-
The Films playing “Freak of the Week” for Butch as a surprise after he had come out to play piano for them.
I love this.
Cool cover and his face is priceless.
Love Darren coming out to put a towel around Butch’s shoulders. lol.
-
I’m so in love with the performance of “Don’t You Think Someone Should Take You Home”.
Butch is fucking vocalizing the violin parts.
Meaning he is singing the parts that the violin plays on the album…..
Let that sink in.
Look at a screencap of him doing it while you think about that:
Darren singing his part is awesome (also let’s take a moment to really appreciate that when they show Darren doing the kick drum, he’s just in socks).
And this:
Butch is just watching Darren sing.
.
And this cover of “Rich Girl” is maybe one of my favorites.
I love every time they covered it, but this is…. the best.
Other comments include ‘omg look at Jake’s hair’ ‘this is amazing how you can put these six in a little room and they have such a variety of instruments and kill it’
-
Dear newer Butch Walker fans, let’s go back to the 21st of March, 2009 at the 9:30 club in Washington DC.
You will see where some traditions originated and will get to see that Butch is what a performer should be and he always has been (seriously, look up live Marvelous 3 stuff sometime).
Intricate Web of Intricate Interlacing Intricacy: The Films opened for Butch on this tour, as well as recorded Oh, Scorpio at his studio (you can refer back to my “fuck you maracas” post to see a picture of Butch aiding in this).
Also, here is a picture that Michael Trent put on The Films myspace when they were working together….
Jake Sinclair was the bassist in The Films at the time. Butch’s band at the time consisted of Randy Michael, Darren Dodd, Wes Flowers, Fran Capitanelli, and Chris Unck (who is wearing a Films shirt). All of them but Randy were in the Butch Walker and the Black Widows, and all but Fran and Chris were in Butch Walker & the Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites. When The Films split, Jake joined the Black Widows and the lead singer of The Films, Michael Trent is married to Cary Ann Hearst and they now have a band called Shovels & Rope, who opened for Butch in 2011 for The Spade’s tour. Michael also wrote quite a bit of “Pretty Melody” and just generally was there for I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart. He and Cary Ann Hearst both helped out (singing, writing, playing various instruments) on The Spade.
The Films join Butch and the guys on stage for “When Canyons Ruled the City”. Michael is the guy in the brown hat and red plaid shirt playing harmonica and leaning on Unck who is playing the lap guitar (I am pointing him out mostly because I want you to catch the moment when Butch hugs him, Butch is about 6’2” and Michael is about 5’5”, so he gets all low to hug him and it’s awkward and hilarious).
With Unck, Fran, Wes, and Kenneth from The Films, there are four people on stage playing guitar, then two playing Banjolins, one on drums, one on bass, one on harmonica and egg shakers, and one on piano with everyone on vocals.
Jake is center stage with the hat and the small banjo thing. That is a banjolin. Banjo+Mandolin=Banjolin. AKA Little Guitar. I assume, you know that Little Guitar means Party. So, you now see where Little Guitar started out in Butch’s life. And Adam from The Films also has a little guitar.
And from about 3:10 to 3:49 when Jake’s really getting down on the Little Guitar and Butch and him are like, basically makin eyes at each other…. Like the early stages of a romance, isn’t it?
Also, definitely notice this: at 5:03, Jake leans down to pick up a bottle of Jameson. He hands it to Fran, who drinks, then hands it back. Jake takes a drink, then shoves it in Wes’ face to feed him as he plays guitar. This is something he regularly does to Butch.
And then at the end, when they leave Butch alone on stage in front of the applauding audience, he just stands in front of them, smiling and mouthing the singalong and clapping.
The audience obeys and does the octave without him even teaching them or reminding them. Then he plays conductor for a bit, gets them totally silent, aside from clapping. He gives a tiny wave and they go nuts. And he smiles like a maniac because he just lives for those moments and if you’ve seen him do this song, you know it’s true.
Urf. I love this. I love all the early stages of things to come that have been so awesome that are in this video.
-
Day 20| 10 favorite pictures of him with any of his bands:
M3. Come on, white feather in the hair, eyeliner, bedazzled jean jacket, leather pants, AND he had zebra-striped fuzzy covers on his crutches underarm-supports…. Dear god.
The Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites before the “Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty)” video shoot:
The Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites without Sofa and Loveseat:
1969:
The Black Widows after getting christened with the widow tat(Unck took the picture, that’s his hand):
In Berlin:
Looks like Unck is sniffing Darren’s head. Darren and Wes seem to have missed the “wear a leather jacket” memo:
I love how you can tell who is who just based on their shoes(Jake, Butch, Unck, Darren-clearly, note the beer, and grandpa shoes that apparently all drummers wear- Fran, and Wes):
Butch watching Fran solo:
-
Day 17| 10 favorite pictures of him with Darren Dodd
I just want to say, I love Darren’s police hat. A lot. (“Darren’s our parole officer”- Chris or Wes, I can’t remember who actually said it)
Kissy?
