Reviews
Blues based singer, guitarist and composer Brian Butler showed up at some acoustic open mikes in the 70's and 80's. He was
also pursuing and making a name in the electric blues-based band scene. Here he is on acoustic guitar, piano and vocals.
The opening lope of "Second Line Beat" mixes the early acoustic blues players and the more 60-70's modern blue framing as
he sings about New Orleans and the famous "second line". His vocals are crystal clear in the diction with just a fine crack on
the edge. He penned this and six others. More traditional blues picking in a upbeat almost boogie style nails "The Future Ain't
What It Used To Be". Nice thematic, and the guitar picking is a lesson on how to play this style clean and quick. His
guitar on JB Lenior's "Slow Down Woman" is very reminiscent of Brownie McGhee and the late-career Broonzy. His blues piano is clean
and rolls well on his "When The Wind Blows". Acoustic piano vocal blues are a lost art, but are in very good hands here.
Butler changes the blues boogie runs on each phrase and mixes the approach and brings home the vocal. Very nicely done.
He picks many styles like Piedmont in his Inconsequential". I always loved Leroy Carr and his "Night Time Is The Right
Time" is a classic done by many acoustic musicians and electric blues bands. Butler takes a nice slow reading, soulful
approach, again with just pure clarity on the words. Following that with Johnny Cash's "Big River" using an upbeat finger
picking acoustic style blues really works. The piano strides slowly to take you to "place Pigalle". You hear the music and
words of that establishment and see the people described. On this Butler reminds me of Michigan's Mr. B in piano and
vocals. style. "Trouble In Mind, another classic is taken mainly in the 50's Broonzy styles (Broonzy wrote this). The tongue
in cheek laid-back upbeat picking and singing on "Serious Business" delivers a smile and top tap to your demeanor.
Butler never pushes, just delivers quality. Driving, acoustic, expressive, guitar lines make "Hard To Keep" a modern
message of life, love and money.
Superb collection of blues from a blues player who was always on his game, and his
maturity just shines through. Would have liked to see a bit more packaging and details on the jacket cover. Otherwise, don't
change anything, just let me listen and thoroughly enjoy.
Brian Butler's new self-produced CD is one of my favorite local acoustic releases of the year. Scott Ross crisply captured Wait All Night's 12 tracks at Elliot Bay Recording, and I particularly liked originals like "Inconsequential", "Second Line Beat", and "Serious Business". "Inconsequential" was featured on the Seattle Folklore Society's 2001 compilation A Musical Doorway, and I'm glad Brian included it on Wait All Night. Brian's work has also been included on two Seattle Best Blues compilations of Raw Records in Port Townsend, with "Serious Business" landing on SBB Vol. 2. On both "Place Pigalle" and "When the Wind Blows (And The Lights Go Out)", Brian offers up some solid boogie-woogie piano that would be right at home in the Big Easy. His classic interpretations of J.B. Lenoir's "Slow Down Woman" or Big Bill Broonzy's "Trouble In Mind" will surely please fans of traditional acoustic blues.
Brian Butler brought his band to the Salmon Bay Eagles in Ballard, and it was one of my favorite shows booked at Seattle's longest-running home of live blues. Wait All Night is a different side of Brian Butler: solo and unplugged. It's a solid acoustic blues CD with a nice mix of original songs and covers.
Brian Butler has been on the Seattle music scene since the 70's and his newest CD Wait All Night can only add to his
already excellent reputation. Acoustically speaking , Butler does it all - jazz, folk, rock, and honky-tonk. But Wait All
Night is about the blues, Brian's own mixed in with some classics like L. Carr's "Night Time Is The Right Time", and Johnny
Cash's "Big River".
Butler's vocals are smooth and jazzy, a little sleepy and a little sexy. His songs are clever and well crafted and stand up
pretty well against the covers he's mixed in the with them. Butler is well known in the Northwest as an accomplished blues
guitarist, but Wait All Night debuts Butler as a blues pianist as well. You can hear it on track 4 "When The Wind Blows (And The
Lights Go Out)", an original tune with a need - some-lovin' them Butler revisits on two of his other
compositions, "Inconsequential", and "Serious Business". Butler's songs, whether played on piano or guitar,
show off his musicianship nicely and are more likely to warm the heart than break it. He has a sense of humor and a fun
sense of word play even when decrying that, "The Future Ain't What It Used To Be", or bemoaning a lost love, "Hard To Keep".
Wait All Night ends with a lovely version of "When Did You Leave Heaven", by Bullock and Whiting, leaving the listener
as impressed with Butler's singing as his playing. I'd recommend this CD to anyone who digs the blues. Learn more about
Brian Butler by checking out his website at www.brianbutlerblues.com.
Brian Butler is one hell of a blues guitar player. Has been for many years. I've got a tape of Butler playing "Sweet Little Angel" at Pig Alley around 1976 that is as intense and authoritative as anything I've heard Robert Cray to do date, for example. But right from the beginning Brian wasn't limiting himself to just playing the blues. The Brian Butler Band of the late 1970's did a wide variety of tunes, ranging from Delbert McClinton-style soul to the honky-tonk country of Johnny Horton. Butler also had ambition as a songwriter very early on, and his love for acoustic music, be it blues, folk or country, was quite plain as well. In the years since, Brian has played in a variety of formats, eventually setting into being an excellent man-and-his-guitar single act, doing a lot of original singer-songwriter material and becoming a staple on the Northwest summer festival circuit. He also had occasional forays out as the Brian Butler Band, frequently as a guitar-bass-drums trio, here featuring Bob Conger on drums and Robert Shangrow on the bass. Butler has written contemporary rock songs, blues songs, and country-style songs that work in this band format, as well as penning his own acoustic single material.
