Billy Butler deserves to be a household name among the general public, let alone musicians and guiatrists specifically - but life isn't always fair, and so this one of a kind talent remains in obscurity except to the hip music fan. Everytime someone plays that immortal solo break from "Honky Tonk," I think of this forgotten genius.
Bill Doggett - Billy Butler -Ram-Bunk-Shush
http://youtu.be/0EviNA4gMrw
Billy Butler "The Twang Thang"
http://youtu.be/SeoYdbJwMZc
Billy Butler - hold it!
http://youtu.be/QBXpWUKWUDM
Billy Butler Blow For The Crossing
From the "Guitar Soul" lp
http://youtu.be/X11UwM8Etv0Billy Butler
Bill Doggett with Billy Butler playing 'Wild' Bill Jennings 'Big Boy'
http://youtu.be/t1lgOZz5t7Y
Billy Butler (w/Bill Doggett) - Floyd's Guitar Blues (Great Blues Track)
http://youtu.be/LjtBvXb1dTc
"The Twang Thang"
From the 1969 album "This Is Billy Butler"
http://youtu.be/SeoYdbJwMZc
As leader
- Guitar Soul! (1969)
- This Is Billy Butler (1969)
- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1970)
- Listen Now! (1970)
- Billy Butler Plays Via Galactica (1973)
- Guitar Odyssey (1974)
- Don't Be That Way (1976)
A tasty soul-jazz and blues guitarist, Billy Butler adroitly mixed a Charlie Christian approach with '50s R&B grooves and backbeats. He coaxed a warm, fat tone from his hollow-bodied electric guitar, and provided deceptively simple solos and fills that became staples of the R&B guitar vocabulary. Bill Doggett's "Honky Tonk," featuring Butler, is perhaps the prototype R&B guitar instrumental. "Ram-Bunk-Shush" and "Big Boy" are other highlights of his tenure with Doggett. He began playing with doo wop/R&B group the Harlemaires in the late '40s, then led combos until 1952, when he joined Doc Bagby's trio. Butler co-wrote "Honky Tonk" while playing with Doggett from 1954 to 1961. He also recorded with King Curtis, Dinah Washington, Panama Francis, Johnny Hodges, Jimmy Smith, and David "Fathead" Newman in the '60s. Butler worked in Broadway pit bands beginning in the late '60s, but found time for recording sessions with Houston Person and Norris Turney in the late '60s and '70s. He led his own band and recorded for Prestige in the late '60s and early '70s. Butler also recorded with Al Casey and Jackie Williams. He toured Europe frequently in the '70s and '80s, doing sessions there and in America.
Bill Doggett with Billy Butler playing 'Wild' Bill Jennings 'Big Boy'
http://youtu.be/t1lgOZz5t7Y
Top Albums
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