|
|
 |
|
|
NOSTALGIC NOTES
Anna Rose
Multi-award-winning Tamworth record producer and guitarist LINDSAY BUTLER has shown Another Side to his character with the release of his new album.
On the new album, appropriately titles Another Side, Lindsay travels back in time to his hometown of Tenterfield, when he was a young bloke playing in country halls with his dance band.
“For many years I’ve thought I would like to record something a little bit different to the norm, which for me has been bush ballads,” Lindsay said.
“Just for a change, I decided to record an album using a nylon string electric guitar and about 90 per cent of the new album has that guitar on it. The other 10 per cent is electric.”
He has used the Epiphone guitar, a solid body, nylon electric string model that gives a different sound to the normal electric. You might hear it played on some BRIAN LETTON and SHAZA LEIGH recordings.
The other guitar used on the disc is Lindsay’s trusty old Fender Jazzmaster, one he’s had since about 1968.
Tenterfield born and bred, in the ‘60s Lindsay played in dance bands where the music people wanted to hear was from bands like THE SHADOWS and THE VENTURES.
“I was never really into those bands though. All I wanted to play was country music, so we used to do bush dances in old halls around the district – up as far as Stanthorpe and down to Glen Innes, and I’d slip in as much country as I could,” Lindsay said.
Late last year Lindsay revisited his old stomping ground to launch the disc at the Tenterfield Bowling Club and they had friends turn up they hadn’t seen in years.
“It was a fantastic night. A lot of old friends that used to follow us at the dances were there. It was a great night.”
The album is packed with songs he played in “the good old days” – songs like Words (The Bee Gees classic); Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Whispering and Maggie.
“To make it even more reminiscent of those days back in the ‘60s, I’ve featured a couple of people from Tenterfield who used to be in my band,” Lindsay said.
“There’s a lady singer, LORRAINE RHODES-ROBERTS, who is featured on Where the River Shannon Flows. Our old accordion player, NOEL MANSER, takes the spotlight on The Bungulla Medley, which is an old time dance thing.”
Always one to utilise the great talents on his doorstep, Lindsay enlisted the services of leading Tamworth musicians BRETT DALLAS, MARK MOULYNOX, DALLY CROFT, LAWRIE MINSON, GREG WILLIAMS, SHAZA LEIGH, PEGGY GILCHRIST, LYNNETTE GUEST, COL GUTTERIDGE and GEOFF CLAPSON.
For the master of country guitar to bring out such a different type of album was quite unexpected, but for true Lindsay Butler fans, it will be infinitely enjoyable.
“It’s a bit off the beaten track, but it is something I’d wanted to do,” Lindsay said.
“You get to a stage in your career where you’d like to try something else for a change. A lot of times while we’re on the road people have asked me if I’ve ever recorded certain songs, and now I can say I have.
“I also enjoyed putting down some of the classic country stuff like Today I Started Loving You Again, the MERLE HAGGARD song; Walk Right In was a flashback to my rock’n’roll days and Shaza did a duet with me on Lord I’d Forgotten, a JOHNNY CHESTER song.”
There’s another two Butlers who had a hand in the overall product. Lindsay’s youngest daughter, Alisa, took the cover shot – managing to get her dad dressed up in a suit and tie, not Butler’s usual garb, and his son, Neil, played drums on some tracks.
Lindsay and Shaza have several tours lined up and when not touring Lindsay has a number of albums to compete for clients in his Tamworth recording studio.
He also has another instrumental album project in mind, which he hopes to get cracking on later in the year.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
