-out strange voice. He said he could hear it between Howlin' Wolf and Lightnin' Hopkins," Wild Child said. "He said ain't nothing been around like that." Here's a man whose been heavily praised by Dixon, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Jimmy Rogers just to name a few; a man who those blues legends were proud to accompany. The fact that Wild Child, born Oct. 1, 1936 in Autaugaville, Alabama, has yet to become a household blues name is a bit perplexing until you hear his story of misfortune.

"They didn't try to rip me off," Wild Child said, laughing about the record labels and managers he's had in the past. "They didn't try. They did." Bad, too. From the time he got to Chicago in 1966 Wild Child learned first hand of the harsh reality that can be the music business - specifically the blues business. Record producers passed off his songs as their own. Record companies sat on his recordings only to lease them to companies who didn't pay Wild Child dime one in royalties. And he had managers who were incompetent enough to stand watch over such deals. Since joining the APO Records family, Wild Child said he has felt renewed optimism about his career. His main goal, he said, is to garner enough money to live comfortably and most importantly, to leave a legacy. "I believe I got lucky when I came up on Chad (Kassem, the owner of APO Records)," Wild Child said. "I feel like it's my time now."

Willie Dixon once told Wild Child Butler, "You are the moan of the suffering woman, the groan of the dying man. You ain't nothing but the blues."

Here's a man who's been heavily praised by Dixon, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Jimmy Rogers just to name a few; a man who those blues legends were proud to accompany. As traditional as the blues on this album are, there's no mistaking a Wild Child tune. They can't be played this way by anyone else - not so boisterous, not so Wild Child. His blues sometimes sound angry and raw, other times soft and country-polished.

This release offers a fine mix of Wild Child's down-home acoustic sound, his slow, muscular blues and his up-tempo shuffle or snapping blues. As Wild Child himself said, "If you can't dig these blues, you got a hole in your soul [to borrow from a Jimmy Rogers saying]. Talkin' 'bout sho' 'nuff."

"George 'Wild Child' Butler is one of the last original, hard-workin' delta bluesmen. Although his career started not until the 1960s, the old times' tradition is still clearly heard on his music. You may call it blues, you may call it southern soul, you may even call it rock 'n' roll, but you just can't categorize him to any particular field. There's just one George Butler, and then there are the others." -