Kissy
Butch making what I assume to be his “Hey, girl, hey” face at Darren
Massage train with Fran:
Talking at Darren over a sleepy Michael:
-
Oh man…. This is an OLD version of this. Michael is playing with the slide! AHHH! yay! love it!
At about 3:08 when Michael starts soloing… Shit…. And Butch comes over to play on his shoulderblades… lol.
Gah, at 4:06 when Butch is just playing the melody… Love how that sounds on the Telecaster…. Oh honey…
What I really wanted to comment on, though, was that, even though this is from like, seven fucking years ago, and at least a year before this song was recorded, and since this, all of the band members have changed behind him, he still always finishes it the same…. Stepping away from the mic and singing, but making the audience sing it to him while he claps. And alone on stage.
I REALLY wish this video didn’t cut off.
This has always been my favorite part of the show. When they end with this song and he does this.
It’s just… You can’t miss it on his face and how he acts… How in love he is with these moments and how passionate he gets about what he’s doing and the people that he’s doing it with- his band, the audience, and of course, the bartenders (those of you who have seen him know what I’m talkin about! lol).
Anyway, what got cut off is usually the part of the show when he kneels on the edge of the stage and lets the audience sing to him and he’s got the biggest fucking grin on his face…
The second time I saw him was with this line-up, before the girls (Sofi & Lindsay aka Sofa & Loveseat) went on tour with them, and I was right in front (Lion and I got there WAY early and got to briefly meet him and talk to Randy and Darren for a bit), kind of between him and Michael, and he knelt down, grinning like a mad man, clapping and I could kind of hear him singing over all of us, and he had his head dropped as he was clapping and when he looked back up there was still this mad grin on his face but he had tears running down his cheeks.
That man is the most passionate musician to see live.
Even if you’re like, “Well, I don’t really like his music”, if you’re a music lover- not a musiclistener- go see him live sometime.
You won’t ever regret it.
I have more good memories from Butch Walker shows than almost any other single thing in my life. Almost. Maybe.
Sorry about this long ass rant, I just hadn’t ever seen this video before and it brought back allllllll that stuff when I did….
Nostalgic. I was 13 the first time I met him, hadn’t yet fallen in love with him, but by the time I met him again on my 15th birthday, I had. Probably because I saw him 8 times in between then.
I’m 22 now.
COME THE FUCK TO CHICAGO, BUTCH.
-
Okay, so this is for sure my favorite performance of this song I’ve ever seen- Song’s called “Wreck Me” and was later recorded for Maya, the album for the band 1969 that was Butch, Darren, and Michael.
I’m posting it now thought because it turns out, one of my recent acquaintances, Alex, who is not only a big Butch Walker fan, but also from Atlanta, told me that he was actually at this in-store(it’s at Criminal Records) and he said that the reason Butch looks like he’s singing directly to someone is because he was.
His parents were there, which Butch mentions(they love to go see him so, ya know, not surprised), but Nora was too. She was standing right next to his dad and Alex says that the whole beginning of the song, Butch was looking right at her.Fucking serenading her.With this intense massively passionate song.
Fuck.
I am like, weepy.
That’s so… romantic is not a strong enough word.
I mean, when you’re wooing a woman you’re fucking married to…. Oh my god…. And this was in 2006, and Butch and Nora have been married since, what… 1998?
Mind you, I don’t know this for sure because I am hearing it from a guy I just met like, a week ago and he’s telling me this, but if Butch really was just singing this directly at Nora… oh. my little heart is like, swelling… so fucking adorable.
And I totally wouldn’t doubt he would do that, either. Butch is a romantic and is a sucker for being super cheesy and he knows and admits it. Also, if you listen to how he talks about Nora, he fucking worships and adores her. I mean, she did a lot to help him with his career when he needed it, so you know she loves him and loves what he does and believes in him just as much. She used almost all of her savings when they had only been dating for 2 years or something to help pay for a lot of his first studio’s equipment when he was getting started producing, and he’s a Southern boy with a lot of pride, so that’s… intense.
But you know he’s done plenty to make it up to her since.
You all know you want a man who looks at you like this:
I seriously think it would break my heart just a little- I would definitely cry a bit- if I ever heard that anything happened between them. Not that I think they’ll ever get divorced or anything for any reason, but if….
Anyway, not going to even think about that… They’re beautiful and seem happy and they have a sweet little family, with James and the dogs and it just genuinely makes me smile so wide when he tweets about his son or Nora or posts pictures of them all together.
So hearing that story about this video made me like, seriously. Weepy. Too damn cute.
I should do an appreciation post for Nora, or is that really creepy of me?
But when you think about it, Butch’s fans should be really appreciative of her.
It’s hard to find musicians who have a really super supportive family, and he does.
-
Because you can take the boys out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the boys, Butch Walker and Darren Dodd…. playing a washboard.