All the varied strands of this complex artist come together on Restless Street, a CD that has been available for about a year now. There is at least one tune on here, "Too Many Trips", that ought to be playing on every adult contemporary station in the country! This is a perfectly crafted, wryly humorous blues tale of a guy whose wife gets a fat job that keeps her on the run. Suddenly our hero is no longer the primary bread-winner, the long lingering mornings of lovemaking they used to enjoy are out the window, and he's felling like a chauffer as he drives baby to and from the airport. I picture the guy with hair in a ponytail, still wearing his check wool northwesterner shirt and work boots, vaguely uncomfortable at the wheel of a late-model car - first new car they ever bought, right? - his woman in a tailored business suit and razor-cut hair beside him with her laptop and briefcase on the back seat. I know this story will sound familiar to many musicians out there - it certainly hit home with me!
There are many other excellent tunes on the CD. Butler's tunes have a sophisticated, jazzy feel to them these days - a little like Mose Allison at times. "Been There Done That", with its witty lyric and laid back, mellow groove is a good example. An acoustic treatment of Big Bill Broonzy's "Louise", is a standout among the handful of covers here. Butler's vocals, which once had a tendency to be a little too earnest, have matured in both sound and delivery, and here sound sensual and smoky. It's back to the country on the following cut, "Big Fire Now, " which would feel right at home on a Jackson Brown or J.D. Souther album. The album concluded with a five-minute-plus showstopper called "Storm Warning", with a Louisianna feel and some tasty accordion by Nova Devonie.
If you are a fan of uptown, laid back, bluesy, semi-acoustic music featuring good picking, good singing, and clever, well-crafted songs, you're likely to dig these sides. If you've seen Brian Butler perform, and you like what you've seen, you're going to like this set for sure, because what you see is what you get here - with some fine players on board and good, clean, uncomplicated production to get it on disc. Check Brian and this CD out. He is a Seattle original, a local treasure who has kept right on going for close to 30 years now doing what he does and getting better at it as he goes. Check Brian's Web site at [www.brianbutlerblues.com] for more info.
Six foot four, dreamy bedroom eyes, voice so smooth and mellow it could melt a young girl's heart. Ah, yes, blues fans, it's Brian Butler! Soulful, sophisticated, spirited - this CD is like eating fresh peach ice cream on a hot and lazy Sunday afternoon - a real treat.
Brian Butler's new CD, Restless Street, has been long awaited. Well, it's here and it is definitely worth the wait. The album's twelve songs, eight of which are originals, are a mixture of traditional blues, finger-picking acoustic, and folk blues, with a touch of swing. Although Brian is not known as a jazz player, there is a hint of jazz sophistication on a few of the songs, which gives the CD a nice balance, and shows off the player's proficiency. The first cut, Animule Hall, (a cleverly written tune about a New Orleans dance hall) is a swingy number featuring Brian's current bassist, Robert Shangrow, playing a mean walking bass, drummer Bob Conger on brushes, and Valerie Rosa singing harmony. Also on this cut is Ron Weinstein, on Hammond B3 organ (who is also featured again on Been There Done That). Too Many Trips is a soulful classic acoustic blues with humorous lyrics (depending upon your perspective) about a woman of the 90's who gets a high-paying job and leaves her husband at home. "We never had much money but we never cared. The rice and beans were rich, like the love we shared. Now it's conference calls, business suits and late night red-eye flights." Hey, turnaround is fairplay, guys. Hellbound Train is a toe-tappin' folk-blues featuring some great harmonies by Nancy Riccio (also on bass) and Cliff Perry (on Dobro). With Stu Herrick on mandolin, this hot little number will get your feet moving. If you're in the mood for something slow, sultry and smoky, Storm Warning (with a bit of an old Crosby, Stills and Nash feel) is a powerful tune that features Nova Devonnie on bass and accordion (which adds a nice touch, varying from the traditional blues sound). In addition to his original tunes, Brian also pulls out an old Big Bill Broonzy tune called Louise and does a good job of recreating the legend's soulful story about the finest woman around (who, of course, is never true, and at one point he even compares her to a rattlesnake). That's the Blues, baby!
Brian does an excellent job of combining acoustic and electric blues, folk and swing into one fine CD. This is a creative work, full of soul. It is tastefully put together with a professional group of musicians who add a touch of magic. Restless Street will definitely be a refreshing addition to any blues enthusiast's collection.
For more information on this CD, or upcoming performances check out Brian's website: [www.brianbutlerblues.com]. Thanks, Brian, for your undeniable talent and your generous contribution to the blues!
-Julie Powers, Washington Blues Society Bluesletter, September, 1999
Reviews of Wait All Night:
- "I'd recommend this CD to anyone who digs the blues."
October 2007 Victory Music Review - Read more...
- "...one of my favorite local acoustic releases of the year".
November 2007 Washington Blues Society Bluesletter - Read more...
- "Acoustic piano vocal blues are a lost art, but are in very good hands here."
Autumn 2009 Ancient Victories News - Read more...