User:Stefmacbeth/Graham Butterfield

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A folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Graham Butterfield has been performing and recording music since the 1960s.

Growing up listening to his dad's records – people like Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Alan Lomax, and Burl Ives – he got his first guitar when he was fourteen. By the age of fifteen he was doing floor spots at London's folk clubs.

At that time, the folk scene was exploding in London. You had Les Cousins in Soho, The Half Moon in Putney, Steve Benbow's club at Norbury and Cliff Aungier's Dungeon Club at Tower Bridge. But it was a coffee house in Earls Court called The Troubadour that had the most significant impact on Graham.

Run by Martin Winsor and Redd Sullivan, the Troubadour played host to many of the musical greats of the era – Martin Carthy, Davey Graham, Sandy Denny, Al Stewart. Even Dylan played there (under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt). Graham – who was still a teenager – was given a regular slot by Martin and Redd, and taken under their wing.

Telling himself that he was following in the footsteps of Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Derroll Adams, Alex Campbell and a whole generation of musicians and artists, he headed to Europe with the plan to hitch and busk his way to Italy. Alas, he didn't make it beyond Munich.

Back in London, in 1970 he met the country singer and musician Bryan Chalker, forming Bryan Chalker's New Frontier with bass player Mic Jones. Their 1972 album The Hanging Of Samuel Hall sold over 30,000 copies and was twice BBC Radio 2's Record Of The Week. Produced by Les Reed (the man behind a string of hits for Tom Jones) and put out on the Avenue label, the record was stocked in supermarkets. It was remastered in 2006 and released by Chapter One Records.

Commercial success brought appearances on Terry Wogan's radio show, BBC Radio 1, and BBC television, including Pebble Mill. But when they started performing on shows like Opportunity Knocks, and getting caught up in the music industry trappings, Graham realised that he had to get out. He quit the band in 1973, moved to the Westcountry, and pretty much gave up music for seventeen years.

In the nineties he started going to sessions and clubs around Exeter, and later formed The Old Porch Band with group of likeminded friends. A world apart from The New Frontier, the Old Porch Band was 'good timey', sometimes haphazard, and always fun. During his five years with them, they built up a loyal and eclectic following, playing everything from fundraisers for Exeter City Football Club to gigs in village halls and New Year's Eve parties in city centre pubs.

Now doing his own thing again, Graham is well established in Westcountry folk music circles, performing at sessions in Exeter, Topsham, Tiverton, Bradninch and throughout the region.

Graham continues to explore and experiment with different musical traditions, recording his own original material in his studio set-up at his home in Exeter. See him play and you're as likely to hear unaccompanied traditional ballads and London music hall numbers as you are to hear English folk and American country songs.

Thanks to the power of the internet, Graham's been able to connect and swap ideas with enthusiasts around the world, and his recent recordings have featured on several online radio shows.

External links

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